‘Imposter’ syndrome as a woman in tech
As a business professional in a large organization, you tend to blend in with your peers since the direct product/company wide ‘impact’ is not a function of you alone, but a distributed operation across similar peers in your functional area.
However, when I ventured into Klood, I received umpteen opportunities to navigate my career according to my liking – a lot of autonomy and responsibility. My actions directly shaped up the product itself.
And this eerie feeling started creeping in — what they love to call as the Imposter syndrome. I felt like a fraud who either didn’t deserve these amazing opportunities or had this constant fear of somebody pulling this magic carpet from beneath me. Did I deserve all of this at this stage?
Nonetheless, I’ve proactively tried to overcome these nagging consternations. Here are few of the tricks I employ -
Feel entitled.. by working hard
Mindy Kaling writes in her book, Why Not Me? —
Entitlement is simply the belief that you deserve something. Which is great. The hard part is, you’d better make sure you deserve it.
Her piece on confidence, entitlement and hard work is summarized here.
Working hard, being hyper-prepared always and thus being humbly accepting of your professional accomplishments should be inculcated in a woman’s DNA.
Women in positions of responsibilities have to inherently fight for their professional rights, equal salaries and opportunities to advance in the workplace. When success or praise does come our way, we have hard time accepting the fact that yes,
(a) we have indeed worked hard or harder than most of our colleagues and (b) we deserve the subsequent advancements
Entitlement does play a big role (only if you really deserve it) in assuaging this imposter syndrome. Give it a try!
Imagine yourself to be a Rich White American Man
This essay should have been titled, how Mindy Kaling inspires me! She talks about how she was raised with the entitlement of a tall, white blond man. And that is where she gets her confidence from.
I completely agree. I love garnering a stronger parallel version of myself, a warrior — an alter ego if you’ll, who is the best I can ever be. I believe this version deserves everything coming her way.
Having this inner warrior has definitely helped me deal with this ‘con’ syndrome.
Get inspired
I constantly keep stumbling across people younger than me or of comparable age who have attained quadrupled feats. And this galvanizes me.
Being inspired by these kids, reaching out to them, following their journey, learning from them is a constant motivation for me; thus emboldening me to work harder and being welcoming of my subsequent engagements.
Set a Vision
Learn as much as you can and have a long term vision in place – keep that dream big.
If you don’t get scared at night, your dreams arn’t big enough.
By knowing where you want to be in life and working hard to achieve that, you would have to accept things coming your way. Since reaching that next goal requires you to reach the necessary milestones right now.
You won’t feel like a rehearsed quack anymore.
Make an achievements book/blog etc
People have wagered into this bandwagon for a while now. Maintaining an online/offline diary and writing down all the things I’ve achieved – small and big, personal and professional is a great way to remind myself of my journey the past few years and why I deserve the good things coming my way.
This diary serves two purposes —
a) reminds you of your hard work and accomplishments
b) motivates you to constantly outdo yourself and target bigger better things
and finally,
Embrace the Imposter syndrome
There are always going to be self-doubts and second guesses along the way — but this ‘syndrome’ also helps you stay grounded, and strive towards higher standards.
Accepting the stronger as well as the weaker parts of my personality has led me to be comfortable with myself and that late night diffidence.
Any insights on this syndrome? I would love to hear them below!
