Thanks for the post! Even with 10+ years into my career, I still battle with impostor syndrome, especially as a new TL for a 10+ people team where the domain is new to me. I constantly feel that I'm not "good enough", despite the fact that everyone thinks I'm doing super well. I've found it helpful to celebrate the small wins every single day and gain confidence little by little.
Funnily my best buddy to fight impostor syndrome with is a white man :) I'm pretty sure he'll tell you that he's a mediocre white man. But I'm also pretty sure he wouldn't be offended and might agree with your comment :) Race aside, I also find it extremely helpful that my buddy and I get together every 2 weeks and share our impostor feelings. We both find it easier to spot it for a friend than to fight it on our own.
All solid advice, but I found the blatant racism to be offensive. That might fly in California, but the antiwhite racism is pretty tiresome everywhere else. You can get the same effect, and talk about the same type of person by referring to a mediocre middle manager. That is who you’re really referring to: the person that benefited from the Dilbert Effect. It doesn’t matter whether they are white, black, Asian, man, woman, etc. In private conversations, when you know your audience, everybody has a tendency to make generalizations on race or other characteristics. And in your experience, most of those people happen to be white, cis gender men. But the fact that they were white cis gender men had nothing to do with the characteristics that you were talking about. When you are writing for the mass audience of the world, you should not bring up race unless you are specifically discussing it.
Thanks for the post! Even with 10+ years into my career, I still battle with impostor syndrome, especially as a new TL for a 10+ people team where the domain is new to me. I constantly feel that I'm not "good enough", despite the fact that everyone thinks I'm doing super well. I've found it helpful to celebrate the small wins every single day and gain confidence little by little.
Funnily my best buddy to fight impostor syndrome with is a white man :) I'm pretty sure he'll tell you that he's a mediocre white man. But I'm also pretty sure he wouldn't be offended and might agree with your comment :) Race aside, I also find it extremely helpful that my buddy and I get together every 2 weeks and share our impostor feelings. We both find it easier to spot it for a friend than to fight it on our own.
This is so helpful, Jean. I think anyone just starting out in their working lives should read it.
All solid advice, but I found the blatant racism to be offensive. That might fly in California, but the antiwhite racism is pretty tiresome everywhere else. You can get the same effect, and talk about the same type of person by referring to a mediocre middle manager. That is who you’re really referring to: the person that benefited from the Dilbert Effect. It doesn’t matter whether they are white, black, Asian, man, woman, etc. In private conversations, when you know your audience, everybody has a tendency to make generalizations on race or other characteristics. And in your experience, most of those people happen to be white, cis gender men. But the fact that they were white cis gender men had nothing to do with the characteristics that you were talking about. When you are writing for the mass audience of the world, you should not bring up race unless you are specifically discussing it.