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Brian0787
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Yesterday, 10:26 pm

I'm guessing I can put this here but not sure if this should be under "work". Has anyone experienced what could be called "Imposter Syndrome?" I always heard about the term before but never realized some of the things I've been going through are symptoms of it. Some of it is because of a new job I will be starting in a couple weeks and just experiencing symptoms of inadequacy and that I'm "in over my head" and "I need to know certain skills perfectly before I can do the job". I think I have some fear of failure as well. I never quite knew anything about it until I happened to research a little on it. I'm just curious if others experienced symptoms as well. I'm guessing this is a psychological condition but maybe I'm making it bigger than it actually is.



Carbonhalo
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Yesterday, 10:46 pm

Yes...and also the opposite.
When I used to hitch-hike everywhere I would adopt personas to suit/impress whoever picked me up.
I had the language skills to pretend to be almost anything and I think it was all an effort to perfect my masking. I never impersonated in an employment setting and was careful to choose roles which were unlikely to be detected... And I don't think I ever was, yet in several jobs that I was actually qualified for (and even overqualified for) I often felt substandard despite being the best in the company at what I did.



Brian0787
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Yesterday, 10:52 pm

Carbonhalo wrote:
Yes...and also the opposite.
When I used to hitch-hike everywhere I would adopt personas to suit/impress whoever picked me up.
I had the language skills to pretend to be almost anything and I think it was all an effort to perfect my masking. I never impersonated in an employment setting and was careful to choose roles which were unlikely to be detected... And I don't think I ever was, yet in several jobs that I was actually qualified for (and even overqualified for) I often felt substandard despite being the best in the company at what I did.


Thank you for sharing! Some of that sounds like me as well. I definitely mask alot and think I adopted a persona different than I actually am on the job. I think I am qualified on the skills side but perfectionism makes me think I don't know certain programs or skills perfectly so I think I'm not adequate for the job. I appreciate you sharing your experience!