Impostor who?
Previously on Roommates, classes, and perfect Ramen:
I came back to school after winter break and I had to finalize my messy schedule into a somewhat reasonable 15 hour semester.
According to Dr. Maria Klawe the Impostor Syndrome is: "the frequent feeling of not deserving one's success, and of being of a failure despite a sustained record of achievements" (Klawe). Multiple studies have shown that this affects many people, and that it has a significant impact on women in technology. And in my experience it is no joke. Truthfully, there isn't a day in the lab that I don't feel under-qualified. Sometimes working on an assignment is so hard for me, not because it is the most difficult assignment ever, but because I doubt myself and my abilities so much I convince myself that there is no way I can accomplish the tasks set forth by my professors.
But I am aware that I do this. I am aware that I doubt myself and that I undercut my abilities for no good reason. And it sucks, but I can fix it. I often times work with others who are more experienced than I am and sometimes I have to force myself to speak up with my ideas, and almost every time I have done this my idea has been used or seriously considered because, frankly, it was a good one. Every time I sit down with an older member of the Women in Computing club or with a professor I'm able to see that I do know what I am doing. Coding may not come especially naturally to me, but after only a semester it shouldn't. I am brand new to this and it takes time. But underestimating myself doesn't help.
While I'm not naive enough to think that these feelings will just stop one day, I do know that when I feel this way I can help myself by taking a step back, taking a deep breath, and thinking about the positives of my work. I can think about how much I am learning and how everybody who knows how to code has once been in my shoes - just starting out and figuring it out one step at a time. To the left is an example of what we are working on in CS2 class. We are building our own versions of the popular game Galaga.
- Grace
Works cited:
Klawe, Maria. "How this Incredibly Successful Female Computer Scientist Copes with Imposter Syndrome." Slate. The Slate Group, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
I came back to school after winter break and I had to finalize my messy schedule into a somewhat reasonable 15 hour semester.
According to Dr. Maria Klawe the Impostor Syndrome is: "the frequent feeling of not deserving one's success, and of being of a failure despite a sustained record of achievements" (Klawe). Multiple studies have shown that this affects many people, and that it has a significant impact on women in technology. And in my experience it is no joke. Truthfully, there isn't a day in the lab that I don't feel under-qualified. Sometimes working on an assignment is so hard for me, not because it is the most difficult assignment ever, but because I doubt myself and my abilities so much I convince myself that there is no way I can accomplish the tasks set forth by my professors.
But I am aware that I do this. I am aware that I doubt myself and that I undercut my abilities for no good reason. And it sucks, but I can fix it. I often times work with others who are more experienced than I am and sometimes I have to force myself to speak up with my ideas, and almost every time I have done this my idea has been used or seriously considered because, frankly, it was a good one. Every time I sit down with an older member of the Women in Computing club or with a professor I'm able to see that I do know what I am doing. Coding may not come especially naturally to me, but after only a semester it shouldn't. I am brand new to this and it takes time. But underestimating myself doesn't help.
While I'm not naive enough to think that these feelings will just stop one day, I do know that when I feel this way I can help myself by taking a step back, taking a deep breath, and thinking about the positives of my work. I can think about how much I am learning and how everybody who knows how to code has once been in my shoes - just starting out and figuring it out one step at a time. To the left is an example of what we are working on in CS2 class. We are building our own versions of the popular game Galaga.
- Grace
Works cited:
Klawe, Maria. "How this Incredibly Successful Female Computer Scientist Copes with Imposter Syndrome." Slate. The Slate Group, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
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