Part1 Gettin’ DIS’d: Developer Imposter Syndrome
February 8, 2019
So, you’ve been a developer for maybe two or three years? You’ve got some gigs and you’ve gotten paid and now you’re starting to work with the big fish… You’re maybe even working alongside other developers with 5-8 years of experience and suddenly you feel a kick in the pit of your gut… “WTF am I doing here?”
“I’m wayyyy in over my head, everyone knows what’s going on; they get their work done faster, they know which languages to use for any given situation. I don’t belong here.”
Ya just got DIS’d, son!
Yup, developer imposter syndrome…’d.
Now for some of you I may be spot on and for others, you either have felt this way and gotten past it <bravo>, or you haven’t crossed this particularly crappy bridge yet. And though I know it’s hard to come to any universal agreement on the internet, I think even in the back of our mind we can understand, sympathetically, “You can never ignore the emotional aspects of anything you do in life; especially career.”
Everyone Gets DIS’d, Bro:
(yes, I’m enjoying the hell outta this acronym)
But seriously, as unpleasant and humbling as these feelings are, they are completely normal. Everyone has felt these feels; even outside of the development field (it’s just called plain “Imposter Syndrome”, I know IS = boring acronym, but you should look it up). Ironically, feeling like we don’t belong (an Imposter), is something that everyone feels at one time or another. And perversely, it’s kind of a milestone; it means you’re “moving up in the ranks” and coming into your own by being around other more experienced programmers/devs who you should be taking the opportunity to learn from, or if you’re a little more solitary in your work, branching out finding a community you can learn from and feel supported in.
Alright I Got DIS’d, Now What?
(Still not tired of it, mwahaha.)
Guess what? “There is no unicorn developer”, that is to say there’s no one that know every language, has been in every situation and knows everything. If there was, clients would just hire him/her and there would never be a need for anymore programmers or devs. Check out this vlog: if for no other reason than to see me freezing my butt off in the cold as we switch from a tight “man on a mission” shot to FPS mode and then the car for some “real talk”… It’s a fun way to talk about what can be a pretty frustrating subject. Me? I’m gonna sit here and think of how I can work this acronym into a sentence where I DIS your mom! OOOOOOHHHHH, snap!
Enjoy!
PS – RUBY gets a backhanded compliment FTW!
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