Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome
I disagree with this article and most things I read about imposter syndrome. There&#x27;s usually some good advice in there about self care. But, I think it ends up missing the mark because it leaves out half the story: It is healthy and normal to question if you&#x27;re over-representing yourself.<p>A constant feeling of &quot;Am I as good as people think and I say?&quot; is only imposter syndrome if the answer is <i>yes</i>. Otherwise, yeah, you&#x27;re an imposter.<p>I&#x27;ve spoken with and mentored many new software engineers. Some of them tell me they&#x27;re struggling with imposter syndrome. Do I tell them they&#x27;re wrong and they shouldn&#x27;t feel that way, baselessly invalidating their beliefs? No! I look for evidence that they can write code. Some live coding, a project that&#x27;s not a copy-pasted tutorial, just something.<p>Then, the conversation goes one of two ways. If they <i>can</i> code, then we have a talk about expectation setting. No one knows everything, everyone expects a junior to make lots of mistakes, googling stuff is fine, etc. If they <i>can&#x27;t</i> code, it&#x27;s more like &quot;Yeah, you&#x27;re right. Your feelings aren&#x27;t just valid but pointing at a truth. Let&#x27;s work on teaching you to code.&quot;<p>Let&#x27;s say I&#x27;m race car driver, but I feel like I&#x27;m no good. Some day I&#x27;ll be found out. Do I have imposter syndrome? Who knows! Let&#x27;s look at the standings. If over a season, I sometimes crash, sometimes end up in the middle, and sometimes get on the podium, yeah I&#x27;m definitely a race car driver. My worries of being found out are baseless. But, if I&#x27;m always coming in dead last and I barely even race anymore, then these concerns seem pretty grounded.<p>The unfortunate reality is that most things aren&#x27;t as clear cut as the standings of a race. You can still look outward for external evidence, instead of inward to your own feelings. What do I think someone in this position should be able to do? How good do people with similar experience (very important qualifier) in this role tend to be? How am I compared to that?<p>I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s healthy and I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s useful to just sweep these feelings under the rug. Which is what you&#x27;re doing when you share them with someone else and they reactively tell you not to worry. I have never seen that work for myself or anyone else. You have to face these feelings honestly and openly, see if they match reality, and adjust accordingly.