Software Engineers Get Real About Imposter Syndrome
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.
Check It Out!
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."
Join the Software Engineering School for Women
You can join the community and become a software engineer in 12-24 weeks with Hackbright's Software Engineering program. Learn more about the remote software development courses.
Recent Posts
CATEGORIES
- News (161)
- Hackbright Academy (123)
- Hackbright News (106)
- Profiles of Woman Engineers (104)
- Alum (97)
- Engineering Advice (68)
- tech (54)
- career change (53)
- Resources (49)
- TGIF (49)
- link roundup (49)
- reading (49)
- recap (49)
- roundup (49)
- weekly (49)
- women in tech (43)
- Becoming A Software Engineer (36)
- Software Engineer (36)
- female software engineers (36)
- diversity in tech (35)
- change the ratio (32)
- learn to code (31)
- Career Services (30)
- women who code (29)
- Admissions Office (28)
- #ilooklikeanengineer (27)
- Python (26)
- Student Blogs (25)
- Hackbright Field Trips (24)
- female engineers (24)
- coding (23)
- Hackbright Mentors (22)
- Thought Piece (21)
- Video (21)
- partner (20)
- diversity (18)
- Recruiting & Hiring (16)
- alumna (14)
- Software Engineers (13)
- hackbright (13)
- tech inclusion (13)
- how to become a software engineer (12)
- hired (11)
- Graduation (10)
- changetheratio (10)
- Tech Talk (9)
- software developer (9)
- Imposter Syndrome (8)
- hiring (8)
- Course Report (7)
- Facebook (7)
- GitHub (7)
- Mentorship (7)
- Scholarship (7)
- women engineers (7)
- Hackbright Alumnae Showcase (6)
- Programming Languages (6)
- coding bootcamp (6)
- Hackbright mentor (5)
- Liz Howard (5)
- Scholarships (5)
- mentor (5)
- recruiting (5)
- Admissions (4)
- Eventbrite (4)
- Full-Stack (4)
- Graduates (4)
- Hackathon (4)
- Heroku (4)
- Melanie Warrick (4)
- Mentors (4)
- Nicole Zuckerman (4)
- Resume (4)
- Silicon Chef (4)
- developer (4)
- holidays (4)
- instructor (4)
- women in computer science (4)
- Ada Lovelace Day (3)
- Chris Palmer (3)
- Code of Conduct (3)
- GoDaddy (3)
- Google (3)
- Halloween (3)
- Interview Tips (3)
- Jasmine Tsai (3)
- Job Search (3)
- Kathryn King (3)
- Mica Swyers (3)
- Negotiation (3)
- Pat Poels (3)
- STEM (3)
- Shilpa Dalmia (3)
- code (3)
- coding school (3)
- computer programming (3)
- day in the life (3)
- day-to-day (3)
- engineering (3)
- girls in tech (3)
- holidaze (3)
- international women's day (3)
- learning (3)
- part-time (3)
- podcast (3)
- prep (3)
- women in STEM (3)
- “Kelley Robinson” (3)
- ActivityHero (2)
- Aimee Morgan (2)
- Alyson La (2)
- Angie Chang (2)
- Arduino (2)
- Change.org (2)
- Elissa Murphy (2)
- Financing Options (2)
- Girls Who Code (2)
- Gowri Grewal (2)
- Gulnara Mirzakarimova (2)
- Hackathons (2)
- Inspiration (2)
- Joyce Park (2)
- Julia Grace (2)
- Julia Hartz (2)
- Kate Heddleston (2)
- Katherine Fellows (2)
- Katherine Hennes (2)
- Lisa Lee (2)
- Liz Crawford (2)
- Machine Learning (2)
- Marissa Mayer (2)
- Meagan Gamache (2)
- Megan Speir (2)
- Michelle Glauser (2)
- Michelle Sun (2)
- Natalie Downe (2)
- New Relic (2)
- Niniane Wang (2)
- Padmasree Warrior (2)
- Poornima Vijayashanker (2)
- Programming (2)
