Imposter Syndrome

a psychological pattern in which an individual doubts their skills, talents, or accomplishments and has a persistent internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud."
-Wikipedia

Intro

I always felt that I am not enough until the last moment when I got the final offer(and the very first offer ever as a programmer) from this company, and frankly speaking, I still have it.
I was watching tens of tutorials one after another. I used to talk to myself that "I am gonna apply for jobs just after this course(or tutorial)."

Can you relate my situation to yours somehow?

If you are on a journey to land a first job as a programmer and you feel the same way as me, then this article may be worth your time.

Retrospective

It took almost two years for me to land my first job. However, considering the stacks that I currently am working with (such as ReactJS, Sass, etc.), I think I could probably write codes the same or even better when I just finished Treehouse Full-Stack Tech Degree.

Why?

Because I work most of the time with class components(legacy codes) in my company, and I was much more familiar(maybe kind of "more warmed up" because I just learned) with it back then. And Sass? I mean, I am pretty sure that I had a much better understanding of HTML and Sass(CSS) before because first, some parts of what you've learned fade away, and second, I was entirely focused on those at that time.

So, what was I doing after the Treehouse?

I was in the middle of imposter syndrome and was afraid to apply for jobs. So I took tens of YouTube tutorials and many courses on Udemy, freeCodeCamp, and Coursera for months. The imposter syndrome led me to the point that I literally started learning everything that I think I need. And it is the core reason why I got my first job after two years.

(Here's my portfolio page that got me into my current job.)

The point

One piece of advice from my own experience is that if you can build an interactive web page and feel satisfied with it, just go and start applying for jobs. Some people may argue about well-prepared portfolios (you may think I'm a hypocrite because I had one 😅), but what I am really trying to say here is that if you have those to prove what you've been doing, then it is great. However, if you don't have those, it is still okay, and there's no problem whatsoever for you to apply for jobs. This is what I've learned from my own mistake. You will never know what the industry or the job market wants until you have actual interaction with people there. Then, you will learn more and precisely what they want and what you need to prepare.

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

Overall

The feeling of "not enough" is not always "a terrible thing." On the contrary, it makes me keep learning about new technologies, libraries, frameworks, and so on. So I just hope you don't be buried in the negativity of the imposter syndrome, but learn how to deal with it because it will always be there next to you. However, in the case of getting a job, it is clearly an obstacle that you need to overcome.

Shout out to Chris Sean and Traversy Media who I had huge motivations and help from.

If you are interested in the videos related to the imposter syndrome that helped me out,

1. Chris Sean (watch from the middle)
2. Traversy Media

Good luck with all of you guys out there and stay safe

Previous post: I just got hired! - Part 1 (self-taught, 36yo)