Stop me if you’ve heard this one. An IT professional walks into a brick wall:
- If I take on this new project, everyone will think I’m a fraud.
- I don’t tick all of the boxes for any of these job descriptions. Why bother?
- Everyone around me is so talented—I feel like I don’t belong.
I have a confession to make: nearly 20 years into my career, with a long history of glowing performance reviews, stellar references, and millions of dollars in value delivered, I still experience this.
On “Fake It ‘Til You Make It”
The most common advice I hear on the subject is “fake it ‘til you make it.” The idea is that by acting like you have confidence when you don’t, you learn to not only project confidence, but build it by accumulating successes that eventually put your mind at ease. There’s just one problem.
That’s not how impostor syndrome works at all.
Yes, how you carry yourself and how you’re perceived matters, but that’s only half the equation here. The root of why you’re feeling this way isn’t how anyone else is perceiving you, it’s how you’re perceiving yourself.
Take Honest Inventory
Let’s face it: you’re not going to address what is fundamentally a self-perception issue by leaning into advice that amounts to “just do it anyway.” If you’re looking to grow through it, at some point you need to align your perceptions with reality. This means dispelling that voice that says you’re a fraud with cold, hard facts.
First, take stock of what you need to know to tackle a given set of problems. Then, turn it into a “brag sheet.” Map your skills and prior accomplishments to those needs. Whenever you can, tie skills to actions, and actions to measurable outcomes. Compare “I’ve done performance optimization” to “in my first week, I lowered FCP on search from 8 seconds to below 1 second, in line with industry benchmarks.” (True story, by the way.)
Note that sometimes, you will find places where you sincerely have growing to do in order to achieve what you want to achieve. If so, great! Now you have a roadmap. Put together a professional development plan focused on incremental growth, and execute. (Better still, talk to a supervisor or mentor about the direction you’re looking to grow, and ask for their support.)
Use It To Your Advantage
I hear some of you now. “Use this petrifying anxiety to my advantage? How on earth do you suggest I do that?”
Honestly, I had the same reaction, but taking note of when impostor syndrome strikes can be an effective way to turn that anxiety into momentum. Momentum builds success, and success builds confidence.
I’m willing to be that most of the time, your impostor syndrome is most activated when you’re comparing another body of knowledge to your own. Instead of focusing on how much better than you someone else is, try to get closer to knowing what they know.
Personally, I make it a daily exercise. Whenever I come across a concept, term, or technique I don’t understand, I make a note of it. I then come back to that backlog, and I spend at least 15 minutes studying it.
Do this enough times, and you’ll not only have a much more robust body of knowledge, but also plenty of practical experience in picking up new things on the fly.
Apply the 70% Rule
Humans are an adaptable, resourceful bunch. As a human, you’re no exception. So, lean into that resourcefulness. Let yourself drift away from the shallows a bit. Those are the waters in which we grow.
Whenever you’re faced with a new challenge, if you know for a fact you can get 70% of the way there, go for it. This is especially important for those of us who come from marginalized backgrounds: we’re bombarded with messages about how we’re somehow less-than. Please, don’t buy into it. There’s a lot of truth to the adage about missing 100% of shots you don’t take.
(Corollary for hiring managers: Actively encourage folks of all walks of life to apply, even if they don’t check off literally every box. You’d be surprised at how many would-be applicants are already 90% of the way to your dream req, have the ability to add value even beyond that, and just need someone to say “we want to hear from you, too.“)
Network (I’m Serious)
These days, when I start getting that nagging feeling that I’ve somehow been fooling everyone around me for the past two decades (which would be an impressive feat, when I say it like that!), it’s almost always because I’m spending too much time inside my own head.
I’m not grounding my expectations of myself in where others actually are, but rather where I think they are in comparison. And if comparison is the thief of joy, it is the silent assassin of growth.
This changes whenever I find the opportunity to talk shop with peers in the industry, each of whom have their own challenges and domains of expertise. For example, a colleague I long admired for her brilliance in user experience was floored that we managed to craft a governance model for accessibility at Stevens. Any inadequacy that I was feeling at that point in my career quickly evaporated in a flurry of mutual interest in each other’s experiences.
My advice? Have these exchanges as often as you can. Look to others for inspiration on where and how to grow, as well as what challenges they’re facing. I’m willing to be that there will be plenty of times when others look to you as the expert!