

Exploring Impostor Syndrome in Technology – SXSW '15 - jrs235
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ExploringImpostorSyndromeInTechnologySXSW15.aspx

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leni536
I think my girlfriend has impostor syndrome and she has this bad. We just
finished out master's degree in physics. She believes that she didn't even
deserve the degree. While it's true that I helped her a lot with learning but
she never cheated on a single exam.

It's really bad and just because it occasionally turns her down. It really
affects her decisions and makes her nervous on verbal exams. I'm sure that the
teachers are well aware of this syndrome even if they don't know it's name
because it's quite common among students. So it really didn't matter at verbal
exams. Now that she starts job hunting it could be a huge problem.

I just read about impostor syndrome like two days ago and I really don't know
how to introduce it to her. If you tell a paranoid person that he/she has
paranoia than the answer could be that "well, it's not paranoia if they really
follow you everywhere".

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jrs235
I believe I "suffer" from imposter syndrome myself. In highly technical and
forever knowledge expanding fields like tech and science it's easy to always
feel behind. Odds are someone somewhere knows more than you about a particular
topic. The more we know, the more we know that there's even more we don't
know. I think that's the curse for me. I focus on the unfinished rather than
the accomplished. When a superior asks me a technical question I may not know
the answer off the top of my head but I have confidence that I can learn or
find the answer or a solution. I fear others will see an imposter instead of a
valuable skillset: ability to quickly learn and discover.

