{"id":339,"date":"2020-12-21T14:42:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T14:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.simplybusiness.co.uk\/women-in-tech-imposter-syndrome\/"},"modified":"2024-05-30T10:24:30","modified_gmt":"2024-05-30T10:24:30","slug":"women-in-tech-imposter-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.simplybusiness.co.uk\/about-us\/tech\/2020\/12\/women-in-tech-imposter-syndrome","title":{"rendered":"Women in tech: Tackling imposter syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the beginning of December 2020, myself and two other Simply Business employees attended the Women in Tech Festival Global<\/a> conference. While the conference had a lot of truly great talks and panels, one that particularly resonated with me was a presentation on imposter syndrome given by Lisa Emery<\/a>, CIO at the Royal Marsden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"wit_global_festival\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Imposter syndrome was not an unfamiliar topic but I had never really put too much thought into how to manage or tackle it. After the presentation, I did a little more research into the ways that imposter syndrome can affect women in tech and reflected on my own experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I come from a non-traditional background for tech. I majored in English and French in college, and then made the transition from project management to software engineering by way of a Boston-based web development bootcamp called Launch Academy<\/a>. I quit my steady-paying job and took the chance on a bootcamp because I wanted a mentally stimulating career that would challenge me by allowing me to work on creative solutions to complex problems. It was the best investment in myself I\u2019ve ever made, and I am so glad I made that choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many of my peers, I often experience imposter syndrome. Since landing a job post-bootcamp, I\u2019ve actively made contributions in my developer roles, managed and executed smaller and larger-scale software projects, and experienced successes during my time as a software engineer. Despite this, I often feel as though I\u2019m a \u201cnon-technical\u201d person, perhaps because of my humanities degree, and sometimes wonder if maybe another field or position would be a better fit for me. But then I start working on some code, get sucked into problem-solving, and remember the reasons I wanted to become a developer in the first place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought that if what I learned from the presentation and my reflections after was helpful for me, it might be helpful for others too. So I wanted to share some information about imposter syndrome: what it is, how to spot it, how it can affect the day-to-day, and some tips on managing and tackling it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is imposter syndrome?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Imposter syndrome is the consistent (unfounded) feeling that you\u2019re going to be exposed as a fraud. Someone experiencing imposter syndrome often doubts their talent, skills, or accomplishments and feels as though they haven’t earned their successes. It\u2019s a psychological pattern first coined in 1978 as a result of a psychological study of 150 highly successful women [1]<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is all too easy for women in tech to experience imposter syndrome. Although men can also be affected by it and I don’t want to brush aside or devalue that experience, my focus in this post is how it affects women. While it is recognized that men can also suffer from imposter syndrome, it is arguably more prevalent among women (a minority group) in the tech industry. Women make up only about 26% of the computing workforce [2]<\/a>. Working in a predominantly male field can foster feelings of incompetence and out-of-placeness, which in turn can manifest feelings of being an imposter. When we achieve things that aren’t necessarily aligned with the narrative we\u2019re familiar with, it can feel like we don\u2019t deserve our successes or that we haven\u2019t earned them with our own efforts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do I know if I\u2019m affected by imposter syndrome?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Someone experiencing imposter syndrome may identify with some or all of the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n