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Most people advance through their careers with legitimate training, and yet many professionals may still feel about as ill-qualified for their jobs as Demara was for his various "vocations."
Indeed, psychological scientists have explored the "impostor phenomenon," a term first coined in the 1970s to describe the intellectual and professional fraud that many high-achievers feel they're committing. Despite academic and career success, these individuals believe that others overestimate their abilities and will eventually discover their incompetence.
A team of Belgian psychological scientists recently set out to explore the impostor phenomenon (IP) more closely, and found that it correlated with specific personality, emotional, and behavioral traits. Professionals grappling with IP manifest high levels of maladaptive perfectionism and neuroticism, the researchers found. And those individuals tend to be relatively unhappy with their jobs.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday November 05 2015, @11:11AM
In German, there's a saying "er kocht auch nur mit wasser", A direct translation ("he also cooks [boils] with water") doesn't work very well, but it basically refers to this situation: You see some high-powered, super-competent person powering their way through life. "Wow, man, I wish I were half that good". In reality, you're just seeing their facade, the same facade that we all put up. Behind that facade, that super-powered person isn't any better that you are. Their joints hurt when they get up in the morning, they argued with their spouse last night, they're worried they don't really understand the latest tech. Heck, they may be looking at you (your facade) and wondering how you manage to be so good.
I think this is especially a problem in tech, because things change so fast. Despite what the job adverts would have us believe, no one can keep up to date on everything. We're lucky to be current on two or three technologies. Or we may be in jobs using old technology and falling out of touch with the new stuff entirely. We all "just cook with water", despite the fact that we try to sell it as rocket fuel.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @12:48PM
Yup. Here's a little tip that will help bring some perspective to your life.
Next time you're sitting on the crapper trying to coax a particularly reluctant squishy turd out, simply remind yourself that everybody poos. I know it sounds trite, but it's one of those sayings that people simply accept without actually contemplating. Actually give it some thought next time. Presidents. Monarchs. Hugh Heffner. Angelina Jolie. All the money and influence in the world cannot insulate someone against the need to spend a significant portion of their lives staring at the bathroom door with their underwear around their ankles. *
I also like to think about when the Osbourne family had their reality TV show, and they had those stupid little dogs that would shit all over the house, because the owners were too stupid to train them not to. All that success, fame & money, and they are living in dogshit- ultimately, because when it boils down to it they are all just as idiotically human as the rest of us.
* Yeah, I know, colonic irrigation. But paying a con-artist in a tunic to shove a tube up your RIAAhole is surely no more dignified than sitting on the porcelain throne.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @08:05PM
Yeah but my shit smells like flowers in a spring breeze, so its nothing to be ashamed of.
(Score: 1) by Marco2G on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:30PM
The same goes for companies as a whole. We've noticed lately that no matter the company, be it EMC, IBM, Quantum what have you are all just as incompetent and/or competent as our small 20 peope company.
It's always a matter of getting the right person or team for a job. For us this is hard because all of us need to be versatile. For IBM it's hard, because they are unable to find the dude that knows the things the optimistic pre-sales sold AND is allowed to work at our customer level.
Frankly, after nearly fifteen years in the real world, I marvel at all the things humans achieved despite being so utterly human.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:31PM
S/he also puts on pants one leg at a time, eh.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @01:55PM
Heck, they may be looking at you (your facade) and wondering how you manage to be so good.
In some cases, though, they might be right.
We've all had co-workers who "can't be bothered" to learn about the details of their craft, and end up relying on just a few to do all the "hard work." Those few are the ones who actually put in the time/money/school to really master their work, and are deservedly regarded as subject matter experts.
Perhaps for some, "Imposter Syndrome" is undeserved, but for a significant percentage of the people in the web programming field (my area of expertise), I'd say 40% of the people are in fact, imposters, and should be drummed right out of the industry (or else start caring enough about their vocation to learn it better).
Ironically enough, they don't see it that way, and will continue dragging the field toward mediocrity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @04:41PM
Most aren't capable of being truly good at something; in such a case, they will live a life of mediocrity unless they find something they can be truly good at. It would be better if they simply quit and got out of the way of people who know what they are doing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @05:58PM
Are you in the 40%
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @04:38PM
In reality, you're just seeing their facade, the same facade that we all put up.
Not everyone puts up this "facade". Some people are genuinely honest and interested in what they do.
Behind that facade, that super-powered person isn't any better that you are.
We're definitely not all equal, and it's foolish to suggest otherwise.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 05 2015, @08:09PM
No, but most people who "got ahead" and seem to be superior and live great lives are morons that were lucky enough to be born into success - born into their wealth and connections, and thus able to insulate their lives from their mediocrity, ignorance, and idiocy.