Honestly, this is one criticism of IT culture which I sincerely don't think fits. Where in most fields someone is looked down on for not having some paper from some school, in IT (at least as a male) you are only judged for your skills. Of course communities enact a variety of forms of gatekeeping, of course there are a lot of irrational opinions out there, but frankly compared to most fields where being "welcomed" can literally decades (or the exact right piece of paper) in IT it tends to take only years.
I mean, I have seen people code in vim and look down on people using normal editors (probably the purest form of elitism I have seen), but even that didn't stop normal professional collaboration. And when it comes to SO, it gets a lot of hate for being unwelcoming, but to be honest I think that sincerely mostly boils down to the "questions aren't just for the OP, but all current and future people with this problem". Yes, "your" beginner question will get marked as a duplicate, but you did get your answer and learn a new term.
Not to say that imposter syndrome and just generally feeling inadequate aren't very very normal feelings. But they happen in every field and the thing that makes IT unique is how 1) everything changes all the time and 2) age is not a good indicator for skill. In most fields you expect it to take a decade before you are taken seriously and clear expectations and processes tend to guard against imposter syndrome. In IT everything is flexible and messy and judging yourself objectively when you start is unreasonably hard. After more than a decade of programming I still am unsure occasionally.
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Honestly, this is one criticism of IT culture which I sincerely don't think fits. Where in most fields someone is looked down on for not having some paper from some school, in IT (at least as a male) you are only judged for your skills. Of course communities enact a variety of forms of gatekeeping, of course there are a lot of irrational opinions out there, but frankly compared to most fields where being "welcomed" can literally decades (or the exact right piece of paper) in IT it tends to take only years.
I mean, I have seen people code in vim and look down on people using normal editors (probably the purest form of elitism I have seen), but even that didn't stop normal professional collaboration. And when it comes to SO, it gets a lot of hate for being unwelcoming, but to be honest I think that sincerely mostly boils down to the "questions aren't just for the OP, but all current and future people with this problem". Yes, "your" beginner question will get marked as a duplicate, but you did get your answer and learn a new term.
Not to say that imposter syndrome and just generally feeling inadequate aren't very very normal feelings. But they happen in every field and the thing that makes IT unique is how 1) everything changes all the time and 2) age is not a good indicator for skill. In most fields you expect it to take a decade before you are taken seriously and clear expectations and processes tend to guard against imposter syndrome. In IT everything is flexible and messy and judging yourself objectively when you start is unreasonably hard. After more than a decade of programming I still am unsure occasionally.