What the h*ll am I doing here?

I don’t belong here.

Radiohead references aside — when you change career you might feel like you don’t belong. Like you’re not really qualified, or that you’re wasting peoples time, or that you might get called out as a fraud. This feeling is of course uncomfortable, but it’s important to know that it’s not uncommon.

In fact, it’s so common it has an own name: impostor syndrome. People often experience the feeling of not being good enough when they change from something they’re experienced in to something new. The feeling of not knowing exactly how things work makes them question why they got hired in the first place, and gives them an irrational fear of getting caught.

This is of course counterproductive — being scared and insecure will not help you getting comfortable with your new workplace. Many people have written about the impostor syndrome, but here are some of our thoughts on the subject.

Do I suffer from the impostor syndrome?

There’s a few common indicators that you suffer from the impostor syndrome, even if you just relate to some of them:

• Do you feel like your success is just luck?
• Are you a high achiever or perfectionist who’s rarely satisfied with your work?
• Do you usually stay and work more than required?
• Do you dismiss compliments because you feel like you don’t deserve them?
• Do you worry that you got that job/promotion because of your personality/gender rather than your accomplishments?
• Do you feel like you’ll be “found out” by your work friends/boss one day?
• Do you get stressed out when you’re not 100% productive?
• Do you dislike asking for help?
• Do you use saying like “I’m not 100% sure” or “I’m not an expert at this” a lot?

I for one can relate to this a lot, and have felt many of those feelings during school or different jobs. Hey, even as I write this my brain goes “Why am I writing this? Do I even know enough about the imposter syndrome? Someone will call me out as a fraud!”.

So how can we handle this feeling?

Try to let go of your ego and ask for help

The more you ask for help when you need it, the easier it will become. You’ll see that people don’t react badly to your requests — in fact they might feel like it will be easier to connect with you.

Try to distance yourself from the project

You are not your code. When you get code reviews it’s not because you’re a bad programmer or a stupid person. It’s just the normal workflow of a developer team. Being wrong sometimes does not mean that you are a failure.

You actually achieved something yourself

It’s not just luck — just accept that. It’s not only because you knew someone. Sure, sometimes that might be the case, but throughout your life you have played the largest role in your success stories.

Remember that you’re not alone

It’s not only you that feels like this. So many other people have the feeling of not knowing what they’re doing. Still, they try, and so should you. Just be a bit kinder to yourself (just like you’re probably more forgiving towards other people).

Map your knowledge

When you start to feel like a fraud, it’s easy to forget that you actually have knowledge. You actually know a lot more than you think — make a list and it will soon overflow. So yeah, you might not know everything, but you do know stuff. And you know how to learn, so that list will never stop growing.

Keep track of good stuff in your life

You don’t have to show that folder to anyone, so you can brag for yourself about whatever you’re proud of. You can also add nice stuff that people has said to/about your achievements — it’s those things you tend to forget when all you can think about is negative things.

The CBT-approach

When it gets too much, and all you can think about is how much of a fraud and failure you are, you can allow yourself to think about it for a certain amount of time. For 10 minutes, try to figure out what the worst thing that could happen could be. Sure, in the beginning it will feel pretty realistic (to you, anyway), but after a few questions of “what’s the worst thing with that scenario?” it will become pretty ridiculous and absurd. After all, your life doesn’t depend on your job. Put things in perspective.

Q: What’s the worst thing right now?
A: “I’m not sure how to handle this project. I don’t even know where to start”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “I have to ask for help”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “My colleagues might think that I don’t know how to do my job”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “They’ll tell my boss that I’m bad”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “Well, my boss might regret ever hiring me!”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “They’ll fire me!!!”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “I don’t have a job, and I have to apply to another job”
Q: What’s the worst thing with that?
A: “It’s a bother… But I probably don’t want to work for a place that fires you for asking for help anyway”

Of course you might not always be so reasonable, but keep asking that question and you’ll end up with silly responses like “my father will disown me because he’s so disappointed with me!”, and then you realize that the original fear was that you’re feeling a little bit lost at the start of a project… Our mind is not always our friend, right?

Final advice — keep calm and keep on coding

That’s the only way to get better, and it’s something every developer has to do. You fail sometimes, but you learn from it. Your comfort zone will grow, and your confidence with it.

Craft Academy is a Tech Education Provider that aims to bring new talent to the market and help to solve the shortage of tech workers. We are founded on the belief that modern development standards, agile methodologies and business skills are fundamental for ITC professionals.

Our primary service is a 12-week coding bootcamp designed to provide individuals with a foundation of skills that allows them to enter the industry as junior developers.

With that foundation, our learners find employment in various industries or start their own businesses that bring new innovations to the market.

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