If you are starting your journey in the programming world or you are already there for a few years, you are likely to face programmer imposter syndrome. A programmer imposter syndrome is an inferior complexity that develops gradually after a series of frustrating events in the professional life of a programmer. One of the common reasons for the rise of the syndrome is that there are limitless new things to learn in any programming language. No matter how much you learn, you will always fall short when you face the new features. You may have to develop new features in your applications that you are completely ignorant of and have no prior experience.

Similarly, you may have to debug an application written by another programmer and when you go through, you may feel like you are not understanding anything and that the other programmer is far superior. You will feel like you are not good enough for programming or at your job as a coder. You will also think like others are more skilled at the job and you will lower your self-esteem thinking that you got the job by luck. The fear of people mocking your inabilities will crop up in your mind. This is exactly the state of programmer imposter syndrome. Here is how to overcome this common issue among coders.

Surround Yourself With Correct People –

If you surround yourself with people smarter than you and people who say demotivating things to you directly or indirectly such that it is impacting your self-esteem, you are only going to aggravate the situation. However, you should not only be in a group who are relatively less skilled than you. They are important to feel superior. But there should also be some smarter people so that you get inspiration to be like them and even beat them. There should be a healthy competition rather than thinking you cannot compete in the competition at all. This is how you can thrive and balance in the competitive programming world.

Get A Mentor –

It is difficult to stay motivated when you are going through the programmer imposter syndrome. That is when you need a mentor to help you externally. A mentor helps you to get over the downs of the programming world mentally. A mentor is no one but an experienced software developer who knows the system through and through. He can guide you what to do and how to overcome and make you feel it as normal and a regular thing that everyone goes through at some point. In the end, everything passes away, and he will ask you to wait and watch to let the bad patch pass away naturally. Besides, he can also give you guidance when you get stuck such that you can follow that and overcome the problem.

Take The Challenge –

The programmer imposter syndrome is like depression. You have to either wait to let it over automatically. However, in most cases, you have to take steps to eradicate it. In the programming world, the waiting period is hardly an option and therefore, you have to take your situation as a challenge, and you have to put all your effort to accept it as a challenge and fit it out. Once you start to address your fear and start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, the confidence level will go up gradually. If you can overcome the challenge, the future challenge will not lower your confidence as you have the experience to fight the situation out convenient like the old time.

Change Your Mindset –

The imposter syndrome is a play of your mind. First of all, most of the programmers think that the way they coded in college, it is the same in the corporate world. It is the real shock they get that creates the syndrome. Therefore, it is the duty of the college mentor to groom them, and everyone should do the research about the difference between the two worlds. It is normal, and you should see your career as a growth path where you have to keep learning.

Think of all the obstacles you have overcome and your accomplishments and get over your depression by increasing your self-esteem. The more you talk to people higher than you, you will understand that it is normal as they have gone through the same. You should start believing and start learning to fix the issue you are facing and address it. Getting afraid and running away from your fears and keeping them inside will now make it worse.

Practice a lot in your early days on programming and take part in the tough competitions and only then you will grow a mindset of facing failures initially. You should also know how to research online and acquired the required skills to get the job done. The more you practice, the more confident you grow and win over programmer imposter syndrome.

Kitty Gupta
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