Let's Talk About Imposter Syndrome

As a software engineer or someone thinking about becoming a software engineer, you may have to deal with imposter syndrome. We spoke to Hackbrighters about imposter syndrome: what it is and how to deal with it as a junior programmer.

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Video Transcript

"Well, definitely, going into tech is a very male-dominated industry, and going into a brand new industry where you have no knowledge. The imposter syndrome is real."

"It's constantly just evaluating where you're at personally and trying not to compare yourself to others."

"Because, you know that you know more things than you used to, than you did when you started, but when you graduate, and they're like, 'You did it. You're a software engineer," you don't... It takes a while to believe that and feel it."

"I mean, everyone has imposter syndrome, right? And everyone deals with a different
magnitude of it, and I think what helped me the most was just speaking to people who are in similar positions."

"Like, just because there are people there that don't look like you does not mean that that's not a field for you to enter. Maybe, it's just your job to be that person so that when other folks see you, they're like, "Oh, cool. I can do this, too!"

"Reach out when you don't feel like you have all those pieces. I think that's a really critical thing to know how to do."

"All of our different skill sets and all of the different things that we bring to the table allow us to be successful in whatever role we end up in, so I think you can feel confident in that."

"Having a good work environment means it's so much more than just having the talent and the skill. It means being a kind of person that someone else wants to work with and we definitely need more people in tech and ideally more people that are people-people, right? I think that's really important."

"There are times when you'll want to give up. There are many times during the day when you just won't know the answer and you can't give up. And sometimes, when
you do ask for help the person just Googles it anyways, so you might as well just learn to Google it first."

"Nobody knows everything. That's a part of the process and that's one of the exciting things about the field is that there's always something to learn. So, you shouldn't feel bad about not knowing that thing. That's just an opportunity for you to grow and become an even better engineer and developer."

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