 Hello, I'm your host Alex Friedberg and this is the Alex the Analyst Show. Thank you so much for watching. Today, we are talking about imposter syndrome. I know it's kind of a serious topic. It's really ironic actually because in my last video when I talked about the job market and COVID, somebody commented that I was being too serious and too negative where, you know, I didn't think I was being negative. I was just kind of telling facts where this one could be definitely perceived as negative. So, you know, I hope that this isn't as negative as that one potentially was. But imposter syndrome is a very real thing. It's definitely something that I struggled with. I have a feeling a lot of people struggle with this as well. I know because a lot of people have messaged me saying that and so I know I'm not alone in this, but it's something that I don't think a lot of people talk about. Right? It's kind of a taboo subject almost of what it is experiencing it, kind of how to overcome it. It's almost talking about like mental health in the workplace. It's kind of like it is a taboo subject. And so, having this platform, being able to talk about whatever I choose to talk about, I want to cover it. So, we're going to talk about that today. I have some pictures of, I guess you call them diagrams or visualizations as well as some actual questions from people at Silicon Valley who have imposter syndrome. And so, some of the things that we're going to be covering today are things like what is imposter syndrome? What causes it? Why are people feeling getting imposter syndrome? And then how do you actually overcome it? What are the things that you can do to just even help? So, something that I thought, man, it's not funny. It's not funny. Maybe I'm just laughing because I think it's funny, but it says, this graph, it was a survey done by Blind. If you don't know what Blind is, it's an app where people in tech specifically like Silicon Valley can create an account and anonymously talk about their companies. And I joined it just because, I joined this like a year or two ago. And I get on there every so often just to check it out. But they did a survey asking people how many of you actually experience, you know, imposter syndrome? 58%, which is way, way, way higher than I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be like 10, 20% at the most. So, to see 58%, which is a majority, are feeling imposter syndrome. That was shocking to me. To get a definition of what imposter syndrome is really quick, it's a feeling of being a fraud or not being good enough to get the job done. It's common among those who work in tech companies, especially those who come from a non-traditional tech background, which is me, right? I don't come from a traditional tech background by any means. And so, you know, at the end, I don't want to talk about it throughout the video, but because I want to be more, I don't know, more clinical about it, like hear the facts. And then at the end, I'll tell you about my experience. But that is a vast, vast, vast majority of people. That shocked me when I read that. And honestly, I felt a little better about it because one of those things about feeling it like an imposter syndrome is very... You feel very much alone in it. You feel like it's just you. You feel like you are the only one going through this and everyone around you has got it figured out. So, it was kind of nice to see. And I'm laughing about that because I hate saying that I am glad other people have it. It's just, you know, it's nice to feel like you're not the only person. So, when they were doing this survey on Blind, they had some... These pictures of what people had posted on there. And I wanted to read these. I'll show them on the screen. But I'm just going to read these two real quick. There are lots of them. I'm only going to read two. But the first one says, I still feel like an imposter after 14 years in the business. Currently in SMTS at Salesforce. Been doing software engineering for almost 14 years. I feel like I'm nowhere near the skill... I'm nowhere near where I should be skill-wise. Every project I'm on, I feel like I'm in over my head. How do I get out of this? I'm in serious fears that I won't make it to retirement in this job. Another one says, imposter syndrome. After joining Fang at a huge salary bump from a non-Fag company, how many of you felt the imposter syndrome? I'm constantly wondering why they're paying me so much compared to my earlier job where the work is similar. And am I really worth two to three times what I was worth three months ago? I think these two highlight on two very important ones. There was one that's missing, which is the skill level. I guess the first one kind of touched on that. But that one to me was more, even though he's been in it for 14 years, working at a Salesforce, a very brand-name company, even he fills it after 14 years in the industry. The other guy felt like he was an imposter after getting a big job, getting a big pay jump, which can definitely impact that. The reason I want to talk about this, the reason I want to go into this is because I think a lot of people don't realize that it's going to happen. They don't realize that it's going to be a thing when they get into the job. I know I didn't. I just started learning and I was super excited. I was super confident. And then when I got, gosh, I'm going into my personal stuff again. I said I wasn't going to do that, but I'm just going to roll with it. Once I got into the job, I started to get all this fear. I'm like, oh my gosh, I am not even close to that person. It's skill-wise. This person is the same age as me and has two plus more years experience than I do and knows way more than I do. And so you may not feel it right now, especially if you're job hunting, you may not feel it right now, but there is a 58% chance if you're anything like me or all of those people that you might have this syndrome is what they're calling it. And so, you know, what causes imposter syndrome? That's the