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Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

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Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#321

Post by redis_mlc »

hyperpallium2 wrote: post #254
deanCommie wrote: post #77

A lot of the discussion here is treating impostor syndrome and qualifications as binary: You're either qualified or not. And your evaluation of your skills is either above your actual skills or not. But it's more nuanced than that. I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. I have impostor syndrome all the time. Why? Because I measure myself against 1) role models that are ahead of me in many ways - I've always do…

If you present yourself as equal to one of your role models, you are an imposter. If you present yourself as the BEST (in the world?) at something, then you are an imposter. If you present yourself as a perfectly rounded engineer, then you are an imposter. But if you present yourself as good at the billion things you are good at (even if you find them easy), then you are not an imposter. 5 year old little brother loo…

The above is totally false.

I work in SV, and know engineers who are actually #1 in the world at particular subjects.

If you aspire to being #1, over time you will become that.

Based on what you wrote, I can say that you do sound like an impostor.

Since you don't know what being world-class is like, I will say this. Talking to an average person about an advanced topic is difficult because there is an experience and knowledge gap that is insurmountable in a casual conversation.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#322

Post by jlg23 »

deanCommie wrote: post #77

A lot of the discussion here is treating impostor syndrome and qualifications as binary: You're either qualified or not. And your evaluation of your skills is either above your actual skills or not. But it's more nuanced than that. I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. I have impostor syndrome all the time. Why? Because I measure myself against 1) role models that are ahead of me in many ways - I've always do…

> My fallacy is that there is a billion things that I am good at, but I don't consider them difficult (how could they be, if I am good at them)

This reminds me on a cartoon in which a rocket scientists plays down his work "it's not brain surgery, after all", while in the next picture the neurosurgeon says "it's just brain surgery, not rocket science".

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#323

Post by blub »

armchairhacker wrote: post #228
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #8

I guess I just don't really believe this. It sounds nice, and it might even be a good falsehood to tell yourself for personal motivation—but that doesn't make it true. Yes, of course if you're an actual fraudster intending to commit fraud, you're probably comfortable with committing fraud. But feeling "impostor syndrome" colloquially means second-guessing whether you're good enough to deserve your position. There are…

> good enough to deserve your position What does this mean? What qualifies as "good enough"? If you're not fired, you're good enough for your boss. There are billions of people from poor regions who would put in way more effort than you. Many of them are smarter too. You make $100K / year to spend 35 hours / week drinking coffee and writing JavaScript, they make like $10K / year to spend 60 hours / week physical labo…

It means that the employee is able to fulfill their tasks firstly according to industry and then company standards.

Having a job or even launching a successful project does not mean that one is good enough - especially in software where having a job doesn’t convince anyone to offer one a job without grueling interviews and where most of the software produced is riddled with bugs and security holes.

If one considers the hiring practices of top companies, they are absolutely claiming that the great majority of applicants are imposters.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#324

Post by IshKebab »

Trasmatta wrote: post #52

I'm a bit tired of hearing about imposter syndrome, honestly. It's become trendy to claim you have it, and I feel like the actual number of people suffering from it is much smaller than the self-diagnosed sample.

Yeah people think it's like some kind of psychological illness like bipolar disorder just because it has "syndrome" in the name. It's not a syndrome. When you're feeling nervous at a job interview do you have "interview syndrome"? No. That is dumb. This is all dumb.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#325

Post by Sanguinaire »

whimsicalism wrote: post #318
Sanguinaire wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly debatable. While Amazon is more likely to be on the shit-list of Joe Public, in technical circles it comes down to AWS vs MS. Frankly if MS hadn't bought GitHub to distract magpie developers, there would be no contest.

Amazon has the lowest hiring bar because of high turnover. AWS vs Azure is besides the point.

Having worked for both, I would dispute the hiring bar point - but I'm sure it is team dependent.

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#326

Post by farazzz »

jldugger wrote: post #87
deanCommie wrote: post #77

A lot of the discussion here is treating impostor syndrome and qualifications as binary: You're either qualified or not. And your evaluation of your skills is either above your actual skills or not. But it's more nuanced than that. I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. I have impostor syndrome all the time. Why? Because I measure myself against 1) role models that are ahead of me in many ways - I've always do…

Total derail but: > I'm a Principal Engineer at a FAAMNG company. Does anyone other than a MS employee put an M in FAANG?

Yeah, I assumed they were Microsoft because I’ve never heard FAAMNG before

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#327

Post by pnt12 »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #141

So, we have a group of people who lack sufficient skills for their job, and we have another group who _feel like_ they lack sufficient skills for their job. The author is claiming that these groups have no overlap whatsoever. There's absolutely no way that could be true. Considering how many people are bad at what they do, and how many people feel like they aren't good enough, surely there's at least one person in th…

Surely there is one person in the world: that would be the anecdote to the data. We can't disregard something if there is one conflicting data point, unless we're talking about maths or proofs.

With that being said: if someone is feeling bad because they think they're an impostor, first they should:

1. Reflect if they really are 2. If yes, improve 3. If can't improve, either embrace it or quit

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#328

Post by triceratops »

whimsicalism wrote: post #203
b112 wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft wasn't historically an "internet company". They were an OS only, non-internet company, compared to the rest. When the acronym was created, it was still that way. Even now, they make most of their butter from OS installs, although yes, they have branched out a lot.

Netflix wasn't historically an "internet company" either.

What do you think the "Net" in "Netflix" stands for?

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#329

Post by vmception »

kuresov wrote: post #147
vmception wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I enjoyed FAANGMULA and TARANTULAS fun meme There are also a handful of sub $100bn marketcap publicly traded tech companies that pay on par of FAANGs and may have more enticing vesting schedules too. Greater upside as well.

Would love to hear about some of those companies

Pinterest, Lyft, Uber to name a few

Re: Actual impostors don't get impostor syndrome

#330

Post by [deleted] »

thefourthchime wrote: post #211
ramesh31 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I usually use FAAMG instead of FAANG because I don't understand what Netflix is doing in there. FAANG is about the pay, not the prestige of the company. They pay so far above the rest of the market that they are really only competing for talent with themselves. Average total comp at Netflix is well north of $500k for an individual contributor.

I’ve been curious about this. Is there a list of companies that pay way and above outside of FAANMG? I work for a large media company as at Sr director level equivalent engineer. The pay is certainly not north of 500k

[deleted]
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