Imposter Syndrome: A Teenager's View on the Importance of Mindset

Welcome back to the interning adventures of Cindy from East High School! Now that we’ve reached the last week of the internship (time flies by fast when you’re having fun unfortunately), things have accelerated and most importantly, pivoted. 

Shifting towards other plans for the last 2 weeks, the internship began to focus on the concepts of competitive analysis and researching the existence of a market in order to efficiently understand the scale of resources we might need for a new marketing campaign. Through this, we started exploring other companies, consultants, and coaches in the same incubator field to gain insight on the ideas and services they provided. Each stood out in their own unique way when it came to their goals for clients, the concepts they emphasized, and how they claim to bring something new into the industry. 

The larger pivot came when we began to dive into specific types of consultants: coaches who specialized in enlightening women in the tech industry in order to build their confidence and accelerate their career further. The overall process was the same, but the results I came across were interesting. Again, there were unique aspects of every single company I looked into, such as the various terms the coaches used, the way they decided to design their website layout, and even the posting patterns they utilized on social media platforms. The thought-provoking piece I learned here was that these coaches would focus on the psychological aspects of women in the tech industry. Of course, one’s mental well-being is a huge part of working in any career, so you would find these consultants emphasizing the importance of mental strength training and changing your mindset in order to grow as a person. Motivation, persistence, a strong willpower, and even creativity is important for someone working in the tech industry. Yet, turns out there is a common phenomenon that affects around 70% of the population that revolves around work ethics and one’s perspective... Imposter syndrome.

I came across this intriguing concept while I was researching the obstacles and setbacks that might affect women in tech, such as the common biases in the workplace and perhaps feeling dismissed before their superiors. In order to completely understand our target market of women in tech for this campaign, we’d obviously have to put ourselves in their shoes, and see what could be their ‘hell’ and what may be their ‘heaven.’ Remember the phrase “you are not selling to people, you are serving to people”? Since it’s been proven that around 70% of the population has suffered from a certain phenomenon at least once in their lives, it’d be beneficial for me to pass on what I learned about it.

Regardless of their career or social status, imposter syndrome can cause people to doubt themselves when it comes to their achievements, and even have a fear of others finding out about it. Those who have imposter syndrome may worry that they won’t live up to their supervisors’ expectations, avoid asking for raises/promotions (they feel as if they don’t deserve more money for what they do), avoid extra responsibilities, attribute success to external factors, and have a fear of failure which can lead to job dissatisfaction, going overboard on goal-setting (unrealistic/super challenging), and get trapped in the cycle of self-doubt (after every success, they become increasingly worried that others may find out the “truth” of their abilities). 

Considered an expert on the concept, Dr. Valarie Young wrote a book on imposter syndrome, identifying 5 types of “imposters”, each having their own unique focus and conditions.

The Perfectionist. Not surprisingly, imposter syndrome is connected with perfectionism, causing people to set unrealistically high standards for themselves, and have trouble with being satisfied from their work because they feel like they could've done better somehow. Although improving oneself is beneficial, constantly expecting flawlessness in their tasks is unhealthy. Possible methods to gradually overcome this is to introduce self-kindness to themselves and acknowledge their flaws. 

The Expert. Ones who suffer from this sub-type of imposter syndrome validate themselves by not what they already know, but on how much they know. They constantly feel as if they don’t know enough, even if they’re experienced in a field, and that they’ll eventually get exposed for it. There is a thing of overpreparation and how that can easily turn into counterproductivity, and failure is natural. So, a possible method to get over this obstacle would be for them to become a mentor to someone new to their field/industry; The apprentice would feel secure and help validate the idea that the ‘expert’ does know enough about their position. 

The Superhuman. People with this subtype believe that they need validation from the actual act of working instead of the completion of the assignments themselves. Because they put their colleagues on a pedestal, they push themselves to work harder all just to “catch up” to them and prove their worth. Since this is a hard one to overcome, a simple, first step would be to dedicate some time to non-work activities and hobbies in order to learn how to be content. 

The Soloist. Manifested as a fear of having someone ask them, “Why would you need help if you’re qualified for this role?”, these people would sincerely believe that asking others for help brings them shame. Being independent is an admirable thing, but they cannot go through life alone in their endeavors. Humans are naturally social beings, so beginning to relinquish some control and responsibility to others will benefit more than harm. 

The Natural Genius. Similar to the Perfectionist, the main difference would be that they also base their successes over how quickly they can do it and how easily they can execute it. If something is not right on the very first try, these people would degrade themselves. It’s definitely ok and normal to not be a master at everything since most goals are works-in-progress. Instead, commit to small improvements and reasonable expectations; Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not someone else.

Overall, I’m greatly thankful that I was able to spend a part of my summer at this internship. Along with getting to dive deeper into business concepts and exploring different realms about developing startups, I was able to learn several other valuable lessons that could easily be applied in your everyday routine. The psychological features of business were especially relevant since I’m sure I suffer from a type of imposter syndrome as well to some extent. But despite the obstacles, there are always methods to overcome them and come out stronger than before. When we apply these concepts to our marketing campaign, doesn’t it seem easier to understand what this target market is going through? I’m sure these will end up as life lessons for me to remember during my interactions with others, in a professional environment or not. When it comes to business, these ideas are eternal.

Courtesy of Cindy Liang, Summer Intern at Raika Technologies working on market research and competitive analysis. Click here for Cindy’s earlier post: Product-Market Fit: A Teenager's View of Starting Up.