Coping with Imposter Syndrome

My first taste of imposter syndrome hit when I took a role as a Technical Program Manager at Facebook. Here are the steps I used to cope.

Photo by Claudia Ramírez on Unsplash

My first taste of imposter syndrome hit when I took a role as a Technical Program Manager at Facebook. My peers had computer science degrees, years of experience at other tech companies, some had even started their own companies. I had a Liberal Arts degree, no deep technical knowledge, and started at Facebook as a contractor in an operations role.

I felt a hiring mistake had been made and others would realize what I felt I knew, I didn’t belong here.

I was lucky to have an amazing manager that helped me through this bout of imposter syndrome. Below are five ways I cope with imposter syndrome. In short:

1. Share these thoughts
2. Go through the actions of your role
3. Challenge these thoughts
4. Be kind to yourself
5. Repeat the above as imposter syndrome comes up again

Share these thoughts which helps normalize them

Just saying to someone else I don’t feel like I should be here helped. When I said this out loud, I expected…