How can I overpower Imposter's syndrome?

I know I should ask more questions and be more confident in myself - but I always feel that everyone else around me are professionals and that I’m simply a hack. I always feel behind everyone. (currently doing work experience). There’s so much I still don’t understand - even after research :confused:

Believe me, none of us know everything. There will always be someone smarter, better, faster than you. There will always be someone else that is an expert at some particular language, or framework, or technology.

The only person you should compare with is yourself from yesterday. If you today, know a little bit more than you yesterday, then you’re progressing in the right direction. Chug on!

The imposter syndrome may never go away, but I think you’ll feel less stressed after a few years experience coding and having finished projects to show for your skills. Then you look back att your body of work, and say to yourself “Not bad… I know some stuff”.

Web Dev work is a never-ending journey of constantly learning new things. So yeah, there will always be that nagging feeling that you don’t know everything. – and that is OKAY. Just keep learning everyday.

1 Like

Confidence is good, but also feeling like you don’t know everything is a good thing IMO.

I’ve had full employment every day since age 18, and I’m now 51. In every job I’ve had I always felt I could do it better. I try to use this to drive myself to learn more and improve, yet I’ve never achieved “expert” status in my mind.

I sat in class once with a guy who asked more questions than anyone else. You know the type. He usually started each question with something along the lines “I’m probably the only one who doesn’t know this, but…”. The guy was super smart and very capable, but always willing to ask the question no one else would ask. Most of his classmates didn’t know the answer either, but sat on their hands.

Bottom line: Have confidence AND humility; don’t be afraid to ask the question. Those around you probably have the same doubts.

1 Like

Feeling like you don’t know everything is crucial if you want to stay relevant. As soon as you “know everything”, you stop growing.

1 Like

I do know one thing… my quote application was able to have more than 3 quotes. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

It’s actually the 3rd random quote generator I made. My next project will be a random random quote generator generator — you click a button and it opens up a randomly selected random quote generator in an iframe. (Just kidding! :sweat_smile:)

3 Likes

If you can do this in Flash, that would be AWESOME!!! :joy:

Ive spent the better part of the last 20 years with impostors syndrome… just really never felt like I was good enough, and everything felt daunting to me… Even though I freelanced for many years, it was with a bit of cynicism, like… if I learned to do this, you could to, but if you wanna pay me to do it for you, okay sure I can swing with that.

What has helped me is my recent determination to learn more, and to really accept that what Im learning and able to do, its because I busted my butt and put in the effort to do it…and that time and effort actually is valuable, which makes my skills valuable. Not saying Im the best…hardly…not saying I feel like Im top of the world…have a way to go. Just saying, I no longer have this dark cloud of doubt and fear and all those insecurities hanging over my head all the time…and all that is due to educating myself and really acknowledging the skills I have and am developing.

Its a rollercoaster though for sure, cause some days I feel more confident than others…Ill feel like Im right on track, everythigns going great, applying for jobs, Ive got this! and then other days I wonder if Ill actually be good enough to get hired, and if I am, will I be good enough to get the job done…will they say uh, actually this work isnt going to cut it. But in a weird way, I think thas a good thing too…as long as Im always striving to be better, and keep improving myself, the better work I will be able to do and Ill keep improving as a programmer. Thats just a theory though :laughing: