Last week on the Kick Start Your Career Change Mastermind we took a deep dive into the concept of Imposter Syndrome and it got me thinking why haven’t I written about this before in a blog?  Is it because it’s something I suffer with and admitting it would make me vulnerable or is that I’m of the generation that you fake it until you make it! 

With over 70% of people believed to have experienced Imposter Syndrome at some point and to varying degrees, it’s clear that I am not alone.  (J. Sakulku – The Imposter Phenomenon, International Journal of Behavioural Science 6, no. 1, 2011).  In fact over the last few years more and more public figures are openly sharing their experience; Tom Hanks, Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Cheryl Sandberg, helping us to understand this is a common experience.

What do we mean by Imposter Syndrome?  At the heart of the concept is that sufferers of Imposter Syndrome will doubts their skills, talents, and/or accomplishments and have a persistent internalised fear of being exposed as a “fraud”.  Any external evidence of their competence they attribute to luck or that they have managed to convince others that they are more capable than they are.