Advice on Battling Imposter Syndrome

I remember the first time I dealt with imposter syndrome. My parents had just driven off my college campus and left me by the library. Alone, I looked around to see if I can spot anything or anyone familiar. I did not. When I wanted to be greeted with familiarity, I was instead greeted with culture shock.

I grew up in a low-income household in Houston, TX. My parents had always stressed the importance of obtaining a good education and placed me in schools where I could prepare myself for a life different from what they experienced. The area that I grew up in was predominantly Latino, so I never felt like a minority until I went to college.

I was given the opportunity to attend a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, CA. Eagerly, I took the opportunity despite being states away from my family. That eagerness morphed into anxiety once I was actually on campus. When I looked around I mainly saw white students walking around campus. For the first time, I felt like a minority.

Being at a private school, a lot of these students came from affluent backgrounds. Many students drove luxury cars, had parents who had gone to college, had gone to previous private schools, and had partaken in extracurricular activities I could only dream of. I started to fixate heavily on the discrepancies between me and my white affluent counterparts thus giving life to my imposter syndrome.

With imposter syndrome, no one told me I did not belong rather I felt that I didn’t belong because I was comparing my life with someone else’s.

Fast forward 8 years, and I am now a Software Engineer student at Flatiron School. The imposter syndrome I felt about college is gone now that I have graduated from college. However, in the past few weeks, I have felt the birth of a new wave of imposter syndrome surrounding me. Fortunately, I believe that if I could overcome imposter syndrome once, I can do it again. I have decided to share some methods that have worked with combating imposter syndrome for me. My hope is that these methods can help someone else too.

Here are some ways that help me combat my imposter syndrome:

1. Write down your thoughts with 2 different colored pens.

What do I mean by this? Write down your negative feelings in black ink.

“I’m not good enough.” “I’m too dumb to learn this.”

Now write down more uplifting thoughts in a bright color like red. Allow these thoughts to pop out more than the negative ones.

“I am enough.” “I am capable of understanding the concepts even if it takes time.”

Sometimes when you’re in a dark place you just need a small ray of light to get back up. One of the most vital things I have learned when combating imposter syndrome is that feelings aren’t facts. Go over the statements written in red when imposter syndrome kicks in and starve the beast instead of feeding it.

2. Reflect daily on what you’re struggling with and what you accomplished

Attending Flatiron has me learning and coding on the weekday from 9–6 (minus lunch). I’m digesting a lot of information in such a short time, so I’m it has become normal for me to feel lost at times. However, I have noticed that the more I practice, the more I understand the concepts being taught to me. Feeling lost can be overwhelming and trigger imposter syndrome for me. To combat this, I set a time in the afternoon and reflect on what happened in class that day.

What concept(s) did I struggle with grasping today? Did I do the corresponding labs before the lecture? What should I do to better understand these concepts?

What concept(s) did I grasp well today? At this point in time, I understand x,y,z. Last week I was struggling with x,y,z but now I have those concepts down. All I had to do was a,b,c to get myself to understand these concepts.

Writing down these questions and the answers to them can help you track your progress and notice any patterns you might have.

I am a firm believer in reflection because it puts you in the middle of your past and future. It puts you in a position where you learn from your mistakes but also look forward to improving tomorrow.

Remember feeling confused and stuck when learning is normal. Show yourself mercy and celebrate your accomplishments — big or small. Reflect on what went well and what went wrong and constantly ask yourself how you can grow from each day’s experience.

I hope this advice helps you if you ever come across imposter syndrome.

Now I want to hear from you.

What are some methods you use to combat imposter syndrome?