- Rebecca Bruggman (2)
- Security Engineering (2)
- Selina Tobaccowala (2)
- SheCodes (2)
- Siena Aguayo (2)
- SurveyMonkey (2)
- Tindie (2)
- Uber (2)
- Uncategorized (2)
- Web Apps (2)
- Zendesk (2)
- Zoe Kay (2)
- almnae (2)
- back-end (2)
- bootcamp (2)
- career transition (2)
- careers (2)
- coding blonde (2)
- computer programmer (2)
- ebook (2)
- engineer (2)
- financial aid (2)
- gender (2)
- gender gap (2)
- gift guide (2)
- hackbright prep (2)
- jobs after bootcamp (2)
- payment plans (2)
- product management (2)
- projects (2)
- python 101 (2)
- python programmers (2)
- reddit (2)
- social impact (2)
- students (2)
- techhire (2)
- technical product management (2)
- white house (2)
- women (2)
- #HackentinesDay (1)
- #hackdisrupt (1)
- #learntocode (1)
- 2017 (1)
- A Day In The Life Of A Hackbright Student (1)
- Academia.edu (1)
- Ada Lovelace (1)
- Adora Cheung (1)
- Affectiva (1)
- Alison Gianotto (1)
- Allison Deal (1)
- Ambassadors (1)
- Ambassadors Program (1)
- Anna Billstrom (1)
- AppJamming (1)
- Ashley Lorden (1)
- Automate Everything (1)
- Bay Area Girl Geek Dinners (1)
- BeMyApp Factory Hack (1)
- Belinda Runkle (1)
- Bessie Chu (1)
- Big O Notation (1)
- Bills.com (1)
- Birchbox (1)
- Black Girls Code (1)
- Blameless Work Culture (1)
- Brittany Martin (1)
- Browser Extension (1)
- Buffer (1)
- B’Elanna Torres (1)
- CODE Documentary (1)
- CODE2040 (1)
- CTO (1)
- CTOs (1)
- Cara Marie Bonar (1)
- Career Day (1)
- Cathy Edwards (1)
- Charmy Chhichhia (1)
- Chegg (1)
- Chomp (1)
- Christian Fernandez (1)
- Christina Liu (1)
- Christina Pan (1)
- Christine Yen (1)
- Cisco (1)
- Clare Corthell (1)
- Code.org (1)
- CodeGirl (1)
- CodeShannon (1)
- Computer Security (1)
- Conferences (1)
- Costumes (1)
- Couchsurfing (1)
- Cynthia Dueltgen (1)
- Danica McKellar (1)
- Data (1)
- Data Science (1)
- Dave-To-Girl (1)
- Dave-To-Girl Ratio (1)
- DevBeat 2013 (1)
- Dominic Dagradi (1)
- Electric Imp (1)
- Email Signature (1)
- Emily Gasca (1)
- Engineering Culture (1)
- Erica Kwan (1)
- Erin Parker (1)
- Farnaz Ronaghi (1)
- Female CTOs (1)
- Femgineer (1)
- Future of Food Hackathon (1)
- Gayle Laakmann McDowell (1)
- Gemma Barlow (1)
- Go Against The Flow (1)
- Google I/O 2014 (1)
- Grace Hopper (1)
- Grace Hopper Celebration (1)
- Hacbright Academy (1)
- Hack Your Life (1)
- Hack(bright) for Good (1)
- Hackbright Girl Geek Dinner (1)
- Hackbright engineering fellow (1)
- Hardware (1)
- Harvey Mudd College (1)
- Homejoy (1)
- Hour of Code (1)
- Huffington Post (1)
- Hypatia (1)
- Indiegogo (1)
- Industry Insight (1)
- Ingrid Avendaño (1)
- Jason Huggins (1)
- JavaScript (1)
- Jibe (1)
- Job Seeker (1)
- Jocelyn Goldfein (1)
- Joel Franusic (1)
- Kat Hagan (1)
- Kate Matsudaira (1)
- Katherine Wu (1)
- Katie Miller (1)
- Kaylee (1)
- Kelsey Yocum (1)
- Kimber Lockhart (1)
- Ksenia Burlachenko (1)
- LAUNCH Hackathon (1)
- Lauren Antonoff (1)
- Leap Motion (1)
- Lindsay Cade (1)
- LinkedIn (1)
- LinkedIn Profile (1)
- Lise Meitner (1)
- Lookout Mobile Security (1)
- Louise Fox (1)
- Maia Bittner (1)
- Margaret Le (1)
- Margaret Leibovic (1)
- Maria Klawe (1)
- Mariane Abou-Jaoudé (1)
- Marie Curie (1)
- Marissa Marquez (1)
- Martha Kelly (1)
- Math (1)
- Matt Haines (1)
