In this blog post, I would like to write about something that I and lots of other people have experienced before: imposter syndrome. I wanted to write about this subject mostly to get my thoughts down in writing and so that I can look back on it and reassure future me. Hopefully this helps you as well :)

The Spark

Now that I am a senior and graduating in less than a year, I have naturally been doing a lot of thinking about my future after college. I’m going to miss college and school in general, not because I enjoy taking tests and the competition associated with it, but just still being able to feel like a kid and soak up every moment before going out into the real world. Right now I don’t feel ready yet, and a lot of new-grads leave college feeling the same way, but it still worries me.

And this is where imposter syndrome kicks in. Just simply scrolling through job postings makes me question how much I actually know. In the world of software engineering, there are so many different technologies out there to know and the pressure to learn all of those technologies and be an expert in them builds up. It makes you wonder, why would they choose me out of everyone else out there? And even if you manage to land a job, do you know enough about anything and everything to succeed?

Scrolling through LinkedIn does not help too much either. There are numerous posts where students my age or even younger seem to be getting their dream jobs already and have their life set. Usually these posts take the form of an appreciation post: appreciation for the opportunities they got that led them to the position that they are in now. I believe they worked very hard to get into that position and they should be congratulating themselves, but those posts still make me (and others) feel very self conscious. Naturally, you only hear the good parts of their successful journey, making you feel critical of the hardships that you are facing right now.

The Good Parts

Although I have been painting imposter syndrome in a bad light, I do believe that it is beneficial, to an extent. Sometimes a lack of confidence is what drives us to do better. When we are comfy with our abilities, that causes us to be stagnant. It causes us to lose sight of what we truly want in life and teaches us to settle with what we have. Knowing what your dreams are is extremely important and I think young people should constantly be looking for ways to get closer and closer to their dreams - it’s not time to be comfy yet. Imposter syndrome causes us to not be happy with what we have, until we get what we want.

However, all of this has to be in moderation. Too little confidence can cause you to do the opposite - not chase your goals because you truly believe that you won’t be able to make it. And this is where it’s easier said than done, but I encourage you to just focus in back on just yourself and not pay attention to what other people are doing. Everything that happens to you happens for a reason - you will eventually end up where you belong. Also, odds are, there are numerous people out there that are looking up to you.

Wrapping It Up

A lot of this post is very high level advice and introspection, but I hope you got something out of it! I believe that imposter syndrome can be used to your advantage - use it to push you to continuously reach for your goals. Being too comfy at a young age can be disadvantagous to your growth. And if you experience too much burnout from it, remember to look back at how much you have accomplished so far - you are doing amazing and only at the first stage of your career, there is plenty of time to achieve what you want :)

See y’all in the next one!

Related Content

• Programmer Imposter Syndrome - how to get over and take advantage of imposter syndrome / shared by my friend Andrew