Not Feeling Good Enough in the New Developer Job | Imposter Syndrome

Today I want to express my thoughts on the issue of not feeling good enough in a new job setting, also referred as Imposter Syndrome. I have felt it myself and had to combat it when I was just starting out as a Junior Developer, I have this feeling even now at times, it’s natural and normal, let me explain why are you feeling that and how to deal with it.

Almost everyone feels that

First, it’s important to realise that you are definitely not alone. From my experience talking to other developers, they’ve always felt it in a new job setting, but the feeling would slowly fade away after some time in the job, but not totally. Sometimes you have some task that you are struggling in completing and you see your colleague meanwhile finish 3 tasks on the same day, then the feeling comes back. It’s normal, but do not engage in thinking that you do not belong there.

There are good and bad days

Every developer has good and bad days, sometimes everything just go super smooth and you feel like a champion by the end of the day, and sometimes it’s completely opposite. Sometimes you have days where you combat one problem for 2 days just to realise that there was a tiny mistake in the code that was even unrelated to what you were trying to solve. This happens even to the best of us.

No matter how fast you solve the problem, you are always learning and becoming better. It is completely normal to be stuck on some problem for a long time, as long as you’re trying to solve it.

If you got the job, you do belong there

If you passed the interview, that means that they screened that you are fit for the job. Sometimes even unqualified developers pass the interview, because the employer sees potential in them of becoming a great developer, therefore invests in him.

If you have this feeling — you are in the right place

Realise that if you are feeling this way, you are in the right place. If you would feel that you are the smartest person there and know everything, that’s probably not the best place to be.

The reason for that is that you always want to be learning and growing. When there are a lot of smarter people in the room, you will become smarter just by hanging out around them, listening to their conversations and getting mentored by them. Value this opportunity and grow, be thankful that you are in the environment of experts, because this way you are becoming one as well.

It is important to be able to ask questions of the experts, but do not bother them with the things you can find out yourself.

Get comfortable with being uncomfortable

When you are going through challenges — you are growing. In software development that’s how we learn, we have a problem that is hard to solve, we solve it (maybe in a long time), understand what happened — and move on. Next time with a similar problem we are way faster and know what’s the cause and how to solve it.

Every learning starts from being incompetent and new. In your development career there will be a lot of new tools released that you’ve never seen before and you will become a student again. You should expect it and love it, and it is sometimes not easy, just stick to the process and know you are doing everything right, it’s part of the process of becoming an expert.

Conclusion

Imposter Syndrome is very common, it is important to realise that it is part of learning and you should be grateful for it. Do not engage in thinking that you don’t belong in the situation you are in (unless you 100% sure that you don’t for other reasons, which is very rare), just know that you are learning and being a newbie is a part of every learning process.