- Mattermark (1)
- Meebo (1)
- Megan Anctil (1)
- Meggie Mahnken (1)
- Mercedes Coyle (1)
- Minted (1)
- Moms in Tech (1)
- Morgan Griggs (1)
- Mozilla (1)
- Music Information Retrieval (1)
- NCC Group (1)
- NESTA (1)
- Natasha Litt (1)
- Nidhi Kulkarni (1)
- Night Classes (1)
- Nishita Agarwal (1)
- Noah Kindler (1)
- Node (1)
- Node.js (1)
- Noise (1)
- O’Reilly (1)
- PandaWhale (1)
- Parse (1)
- Part-time classes (1)
- Perforce (1)
- PickAxe Mobile (1)
- Pinterest (1)
- Platform API (1)
- Popforms (1)
- Powers of Two (1)
- Presidential Innovation Fellow (1)
- Programming Interviews Exposed (1)
- PyCon 2014 (1)
- Quirky Eggs (1)
- Raji Arasu (1)
- Rana el Kaliouby (1)
- Raspberry Pi (1)
- Rebecca Parsons (1)
- RocksBox (1)
- Rosalind Franklin (1)
- Rosette Diaz (1)
- Ruby (1)
- Ruby on Rails (1)
- Sandra Lerner (1)
- Sandy Jen (1)
- Sarah Allen (1)
- Sarah Mei (1)
- Science and Technology (1)
- Security Engineer (1)
- Selenium (1)
- Shannon Burns (1)
- She Started It (1)
- Shiv Kumar (1)
- Smithsonian (1)
- Software Testing (1)
- Spitfire Athlete (1)
- Square (1)
- Stephanie Shupe (1)
- Steve Tjoa (1)
- StubHub (1)
- Student (1)
- Tech Gives Back (1)
- Testing (1)
- The Developers (1)
- ThoughtWorks (1)
- Tom Croucher (1)
- Toxicity (1)
- Tracy Chou (1)
- Twilio (1)
- TwilioQuest (1)
- Twitter (1)
- Velocity Conference 2014 (1)
- Vida Ha (1)
- Warren Colbert (1)
- Washington DC (1)
- Web Developer (1)
- Wendy Saccuzzo (1)
- Women TechMakers (1)
- Work Culture (1)
- Zainab Ghadiyali (1)
- Zed Shaw (1)
- ada (1)
- all-women (1)
- alumna spotlight (1)
- alumnae (1)
- alumni (1)
- app (1)
- be brave get paid (1)
- bias (1)
- black leaders (1)
- blog (1)
- bloomberg (1)
- career strategist (1)
- catalyst (1)
- checkr (1)
- codecademy (1)
- coderpad (1)
- coding interviews (1)
- collaborative coding (1)
- conference (1)
- corporate (1)
- costume (1)
- documentaries (1)
- edie windsor (1)
- education (1)
- efective communication (1)
- employer sponsorship (1)
- engineers (1)
- entrepreneur (1)
- fall2014 (1)
- fellowship (1)
- female founders (1)
- field trip (1)
- finance (1)
- fintech (1)
- firebase (1)
- front-end (1)
- genentech (1)
- getting started (1)
- girl power (1)
- git (1)
- giving back (1)
- gynopedia (1)
- hack bright (1)
- hacker (1)
- hacksmart2018 (1)
- implicit bias (1)
- infographic (1)
- information security (1)
- infosec (1)
- integration (1)
- internship (1)
- interviews (1)
- intro to programming (1)
- jobhunting (1)
- kids code (1)
- leadership (1)
- lesbians who tech (1)
- lwt (1)
- notifica (1)
- onboarding (1)
- online python 101 (1)
- pair programming (1)
- phenomenal woman (1)
- pre-bootcamp (1)
- programmers (1)
- python web framework (1)
- run the world (1)
- salary (1)
- salary negotiation (1)
- san francisco (1)
- security consulting (1)
- self-documenting code (1)
- sf (1)
- sheroes (1)
- software engineering fellowship (1)
- south bay (1)
- starting your own business (1)
- startup (1)
- streak (1)
- superheroes (1)
- tech tips (1)
- technical interview (1)
- technologies (1)
- transition (1)
- tuition (1)
- unconscious bias (1)
- volunteering (1)
- work-life balance (1)
- wwc (1)
- zach haehn (1)
- zapier (1)
- “Versal” (1)