next question is what causes it? Excuse me. It doesn't only affect new people, right? It affects even people who are experienced. And I think it can affect that when you change companies and you go to a new company, they're using new tech stacks. There's people who you just don't know. You don't know their skill level. You don't know things. And so it's a lot of unknown. It's a lot of fear, to be honest. It's also some increasing expectations. In the industry right now, as so many people know, the expectation is that your skill level, your education, your experience is all greater than what it used to be, right? I have so many people talking to me all the time about it. Why does it say three to five years experience for an entry level job? It's because the expectations are so high. So when someone entry level gets a job that was supposed to be three to five years, you know, supposedly, that's going to be a big hurdle to overcome psychologically as to why, why did I get this job? I'm obviously not as good as this person. I'm not as good as that person. I don't deserve this job, that kind of thing. You know, and some people feel that they're just not ready. They're underprepared or they may even feel like the challenge is too great and they're already set up for failure. I read that one. That was a script I wrote out because I couldn't remember it. So I had to write it out. They feel like the challenge is too great. The skill level is too great and you can't do it. So that, you know, really quickly, that's, that's the big cause of it. That's the big, that's the big thing is, is just feeling like it in, you know, we're getting touchy-feely today. I hope you don't mind. My wife is a counselor. I hear touchy-feely things all the time. So for me, this is normal, but if you're not used to it, peace, love, openness, kindness, that's what this channel is about. Everybody knows it. If you come to my channel, you know I'm about peace, love, and those other two. Okay, not really, but, you know, this kind of is more of, you know, this is a touchy subject. It's a personal subject. And so, you know, I hope we can be honest, especially in the comments below. Be kind, be honest, and just try to be uplifting, is my general, general comment. But, you know, it is a feeling deep down that you were just not good enough. And, you know, like I said, sometimes you do not get that feeling right away. You get it once you get into the job or your fuse into the job. You're getting paid more than you should or you feel like you should. And you just start psychologically getting anxiety and feeling like everybody's better. Everybody, everybody knows how to do this except me, that kind of thing. You know, I'm going to talk a little bit more about my experience in a little bit, but how do I overcome imposter syndrome? How do I overcome this thing that 58% of people have and are struggling with currently? That statistic was not ever. It was currently at this time how many people struggle with it. So, that is another piece of it. I thought it was going to be much, much, much lower. And to hear that people are currently struggling with it, just blew my mind. Some of the things that, and these are not only things that you know, I found as resources online that I personally have struggled with. So, there were a large list. I picked out the ones that I personally found to be very helpful. Some that I didn't think were as helpful. I don't know why they were on the list. I was just my personal opinion. The first thing is to remember everything you studied and learn and what you actually learned on the job, right? Because honestly, you took a lot. This doesn't happen overnight. You spent months or even years studying this in school or doing a boot camp or self-learning. You spent so much time studying this and learning this. You know, there's a reason. There is a reason why they gave you the job. You didn't get it because of a fluke accident or, you know, they thought you were some other candidate. They gave it to you because they thought you'd be good at the job. They thought you were qualified and you had the skills. So, you know, mentally, you have to take a look at your skill level and at how you actually got to where you are to really think about, you know, all of the things you had to go through to get to where you are. That one really helped me. Even though I was coming from a different career, I know that that one was one that I was like, man, I spent months learning this. And so, you know, even though they're better at it, I can catch up. That's kind of what I got in the end. The second one is to take an objective look at yourself. And oddly enough, I will say this was not in the what other people said, but this is what I am saying. And it's to compare yourself to others. Now, traditionally, in any form of mental health, you're not supposed to compare yourself to others with weight, depression, all these things. I'm not a counselor so. But you're not supposed to compare yourself to others. I personally found it extremely helpful to compare myself to others. This is me personally. Because when my coworkers would do something, I was like, and I was feeling, you know, like they're much better than me. I actually started taking a look at their work, like their final product, the work that they were doing, and comparing it to my own. And I started to figure out soon enough, I was like, wait a second. It's like, wait a second. Their work is just as good as mine. I was like, their work is not 10 times better than mine by any means. Like this isn't a huge difference in quality. I was like, in fact, it's actually pretty similar. And that gave me a huge confidence boost because, you know, I didn't really check my other people's work. I just assumed it was so much better. I was like, of course, they're doing way better work. They're giving me like these small tasks. And I'm sure they're getting the big tasks because they're more important. And so, you know, that's just the mindset of somebody in that place. The