Imposter Syndrome:
Thoughts from novice Web Developer
The fear of failing is something I constantly deal with . As I’m writing this blog, theres a voice in my head that’s saying “I wish I was a clever writer” , things would be so much easier to say . From the start the start of my coding journey this feeling of inadequacy has only gotten louder “Self doubt anxiety and a sense of incompetency ,that over rides any feelings of minimal success I achieve in Coding .
There are so many new concepts to learn, but there’s never enough time to learn them all and I always feel like am being left behind .
I often feel frustrated and alone, I don’t know what it’s like thinking like a programmer ? what is that? My world has been in photography for so long and changing careers and learning something that will most likely take me longer to learn was not an easy decision, but I was curious enough and I knew I wanted to learn more .
There are times when I feel like I’m starting to understand some concepts and realize when working on my own, that I don’t fully understand what I am doing and that I can’t remember anything I just learned?
I honestly don’t ever feel good about coding , even the CSS luck and I like it so much because I can see the result of that almost right away and its visual ?
The more technical side I feel like a waking zombie, I see how some fellow classmates just get it , its easy for others to see my lack of knowledge, the gaps are and to pinpoint the areas that I feel weak in . It’s also easy to feel like an imposter because right now I am one. I can stop suffering in silence” , there I said it am not so great at coding !!! am happy you know . I feel a sense of relief in saying this out loud I haven’t solidified any one concept “YET” , I have pieces of the puzzle but not a full puzzle.
Is rejoice in the small victories ok ? We’ll hell yes if I don’t forget it , when I can remember the syntax and the logic . sometimes I think perhaps I could pseudo my way through it ??? Reading the questions a few times , me like 10 times and breaking it down looking for key words that might help me figure it out , also googling my way through it , I may not remember the syntax but if I can explain the process is that good enough for me to get by I wonder ?
One of the foundations of good programming, for me is that I have to understand what I am doing , No matter how long it takes , if I can understand what am doing then it feels right . Then at least I know that what am doing will be the right path am taking . Coding isn’t easy , so I will continue to push forward because of those small rewarding victories when I get it right and also because I actually like coding it may seem like right now I can only do some basic things but I will take it .
what I do to keep imposter syndrome at bay
1. Embrace a growth mindset
its ok to not know , I don’t have to suffer in silence , now I can ask for help2. Celebrate the small wins
I rejoice small victories, when I remember the syntax or when I get the logic down, I’ve learned to get really good at pseudo-coding and writing my thought process , it has really helped me understand what am doing at times .3. Acknowledging that what I’m doing is not easy
“Coding is not easy “! I love seeing a project come to life and looking forward to starting a new one .my inner voice after writing this blog
- The worst thing that can happen once I publish this post is that some of you will hate it.
