I’ve heard it from nearly every IT pro I’ve talked to, impostor syndrome seems to be rampant within the IT community, especially with IT leaders. IT folks tend to undervalue their own talent and are too afraid to embrace their successes. And IT leaders face a unique struggle as they are often thrust into management without any training or guidance on how to be a manager.
If you also deal with impostor syndrome and want to chat with a group of folks that struggle with the same thing, or if you have any tips, please join us for our IT Leadership Lab stream on April 1st at 11am CDT! We’ll be talking with real IT leaders about how they conquer impostor syndrome both for themselves AND their teams.
What are some ways that you squash your own impostor syndrome?
10 Spice ups
molan
(molan)
2
is there a way to register that doesn’t involve creating yet another online account that I will never use again?
5 Spice ups
We have heard nothing but ‘How Fast Technology Changes’ and worked to keep up with it. Then we wondered is it so fast, that we missed it go by?
See ya at the livestream!
3 Spice ups
The question would then be the following
- How to value “success” in IT ?
- Are IT staff overpaid ?
- Are there Organizations or Enterprises that treat IT Departments as “Profit Centers” instead of “Cost Centers” ?
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How do I deal with impostor syndrome?
Badly.
I realised a few years ago that my brain seems to be wired that ‘If I can do it, everybody else must be able to do it’. That’s not me blowing my own trumpet and being exasperated by people’s inability to do things*, more the opposite - I’m not special, therefore anything I can do isn’t special. I am slowly convincing my brain that this is not the case, but it’s a struggle. It’s a lot easier to do with physical things because I can see them - I am a lot bigger than my friends, therefore, for example, I can lift heavier stuff than they can. But I can’t see inside their heads, so my brain seems to assume it’s the same in there as it is in here.
* Although yes, sometimes I do.
7 Spice ups
Ecrawf099
(Ecrawf099)
6
I wrestle with it daily, because there is always someone who seems to know more. I have to tell myself that I may not be that “smartest guy in the room,” but I bring a lot of experience with me.
7 Spice ups
I’m in customer-facing support so I don’t normally feel imposter syndrome helping them. Can’t print? No problem. Docking station on the fritz? Let me fix that for you. But where it starts to creep in is when I talk to our more senior techs and infrastructure engineer. I had no idea that forest function level and domain function level were different, and even less clue about AD works despite having a college degree in computer security and a couple of certifications. How do I deal with realizing just how little I know? By asking questions and paying attention to answers. I’ll never know everything, but maybe one day I’ll know enough to be confident in my abilities.
4 Spice ups
You can always join the livestream without joining the community! And if you want to get a reminder, you can click the “Add to calendar” button to download a meeting invite.
1 Spice up
Oh, I feel this a lot. There’s some stuff that I’m super confident about. But then I realize just how much I don’t know when I hear my peers, customers, and IT pros talking about highly technical topics that I’ve never even scratched the surface of.
1 Spice up
I sometimes do but i have some weird thoughts that bring it on like i see friends my age working junky jobs even if they have similar degree to me. I am like how did I end up here.
I do good with networking, recent change in leadership prior dept head would have a lot of crazy ideas to do or why something was going on. New leader I feel like could run circles around me on many things. I went for that job but now i’m like I see why i didn’t get. They asked me to look at an IIS server I have not touched that stuff in like 15 years sense a class even then it seemed convoluted. Told me a few changes to make and how and I made change and fixed the issue.
Sometimes I feel like my tech skills are weak in areas but I have my areas of focus/interest. I have non IT skills like electronics, electrical, AV, welding, etc. I have had to work in powered on EV chargers that takes skill to do safely. Working with audio mixers, systems, designing video conference setups and how to combine all the parts. Networked a powerwave welder to a laptop so can use the software to monitor and control the welder from laptop was able to test it.
Not I.T but I ran into this when started to ride horses. They were one of my biggest fears just hearing stories about them. A few coworkers talked me into trying a trail ride, I was curious the attraction but the fear was always bigger. I was like how am I going to control an animal with it’s own mind and like 10 times my weight and stay on, etc. Did fine and they are surprising sometimes how well they respond to what seems like nothing.
3 Spice ups
sparkfist
(Sparkfist)
11
Avoid using absolutes or certainty in my language. As I understand it, or how it is setup, it should work. There might also be something I didn’t catch or don’t know about that might happen and doesn’t allow it to work.
I also look at articles about the tech I’m interested in, a lot. Like right now I’m reading as much as I can about Allen-Bradley Rockwell, and related documentation. Trying to get as much information as I can. Because ladder logic in principle is interpreted programming, however the structure is a bit different.
I do have to be on guard of the questions I ask. I want to get as much information as I can. I don’t want to stick my foot in my mouth. Letting those around me take it as I don’t know as much as I do. Or am not as sure about the knowledge I do have. It’s a fine line of questioning what I say constantly. More often than not I avoid asking the questions. That just forces me to self-study and try and figure it out myself.
In a nutshell it is a vicious cycle or question, research, and understand. Even when I understand something I might not be sure I understand it correctly.
2 Spice ups
I think other part I find is I have an issue and get multiple tries into finding the issue and things don’t seem to be getting better i second guess myself and my choices. It’s not something anyone can do, sure DR, mechanics, maintaince people, etc all have issues like this.
1 Spice up
ldobson01
(ldobson01)
14
Its hard since im early on in my career. I’m still learning however those around me expect me to know everything since i am IT. I have learned that it is okay to tell someone that i dont know but that i will figure it out
4 Spice ups
Oh, I didn’t realize you had to be logged-in to see that option 
but you don’t need to worry about logging in when the event is happening!
2 Spice ups
lisa0a
(Lisa0A)
16
Is there a recording for those of us that didn’t see the original post and missed the “live”?
