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Shawn McElroy for Space Rock Media

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How do you handle imposter syndrome or thoughts about changing careers?

How do you handle the moments when you feel like you're not qualified to be in your industry? And/or it makes you feel like you want to change careers away from being a developer full time to something else tech related but don't know what.

I think a lot of us have had these feelings, myself included pretty recently. With imposter syndrome I try to remind myself how far I have come. Remembering those moments when I realized I wasn't a newbie anymore because I was able to help people with issues I used to have problems with. Or that I've been able to solve other technical challenges like clean code/architecture, theory, language issues, planning, soft skills, etc.

But sometimes that imposter syndrome is a pain.

For me, at times it's made me think I should change careers, even if it was other IT related fields. To be fair, this has made me more interested in things like devil's, not because that isn't hard too, but it's just different.

So I though I would lose the question on how others have handled these problems in their career.

Top comments (2)

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Andrew W.

My advice, just go with your gut feeling and start getting into things you love, things that are distracting you now. I've had various changes over the past 20 years, from Locksmithing, Electronics Assembly through to CNC machining and woodworking. I make a lot less money these days than I did in my 20's so it can be tough at times but the important thing is to love what you do and don't be afraid of a radical change of direction. Lifes too short.