Imposter Syndrome in Tech: a Student’s Perspective
“I’m a fraud. I don’t belong here and they’re gonna find out.”
The night before my internship, nothing but thoughts of worry wrecked my brain. I thought it was inevitable, my lack of knowledge was sure to be seen, and I was going to be outed as a fraud. Before even meeting them, I already knew that the other interns were going to be better than me in every way possible. I didn’t deserve a spot in this internship, or at least, I didn’t think so at that time.
Until recently, I didn’t associate those feelings of self-doubt and worry with imposter syndrome. I truly believed that I landed an internship out of pure luck. It wasn’t until I took an imposter syndrome workshop and the time to step back that I realized I had more to offer than I thought.
So, what is imposter syndrome? It is a persistent anxiety and doubt of one’s own competence despite their success and accomplishments, and it affects many people of all ages, genders, and races.
In computer science, this feeling might be amplified due to the fast-paced nature of the discipline, making the feeling of not knowing anything even more apparent.
On top of this, there are so many incredible people in the CS community. There are people who excel in their classes, people who create amazing projects, and others who seem to be involved in everything CS related. It’s easy to see why imposter syndrome is so prevalent in CS.
In fact, according to a survey conducted by Blind with over 10,000 participants in the tech industry, 58% of the participants have experienced imposter syndrome. Results also show that imposter syndrome is prevalent among large companies such as Salesforce, Amazon, LinkedIn, and more.
Imposter syndrome can have many negative effects and personally, I’ve found that the worst thing about it is that it limits one’s potential. Speaking from experience, I always found myself declining an opportunity or a challenging task because I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to handle it.
Whether it be leading a team presentation, or trying to create a small side project on my own, I never took the first step to doing something because I didn’t want to drag others down or waste my own time getting nowhere. I was too scared to do anything outside of my comfort zone.
But, what I’ve come to realize is that it’s okay to not know some things. It’s also okay to not know a lot of things. No one else has these unbelievably high expectations of me, but me. Since then, I’ve slowly come to terms with what I’m capable of and what I’m not. For what I’m not capable of, I’ll just need to take the time to learn and improve myself.
While overcoming imposter syndrome, I found that the things that helped me the most were as follows:
- Talk to Others — Talking to someone I trusted helped acknowledge my imposter feelings, while helping me understand they’re irrational. I’ve even found that many incredible CS people also experience imposter syndrome as well, letting me know that I’m not alone.
- Focus on Yourself — Comparison really is the thief of joy. When there are so many amazing people, it’s hard to not compare yourself to them. However, this does much more harm than good. I’ve instead made it my focus to compare my current self to my past self. I’m proud of myself as long as I’m making progress.
- Note and Celebrate Successes — Every time I accomplish something or get praised, I make note of it and celebrate my achievements. I remind myself that it was my abilities that led to the achievements in the first place.
- Using Lack of Knowledge as a Fuel — There are a lot of things that I don’t know. I’ve learned to use it as a fuel to improve myself, rather than an immobilizer that stops me from moving forward in my career.
Now that I’m well into my internship, my feelings of imposter syndrome have gotten better. I’ve shown more initiative, less doubt, and I’m much more motivated to learn. Overall, overcoming imposter syndrome has made my quality of life so much better.
For those that are experiencing imposter syndrome, I hope the tips I have to offer can help you overcome imposter syndrome as well. Although a bit cliche, I truly believe they help.
To end this post, I’ll leave you with a quote that has helped me frame my mindset a lot.
“Most people experience moments of doubt, and that’s normal. The important part is not to let that doubt control your actions.” — Valerie Young, imposter syndrome expert
