Imposter Syndrome
Code School Book — Morgan Lopes and Tim Whitacre (6/30)
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Cool stickers on a laptop or water bottle don’t translate to knowledge.
Imposter syndrome is one of the first mental roadblocks you will encounter entering your tech career. The goal of this chapter is to help you identify imposter syndrome, process the internal tension, and move forward.
What is imposter syndrome? Harvard Business School defines imposter syndrome as, “feelings of inadequacy without evident success.” I don’t like this definition, mainly because evidence and success are highly subjective words. Who gets to determine if the evidence is sufficient? Who is setting the definition of success? I guarantee we would define both of those words differently than an Ivy League university.
I prefer a different definition. Imposter syndrome is an assumed gap between our skills and others’ expectations. It’s assumed because we arrive at our conclusion without actually asking anyone. It is also unlikely we even qualify to self-evaluate our skills and abilities. Humans constantly undervalue our own skills and overvalue the expectations of others. It’s equivalent to comparing the weakest parts of ourselves against the best parts of others. The result is a distorted perspective.
Imposter syndrome appears and reappears throughout code school. On your first day, it’s normal to assess the others you will learn alongside. Few things are as obvious during in-person sessions. You’ll notice someone who “looks like a programmer.” Someone else will likely have techie stickers, like Github or Firefox, on their laptop. There is bound to be a group chatting in the corner about programming languages they use. Each of these things might cause you to feel inadequate or like you don’t belong, but I’d like to begin with an observation: You all signed up for the same course. You are no more or less qualified than anyone else in the room. You each come from different backgrounds, but everyone arrived at the same destination. Some may have dabbled with code in the past and others are diving in for the first time. No matter where on your journey, you have made roughly the same decision. You all committed to learn and delve deeper into a tech career.
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