Imposter syndome

Anyone been in similar shoes? How do you get over this feeling??

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I'm always a bit nervous when I talk to other infosec professionals. It's such a wide gamut and I know that despite how much breadth I have in my repertoire, I hardly get deep on any specific thing, and even on the 101-level things I'm still missing out a lot. Constant semi-fear of people thinking, that guy doesn't know what he's talking about. I always just remind myself that hardly anybody is really a true expert on anything, particularly in my field, particularly the people who think they actually are experts at things...

Fulcrum45

Yeah, I deal with this sometimes especially when I'm working with other techs. I'm always worried I'll look incompetent and undeserving of my job/ salary. Sometimes I don't even like posting for technical help out of fear that I'll use the wrong terminology. What I do is simply own up to my ignorance. If I don't know, I don't know and I tell them. The worst thing you can do is fake it. That's where you really lose face with your peers. A lot of the time though I discover that I'm either on par with them or beyond so the fear is unwarranted. When it comes to my everyday users I explain what I did to resolve an issue and why it worked. Most of them don't care to know but it reminds me that maybe I actually know what I'm doing....most of the time.

tedjames

Don't fake it, especially at job interviews. Chances are that someone on the interview team knows the answer and will call you out on it. There's no shame in saying, "I don't know," as long as you follow it up with, "but I will do what it takes to learn it."

CiscoASA2202

tedjames wrote: »

Don't fake it, especially at job interviews. Chances are that someone on the interview team knows the answer and will call you out on it. There's no shame in saying, "I don't know," as long as you follow it up with, "but I will do what it takes to learn it."

Yea, I think its odd I made this thread but th is "feeling" isn't that bad at all. I took a pay raise and a completely different position, I told them I wasn't able to do certain things required in this job but they asked me if I can learn and willing. Well yea, who isn't? Anyway, I have felt like an imposter for some time because they have thrown me into some projects that require CCNP/CCIE and I don't really have that experience, good news is my dept is actually handing me very challenging work and I have had to take a step back from this thread and realize the bigger picture, they are just exposing me to something I haven't done before and I've been learning more and more in this position than any other role I've held in the past. Learning new things is not an issue at all, I'm just not the person who has done this one role for years and years, its still a step up. They took me from a different role and threw me in some of the highest levels designs and projects I've ever seen. I should be much more thankful and just keep on learning

tedjames

That sounds just like the position I'm in now. They obviously think you have the aptitude to learn the job, so just put all you can into it.

Dojiscalper

This is something of a problem with a lot of techy people. Everyone in the room thinks they are the smartest in the room, but the truth is, everyone is unique and has their own history, and path that has lead them to see from their perspective. Sure there can be people who are just faking even being techy at all, but IT is huge these days so many points of view will be established. In law we can't even agree on simple rules, laws, guilt, innocence its all perspective and the reason we have lawyers.

Its to easy to just shoot someone down and think they don't know what their talking about. Maybe later in another situation they will surprise everyone.