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If you are an engineer, you might have experienced imposter syndrome at some point in your career. You start to have feelings of doubt that you can not measure up to your senior engineers’ expectations. You take every mistake personally and feel you can never be a successful engineer because you are just not that good. If that is you, keep reading because you are not alone, and there is a way to deal with it.
The main cause of imposter syndrome as an engineer is the fear of failure. Engineering can be a very technical and challenging career, making engineers doubt their abilities, especially if they have a huge responsibility and are trying to prove themselves. This makes engineers feel unworthy of their position or trust, and it commonly happens when engineers start a new job at a new company, get a promotion or start a new project.
Imposter syndrome is a quick way to self-sabotaging your career. Many engineers deal with this issue by seeking validation in their performance by fishing for praise from their managers because they feel that is the only way to regain their confidence.
But this is the wrong way of dealing with this issue as this is an external influence on you, making you vulnerable to any comment from your manager. You might even disregard all the positive comments and only focus on the negative ones you receive.
The full extent of imposter syndrome is when engineers start losing passion for engineering. This is because engineers under the imposter syndrome take everything very personally, such as criticism in the workplace, which makes engineers focus more on the negative rather than the positive things. If that is you, we encourage you to read the 8 Reasons You Are Losing Passion For Engineering-How to Fix?
Now to deal with imposter syndrome in engineering, we first need to address the symptoms.
4 Causes Of Imposter Syndrome In Engineering
Most engineers with imposter syndrome suffer at least one of the following causes. However, it is perfectly normal if you feel you suffer from more than one issue.
1- Fear of Failure
We all are afraid of failure; however, engineers might be the most people who are afraid of failing. Why? Maybe because we have a huge burden of inventing things that must fit perfectly together to function. This adds complexity and frustration as failing might make some feel they are not fit to be engineers.
Most engineers look up to older engineers they know in the workplace and can feel embarrassed if they fail, making them feel they can never measure up to their abilities.
Working hard is good, but sometimes engineers might be working too hard to escape a fundamental part of their learning: failure. Feeling that we are imposters by failing is not a healthy way of doing things. Most engineers want to prove themselves by not failing and feel sad when they should be glad they learned something by failing.
If you do not fail, you do not learn, so embrace failure as a learning opportunity and never be ashamed of it. This is how you beat imposter syndrome.
2- Perfectionism
Any engineer at some point in their career has suffered from perfectionism. It is easy to fall into this trick by trying to make things perfect so that no one will pick on our mistakes. While perfectionism might seem good if you are an engineer, it has a very negative effect on progress.
In any industry, engineers work in groups. This means a team of engineers working together to help each other and ensure that things are done well and to the required standards. Mistakes usually happen individually, but collectively as a team, the work done is perfect.
Perfectionism is very common among young engineers; they focus too much on perfection instead of learning opportunities. This is another case of fear of failure, making engineers feel like imposters.
3- Self-doubt in your abilities
Feelings of incompetence reduce confidence in one’s ability. Having doubt has to do with a lack of experience.
Not having full confidence in your ability might indicate that you do not have enough experience in something, which is fine as engineers gain more experience with every project.
However, the big issue is when engineers interpret the lack of ability as imposter syndrome. Abilities and experience are always mixed up and confused with not having what it take to be an engineer.
Learning your self-worth is the solution to this issue. Many engineers forget their education and focus on the negative experience, making them feel incompetent. However, you beat the imposter syndrome by understanding your value and worth.
4- Fear of job security
This final issue of imposter syndrome is external and is directly related to your work environment and happens to engineers who start a new position in a company and young engineers.
Usually, when young engineers work in a non-essential position where most of their work gets checked by other, more experienced engineers, it makes them feel incompetent, making them worry about their job security.
Job security in engineering is a real threat for many engineers; if you feel that your work environment is not habitable and you are always threatened to lose your job, we encourage you to read The Shocking Reality Of Job Security In Engineering.
3 Ways To Deal With Imposter Syndrome As An Engineer
Now that you learned some common symptoms of what causes imposter syndrome with some tips on how to beat those issues. The following are direct ways of dealing with imposter syndrome.
Dealing with this issue can take time, and it is okay if you can not feel an immediate change. This takes a bit of practice and patience to understand your self-worth and value to your company and what it means for you to be an engineer. The following are 3 direct ways to deal with this issue:
1- Focus on the positive
Imposter syndrome happens when there is too much negative happening around us. It can be the work environment, or maybe we are going through a tough experience that makes us feel unworthy of our job or position. To combat this issue, you must start focusing on the positive things around you.
Usually, when we get feedback for our work, it is easy to forget all the positive things and focus on the bad comments. This can affect our performance as we start to feel like fake engineers.
To eliminate the negative, sometimes it is best not to take everything seriously and not react to everything around us. To achieve this, you must only focus on the things you can control, which is the quality of your work; disregarding the things you can not control, which will help you become more positive.
2- Be honest with yourself
Honesty can take you a long way in your journey to beat imposter syndrome. It is easy to fall into doubt and feelings of incompetence, but it is often very hard to regain our confidence if we are not honest enough.
Whenever you feel doubt, try to remember all of your past accomplishments. This can help you to realise your hard work, which will help you to start believing in your ability again. Being honest can help you be more confident and thus have less doubt.
3- Do an activity or a sport outside work
While trying your best to achieve your goals and succeed in your career, life is not only about work. You should definitely give it your full attention when you are working, but when you are outside work, you need to shift your attention by doing other activities. This can help you de-stress and forget about work.
Things such as reading a book, doing a sport or socialising with friends are all things that can help you to forget about work and be more relaxed. One of the best ways to raise your confidence is to sign up for a gym membership; if you are thinking about it, read: How To Fit a Gym Workout With a Full-Time Engineering Job?
