The impostor syndrome, our old friend
It will come as no surprise: the IT sector is evolving at dizzying speeds. The first to be affected by this frantic race for technology? Developers. They must continuously adapt to their profession and its changes. As a reminder, the impostor syndrome is this professional malaise that tends to make everyone doubt their own abilities.
Because this unpleasant feeling affects more developers than we could imagine, nexten.io looks into the subject to bring its deciphering: between definition, explanations, and thoughts, to finally help you get rid of your impostor syndrome!
Developers are constantly pushed to innovate and leave their comfort zone
The impostor syndrome is defined as “a sickly doubt that consists essentially in denying the ownership of any personal achievement.” This syndrome affects more than 60% of all developers! But how do we explain it?
On a daily basis, developers are constantly pushed to innovate and get out of their comfort zones. They’re asked to perform new tasks, find new solutions to bugs, work on new projects, in short: novelty and creativity are at the heart of each of their missions.
Of course, when you discover new missions, technologies or projects as a developer, quite often, you lack knowledge. In concrete terms, impostor syndrome occurs when you’re stuck on something that you feel you should already master or know.
This feeling often haunts developers from the start right on to the end of their careers! It’s not only the novice developer who’s affected by this symptom. The senior developer can also be affected. He can also be led to change company for example, of way of working, but also of job or even of stacks.
In addition, there’s the need for validation — especially when working as a team. Coming from short training courses or straight out of high school, developers generally don’t have the same wherewithal and way of coding.
Not to panic! Many solutions exist for dealing with this work malaise. Simple to apply on a daily basis, they allow you to feel more at ease while working and proud of your professional achievements and daily successes. Here they are, brought to you by nexten.io:
1. Learn
This is the most obvious solution, but also the most effective one to get rid of the imposter syndrome and stop feeling doubtful at work! Continuous learning will allow you to solidify your bases, stay up to date on technological evolutions, create new features, test languages, and more! To this end, you can follow forums, search the Internet, subscribe to developers on social networks, manage parallel personal projects, or challenge your peers.
2. Work on a team
What could be more stimulating than a group dynamic that works well? Beyond the quality of the deliverable, team spirit allows to learn from each other and to raise the skills of all its members. Social recognition by one’s peers — especially when one receives positive feedback on one’s work for example — is a strong source of motivation.
3. Talk about it
Don’t linger with that heavy feeling weighing in your heart; you’re certainly not the only one to experience this symptom. Developers who suffer from it aren’t isolated cases. Don’t hesitate to turn to your colleagues; many likely feel the same as you. If you’re the only developer on your team, you’ll find that this topic also flourishes on blogs and social networks run by developers.
