Imposter Syndrome

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome: Why did they let me come up
here and talk to you? megan boczar salesforce developer pluralsight

@meganboczar THANK YOU TO THE SPONSORS!

@meganboczar CONTENT WARNING • Sexism • Racism • General Bigotry
• Mental Health Disorders / Therapy • Excessive use of Liz Lemon gifs If this makes you go like... … feel free to head to one of the other talks @meganboczar

@meganboczar DISCLAIMER I am a cis-gender, upper-middle class, bisexual, recently
divorced, 26 year old, white woman with chronic health problems. These are my experiences unless I say otherwise. I am not and will not try to interpret the problems of others in marginalized populations that I know nothing about. @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter, Impostor. Whatever. Don’t @ me. @meganboczar

@meganboczar AGENDA @meganboczar • Deﬁne imposter syndrome • Explore my
journey • Share practical tips

@meganboczar Let’s start with a clinical deﬁnition... What is Imposter
Syndrome?

@meganboczar @meganboczar “Imposter Syndrome can be deﬁned as a collection
of feelings of inadequacy that persist despite evident success.” Harvard Business Review @meganboczar

@meganboczar • Fear failure • Avoid showing conﬁdence • Focus
more on what you haven’t done Symptoms of Imposter Syndrome • Difﬁculty accepting praise • Discount your success • Overworker to a fault • Compulsion to be the best @meganboczar

@meganboczar • Sonia Sotomayor • Denzel Washington • Meryl Streep
• Daniel Radcliffe • Margaret Chan • Maya Angelou • Chuck Lorre Fellow Imposter Syndrome Sufferers... • Tina Fey • Oprah Winfrey • Sheryl Sandberg • Helen Mirren • Sigourney Weaver • Emma Watson • Michelle Williams @meganboczar

@meganboczar People with Imposter Syndrome may hold back from: •
Applying to jobs they actually want • Asking for raises or promotions • Offering advice to coworkers or management So what does this mean? @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome & Marginalization

@meganboczar VOCAB LESSON! PRIVILEGE is about access. UNDERREPRESENTATION is about
numbers. MARGINALIZATION is about treatment. DIVERSITY is about variety. INCLUSION is about experience. @meganboczar Kim Crayton

@meganboczar @meganboczar “Every day feels like the first day and
every day you think, ‘They’re going to fire me; I don’t know what I’m doing here; I don’t know how to do this; I don’t know why I’m here; Everybody’s going to find out.’” Michelle Williams @meganboczar

@meganboczar @meganboczar Mark Whalberg made $1.5 millon to reshoot scenes
in “All the Money in the World” Michelle Williams made less than $1,000 That’s less than 0.001% @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome and Gender @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome and Gender Race BLACK PEOPLE @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome and Gender Race LGBT+ BLACK PEOPLE QUEER
PEOPLE @meganboczar

@meganboczar @meganboczar Imposter syndrome makes you feel “othered”. If you
already feel that way because of who you are and who you’re surrounded by, it’s going to be worse. @meganboczar

@meganboczar My Experience

@meganboczar Sorry, I’m gonna talk about myself for a sec...

@meganboczar Then I went to bootcamp...

@meganboczar But then this happened...

@meganboczar And then I got a job!

@meganboczar Overcoming Imposter Syndrome

@meganboczar Get Educated @meganboczar

@meganboczar Get Educated “Somebody already wrote a book about that.”
Diversify your reading! Make an intentional effort to read more from people of marginalized genders, people of color, people with disabilities, etc. @meganboczar

@meganboczar Find A Mentor @meganboczar

@meganboczar Expand Your Network @meganboczar

@meganboczar Be Conﬁdent @meganboczar

@meganboczar Simple (?) hacks for self-conﬁdence @meganboczar

@meganboczar Change Your Thinking @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome is a type of anxiety. I’ve gotten
treatment for anxiety. @meganboczar

@meganboczar My Mental Health • Generalized Anxiety Disorder • OCD,
Depression • Lots of useless talk therapy • Some not-so-useless talk therapy • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) @meganboczar

@meganboczar Imposter Syndrome vs. Anxiety I am NOT saying that
because you have Imposter Syndrome you need therapy. HOWEVER, I learned some amazing tools that are useful here as well. Remember: There is NO shame in getting treatment for your mental health. @meganboczar

@meganboczar Cognitive Restructuring A fancy way of saying “change your
thinking”

@meganboczar Unhelpful Thinking Styles - Psychology Tools @meganboczar

@meganboczar CBT Thought Record - Psychology Tools @meganboczar

@meganboczar Take Care of Yourself @meganboczar

@meganboczar Spoon Theory Everyone has a certain number of spoons
per day, say 50. For me, as a person with depression, it takes me 10 spoons just to get out of bed, brush my teeth, and feed my cat. For you, that only takes one spoon. @meganboczar

@meganboczar Or the nerdier version... We’re all goddamn wizards, but
even we Level 20s have a limited number of spells to pull stuff off during the day. Hard/emotional things take your higher level spells, then you only have cantrips left to get through the rest of the day. @meganboczar

@meganboczar In summary: You’re awesome. I’m proud of you. Take
care of yourself. Go get ‘em. @meganboczar

@meganboczar THANK YOU @meganboczar speakerdeck.com/meganboczar

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome

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