biggest one for me, this is the last one, is to find a mentor. I had a fantastic mentor at the small healthcare company that I worked for. If for whatever reason he's watching this, I mean, you know who you are and you just took me under your wing and taught me so much about the industry, about the tools that I needed to know and gave me a lot of confidence, like a ton, a ton of confidence. And a mentor is somebody who can just give you a realistic perspective. Somebody who's been in the industry for several years, preferably like 10 plus, who knows kind of potentially what you're going through or, or, you know, you know, they can be someone to encourage you to kind of put your mind at ease, right? And to teach you the skills or get you up to the skills to where you think you need to be and they can actually get you there and teach you. And so I highly recommend a mentor, if that's possible, somebody who's in like a senior level position or a director level position. You know, it depends on the company. So my personal experience, right? So I'm sure anyone who's watching this, well, I'm not sure, but if you haven't watched all my other videos or shows in the past, you know, I do not come from a traditional background for a data analyst by any means, you know, I come mostly from healthcare side. So transitioning to a tech job where nobody in my family, I mean, nobody in my family, not that I am aware of, does anything related to tech or anything related to computers, right? This was a completely new path for my family. And so, you know, luckily I get to talk to them about that and they're interested in it because nobody does that in my family, nobody's just me. So, you know, I didn't have anyone to look up to, I didn't have anyone to kind of set an example for me. So when I got my first job as a data analyst, it was very nerve-wracking. And I worked at a small analytics company, really small about 50 people. I was in a small team of programmers and developers, and we had my boss, which was my mentor, the director of, I want to say he was like operations, but the title didn't actually coincide with what he actually did. And all these super smart people who had been in the industry for years who knew just obscene, they knew an obscene more and seen amount more than I do. I don't know what I was trying to see there. They just knew way more than I did. And it was evidence because the way they talked, the way they wrote their scripts, the way they wrote code, some of these programmers were just super good. And I would look at them and just be like, man, I don't know why I'm here. Like I don't know why they hired me. It is evident that they, I'm way above my head right here. I just, that's how I felt. And for months and months and months, I felt that way. Eventually, you know, with the help of my mentor, just kind of comparing my work to what other people are doing, I was able to get over that. Then I transitioned to the Fortune 10 company where I'm working with, you know, it's a billion-dollar company. The people on my team have master's degrees. You know, we have data scientists who have PhDs. I'm working with, I'm closely with managers, directors, senior director level people. And they're asking me questions and I'm like, oh my gosh, this is, this is not right, right? These people know so much more than me. I have no idea why they're asking me questions or why they're doing it. And then there was a big pay jump, right? And so I felt like I was being overpaid. I felt like everybody else had better credentials than I did and all these things. I actually really quickly overcame that because I was working, you know, I got the job as a junior data analyst at that company. They gave me a promotion to a data analyst too. And my confidence just skyrocketed. I felt my boss and the people who decided to do that just, it was an extreme confidence booster. And I really needed that. And if I'm being honest, I really needed that. I really wanted, sometimes a validation. I'm typically a very self-confident person. Somebody who does not require any external validation, maybe apart from my wife in some areas, but I'm an extremely confident person just by myself. As I'm sure you can tell by me making videos, you know, it takes a certain level of confidence. I believe I possess that confidence. But when it came to this area, I needed, I felt like I really just needed that validation. So, you know, that to me was a big turning point. I just had good employees or I didn't have employees, but I had good coworkers who really lifted me up, really told me the great work I was doing and they backed that up by giving me a big promotion. And so, you know, that doesn't happen in every scenario, but I wanted to kind of explain just how I, my progression through it. But I will say that took months, you know, months and months and months. And now I am where I am and I have, I have no imposter syndrome. And maybe I'll get it again later on. But where I'm sitting at now, I feel very confident in my abilities. I feel like I'm extremely confident with my skill level. My pay is very nice. I want more. And I think that I can deserve more or earn more in the future. And I won't feel guilty about it, right? I've learned enough about the industry to know my worth. And so, a lot of these things I'm starting to realize, to pinpoint and to, I don't want to say get over it, but I'm starting to work through it. Or I've already worked through it. So, that's kind of my personal experience with imposter syndrome. I really hope that this wasn't a depressing episode. This was not meant to be depressing. I am not an, I don't want to be depressing. Man, I want to be informative. I want to be helpful. I want to be that mentor, that guide, that brother that comes alongside you, puts his arm around you, and just says it's going to be okay. So, if you needed to hear that today, I'm glad I said it. And I don't, I wouldn't take it back from the world. I care about you. You guys are my people. If you're watching this, you're