Three Ways to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

Have you ever felt like you “didn’t deserve” your job, promotion or recognition at work? Today we’re going to talk a little about impostor syndrome and how you can get past it.

Imposter Syndrome is something I’ve struggled with and I’ve noticed many of my colleagues, friends, and family have, too. Since this is a feeling many professionals experience, I wanted to discuss my personal experiences and how I overcame them.

First thing’s first: let’s dig into what Imposter Syndrome is. Imposter syndrome is when a person doubts their accomplishments and has this constant feeling that they’re a “fraud” and could potentially be exposed as one. If you’ve ever attributed your success to just being lucky, or if you’ve had feelings about not belonging in certain spaces, you’ve experienced imposter syndrome.

My first experience with this feeling was at a previous job. I’d had a very successful interview and was so excited to receive and accept my offer. After the first day of training, I thought to myself “I have no clue how to do this job! How did I even get hired?!” I was transitioning into a new field, and had no idea how I would be successful in this new position. As time went on and I finished training, I began to wonder if my supervisor would start to think I was a wrong fit. It was an overwhelming time, and feeling like I didn’t deserve to be where I was made it that much harder. I second-guessed myself a lot and every time I made a mistake I used that to justify my thoughts of “this is why I don’t deserve to be here.”

It took a few months for me to get past this feeling. Even after receiving an award for meeting/exceeding my KPIs for a full quarter, I felt like I didn’t really deserve it because I had a rotating position. This meant that the work I did wasn’t 100% of the reason why I met my goals—other colleagues contributed to my success. I only accounted for 20% of the success of the sites I worked with. After discussing this with my supervisor, and downplaying my role in my success, he assured me that 20% is a bigger piece of the pie than I gave myself credit for. That conversation put things into perspective for me and I began the process to overcome my imposter syndrome. 

Embrace your mistakes

The first thing I had to do was be okay with making mistakes. I realized that I am human and new to this role, thus mistakes will happen. What was more important was learning from my mistakes and using each teaching moment to better myself. I kept in mind that there was no mistake I made that couldn’t be undone. Whenever it was brought to my attention that I had made a mistake, I asked questions and took notes so I would remember the next time I was presented with a similar situation. This helped to ease some of the anxiety I had and I began to feel more comfortable with my role.

Know your worth

Another way I overcome imposter syndrome is by reminding myself that everything I’ve achieved is based on my own merit. Four years ago, I switched into a field I had no familiarity with and worked to become the best I could be. I used the soft skills I had to see me through and was diligent in learning everything in between. It was the work I put in that got me recognized by supervisors in a positive way. I had to learn how to be extremely flexible and learn new things constantly, which gave me a competitive advantage for my career. I stopped seeing my role as a minor part and realized that I was valuable and played a major role in setting up others for success. Sometimes you have to remind yourself of who you are and what you’ve done to get yourself to where you are in that moment. 

Find community

Lastly, knowing that I was not alone in feeling the way I did helped me overcome imposter syndrome. There’s a lot of ambiguity in my current role and sometimes I feel confused or that I’m not well-equipped to handle everything that gets thrown at me. After talking to others on my team and knowing they were once in my shoes, I felt much better. I think sometimes we can be so hard on ourselves we fail to realize that someone either was in our shoes once before or is currently feeling the same way we feel. Don’t be afraid to open up to trusted co-workers, or even your boss, about how you’re feeling. They can offer you both reassurance that you’re doing a great job and share some of their stories from when they were a novice in the field. 

I hope that sharing my story and some of my tactics has helped someone out there. I want you all to remember that you are worthy of everything you have. You should never feel guilty about what you’ve worked so hard for.

You are where you are because you’ve earned it, and no one can take that from you.

Until next time,