Impostor Syndrome
Feeling like you dont belong? Same here
“I am a big self-doubter. I suffer from Impostor Syndrome. Whenever I start a new job, I think: 'I'm going to be found out.' I don't have a huge ego or enormous belief in my own talent.” - Les Dennis
Ever felt like everybody is more accomplished and skilled than you and you don’t belong with them? Ever felt like someday your truth is gonna come out in the open that you’re not as skilled as you think? Ever felt as if the world’s way ahead of you and you’re lagging?
Let’s Talk About This
Les Dennis, a comedian and actor whose net worth is $7 million now, used to think that he was an impostor. I mean, what he has achieved in his career and lifetime, how can an impostor achieve? An impostor is bound to get noticed or caught at some point in life.
What is Impostor Syndrome?
It’s like feeling like a fraud even if you aren’t one. It’s the feeling that someday you’ll be noticed that you only act like you know your stuff but actually, you don’t. Of course, some people are good at hiding it, some aren’t. The people who are good at hiding it are basically good at confidence and ego. If you can’t hide it, no problem, it’s not like you’re really a fraud.
How to tackle Impostor Syndrome?
There are many ways to remove that gut feeling and save yourself but I’ll share a few here:
Recognize Impostor Syndrome
Face your fear, admit it. Don’t lie to yourself and say it’s something else. Admit it and think about how to solve this issue.
Reframe Your Thoughts
Focus on growth rather than self-doubting.
Keep a Record of Success
Always keep a thought of your achievements at the back of your head.
Seek Feedback and Mentorship
Talk to a mentor, friend, or team member. Confide in them, ask them where you can improve, and ask them to teach you. Always keep getting better.
“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” — Oprah Winfrey.
Stop Comparing Yourself
Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to the yesterday you. Always learn something daily so you can be better than yesterday.
Adopt a Growth Mindset
You need to focus on growth, like I said before. Always look ahead, stop looking at the post. Yesterday is yesterday, today waits for no one and tomorrow is yet to come.
Set Realistic Expectations
This one is the most important. Always stay true to yourself. Be realistic. Your daily goal can be read as 100 pages or 1 page. You have to decide what is realistic and what is achievable. No one knows you better than you.
Remember: You Belong
No matter what, don’t let anyone tell you, you don’t belong. If someone says that to your face, make sure their nose doesn’t belong on their face. You will always belong.
Newbie Data Professionals And Impostor Syndrome
This is for all the people thinking about getting into the data field or changing their field or someone with a data degree hopping into their professional life. Be ready, because the syndrome is coming at you, hard and fast.
It’s normal for all of us to feel like a fraud when we get our first job in data. I’ll be honest, I’ve been working for more than 4 months in BI now and I still feel like an impostor. It’s normal, totally normal.
Here’s what you’ll hear in your first job and you’ll feel your heart racing.
“We’re using trino for this, clickhouse for this and dbeaver for this and this and this.
We need to run this job
Semantic, curated, and blah blah blah
Did you pull the data
Did you push it
Blah
Blah
Blaaah
Bleh
Some of you might know what it means, some of you won’t. Don’t worry about it. Take some time out from your day and ask the people who talk about this to teach you what they are or at the very least give you an idea of what they are.
Impostor Syndrome And Me
I mentioned earlier that I’ve been working for 4 months and still feel like an impostor. Let me talk about it.
I’m an associate BI engineer. My work is related to creating visualizations on Apache Superset. All I have to do is connect the datasets and create visualizations while using almost zero SQL and I’m pretty good at Apache Superset. I can create any visualization for you, style the dashboards, change the color scheme, or make a new dataset on Superset from the original dataset.
So when do I feel like an impostor?
We have a lot of teams working on one project including DevOps, Data Modelling, Data Engineering, Data Architects, etc.
My work includes me being in contact with Data Engineers all the time and they’re usually talking about the things that I mentioned above and I feel like I don’t know anything. I mean I don’t know a single thing about the stuff they talk about all the time. It’s very confusing and I feel like someday they’ll notice that I don’t know anything.
How Do I Tackle It?
I talk. I talk to the data engineers, I ask them whatever they’re talking about. I ask them to guide me and teach me as well. I ask baby questions like ‘What is this’ and ‘What is that’. They don’t mind, because they know that they don’t know how to work on Apache Superset. So I have my expertise and they have their own. When I talk to my team lead and he usually solves every problem on Superset, I feel like a fraud again because he knows a lot more than me, but then again he has been here more than a year and I’ve been here for only 4 months.
My point is, that if you’re willing to learn, you can learn anything. If you’re not willing to learn, you won’t be able to learn even if it is Bill Gates teaching you about Microsoft.
If you’re a data professional, remember you will only learn if you…..
Start Querying Today!
I am an Associate BI Engineer working at a Data And AI Firm. I’m trying to help newbies in Data land their first data job and impact as many fellow data analysts as I can. Here’s my contact info:
ajmal7809@gmail.com
bideveloper_ (Discord)