This may sound silly, but anytime I’m in a meeting and someone says “Like Eyvonne was just saying…” I get a little positive jolt. I’ve been aware that this minor acknowledgment results in an outsized sense of appreciation for over 2 years now.
What does it say about my earliest experiences as a kid through a career in tech that after 2 years such a small thing means so much … #impostersyndrome #selfawareness #womenintech #stem
I’m learning that most of my imposter syndrome is not really about a lack of confidence in my intelligence or ability, it’s about a sense of belonging. Do I belong here? Do people listen to what I say? Do I have a right to speak up?
Although I know I have these abilities intellectually, early-learned patterns die last. There have been a few folks who’ve helped me.
The guys at Packet Pushers and the Tech Field Day family were some of the first. Then a few individual coworkers followed by all of my peers and leaders at Google Cloud.
A great deal of our struggle comes from conditions that we don’t understand. Only in hindsight can I see the mindsets and attitudes that affected how I engaged with the world. I believe this is true for everyone (for good and for bad) and self awareness helps.
Eyvonne Sharp