my people. Even if you've never watched one of my videos before, you're my people. And so, thank you for joining me today. At the end of every episode, there's a few different things we do. And I say we because this is a community. We are a growing community of analysts trying to get jobs, trying to, trying to get skills. And so, we are community and I feel confident in saying that. I want to, before we get to the question of the week, which I always love, before we get to the question of the week, I wanted to highlight, this is something new I've never done. I wanted to highlight a comment from last video that I just, I thought it was the funniest thing. And I'll put it up on screen for you. It was from Ryan Vu, or I guess Vu. I'm not sure how to pronounce it, but I felt pronounced it wrong. I'm sorry. At the end of each episode, I have been doing this thing where I say, you know, comment X, Y, Z in the chat or in the, in the discussion below. And last week it was cabbage. And so, Ryan decided he was going to post three facts about cabbage. And as I'm reading through them, I just found them extremely fascinating. I didn't fact check this at all. So, all these could be completely made up. But I found it so funny that he just took the time to write it. I read through the whole thing. Thought it was hilarious. I wanted to share it with you. I read through every single comment, believe it or not. And I have, and I've, in a to date, I receive over 10,000 comments on my channel. So, I've read a lot of comments. And this one to me was just, it stuck out. And it was really amusing. And I thought you guys would enjoy it. On to the question of the week from Gamal or Jamal. He said, he, I'm guessing he said, he says, is it too late to start a career as a data analyst at the age of 44? That is a very interesting question. And I want to say, I want to say that the answer to this question is yes, it's absolutely, actually the answer to this is no, it's not too late. Reversing that in some way is yes, you can absolutely become a data analyst at 44. But here's what I will say about it. If you worked in a career that is adjacent to or can kind of work your way into, you know, you know the domain knowledge, you have the industry knowledge, let's take, for example, like I always do, and I'm sorry if you hate this, you know, let's take healthcare, for example, say you were a nurse for like 20 years, right out of college, you got a nursing degree, you came a nurse for 20 years. And then you're like, I want to become a data analyst. If you learn the skills and you have 20 years experience as a nurse, that is invaluable knowledge, super, super, super important. And somebody's going to pay a lot of money for you, to be honest, if you know how to do the data analyst stuff as well as you have that in super in depth knowledge into the nursing field, somebody's willing to pay you a lot of money. So it's absolutely possible. Another thing is like finance, if you're an accountant, let's see, trying to think of ones off the top of my head, an engineer, electrical engineer, stuff like that. Those are the types of careers and you just kind of know you're an industry, those are the types of careers that you can absolutely transition to become a data analyst. You have the domain knowledge and that is half the battle. The other half is learning the skills. So if you learn the skills, you absolutely can. I will say that if you are coming from a non-domain heavy, maybe something like a school teacher, say you're like a kindergarten teacher and you've been doing that for 20 years and then you want to switch over, I don't really know the market for that. I doubt it's going to be as good as something like a nurse or something like that. So look at yourself, look at your industry, your domain knowledge, see if it's transferable to a data analyst job. If you are able to learn the skills, I absolutely think you can transition. No doubt in my mind. It's just it depends and 44 is not old by any means, but it is older to start a new career. And so that's my thoughts on it. I hope that's helpful. We are getting into my favorite part of the entire show. Whoops. My favorite part of the entire show, I promise you. And that is this week's keyword. To comment down below, to show that you stuck with us to the very end. You care about your mental health. You care about not having imposter syndrome. You want to be the most successful data analyst that you could possibly be. So that's why you're sticking around because you want to be successful. The keyword to show that all of those things are 100% true is to comment below the vegetable and I'm keeping it vegetable based per usual is eggplant. Now my wife made eggplant lasagna, which was fantastic by the way for dinner tonight. And it just reminded me how underutilized eggplant is. I wish there were just more uses for eggplant besides eggplant, parm eggplant, lasagna, replacements for meat and things like I wish there were just more uses. Maybe I'm not a chef, so I don't know. I just feel like there's not enough uses and I want it to get some love and respect. So if you watched all the way to the end, spam those eggplants in the chat, if you know what I mean, and we will all collectively know what I'm talking about. And anyone who didn't watch the whole video and is looking through this chat is going to be probably horrified and I'm okay with that. So with that being said, thank you guys for joining me. Thank you for caring about your mental health, your success in this career to stick with me to the end. I already know a lot of the people who are going to be commenting below, so I can't wait to see you guys in the chat below. You know that I know, that you know that I know who you are. You know this. So I will see you in the next one. I hope this was a good one. Let me know if it was. If it wasn't, if you didn't like this topic, let me know in a kind way. I'm a fragile person. Thank you for joining me. It has been a pleasure. I will see you next week and goodbye.