Imposter Syndrome: Surmounting The Fear of Being a Fraud

Imposter syndrome, also known as fraud syndrome, is a psychological pattern in which a developer doubts his/her accomplishments and has a persistent fear of being exposed as a “fraud”. Developers experience this phenomenon despite external evidences of their competence. It is a feeling that comes with incorrectly attributing one’s success to luck or defining it as a result of deceiving others into believing in one. Imposter syndrome makes developers languish in silence because of the fear of being “found out”. Most developers do not even admit their insecurities for the fear, they believe their admission may trigger the revelation of their true incompetence for all to see.

What you’ve been waiting for finally; How to surmount Imposter Syndrome: Step 1: Understanding the why? As a developer you wonder why you feel like a fraud after you’ve learnt and built. The reason is imposter syndrome shows that you are doing something right. Suffering from imposter syndrome means that you care about your work, abilities and energy to become competent. So, great news! You’re on the right track and you care about your growth.

Step 2: Objectiveness over Self-judgement. This is a major step and might seem difficult to take. Most developers confuse self-judgement which has emotional connection for being objective – striving for a goal. Self-judgement could come out with positive emotions, for example judging oneself right or negative emotions when you feel like a fraud because you did something wrong and can’t complete that project. Objectiveness on the other hand doesn’t have any kind of emotion attached to it. A case of being objective is stating a fact or making a statement that doesn’t threaten your value, this statement simply guides you towards an appropriate path which could be learning a new language, contributing to an open source project or even taking a job interview. Objectiveness should always come to your mind even when you feel like judging yourself as a developer.

Step 3: Understanding that admitting your flaws doesn’t make you a fraud. You need to understand that no one is perfect and that there’s no shame in acknowledging that you need to improve some of your skills as a developer, or that there are some gaps to bridge in your knowledge. Admitting your flaws as a developer helps reduce the pressure you put on yourself. When you admit your flaw without hating yourself it simply means you are objective.

Step 4: Avoid unhealthy communication habits that leads to self-doubt. Your communication with people has a crucial influence on your well-being. Eliminating some words like should’ve, could’ve, would’ve will help you stop being a victim of imposter syndrome. As a developer you need to understand that you are responsible for your actions and that all you do is by choice. Living with a victim attitude will only make you a victim of your mind. Accomplishment can look good or bad, impressive or not. What makes the difference is how it is being communicated about to yourself or other people. Step 5: Maintain healthy comparisons. As a developer you may feel like you need to build your self-confidence by judging your work better than someone else’s work. Yes, it may be but also make sure you don’t ridicule others' work to build your self-esteem because it prevents you from seeing outstanding work just, and that would have the opposite effect. Always rejoice to other people’s success and use it as an inspiration to do better rather than wallow in self-doubt. Also, make sure not to judge other developers' work as ugly. It will only make you think that’s how people see your work. Learn to let go of jealousy.

Step 6: Maintaining peace after overcoming Imposter Syndrome Surmounting imposter syndrome comes with a guide to being your true self and alerts to be cautious when taking a wrong path. After reaching a point where you stay objective, admit your weaknesses, maintain healthy communication habits with yourself and other people, and also rejoice with others for their successes and find inspiration from that you start to think of how to maintain this peace. To do that you need to daily remind yourself to be grateful for everything; it comes with a power to focus and get back on track. At the end, make sure to love learning because that’s all that matters.

Thank you for reading! I hope the steps above will help you. If you have more steps that have helped you other than these, feel free to add in the comment section.