“I’m not sure I’m the right person for this role.”
“I feel like I’m winging it.”
“They’re going to find me out eventually.”
If you’ve ever had these thoughts and believed them, they are typical examples of your impostor syndrome talking.
Impostor syndrome is very common in cybersecurity and tech.
When I was completing my MA in Coaching and Mentoring at Oxford Brookes University I chose to research impostor syndrome specifically. What I found was interesting enough to be published in the International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. The paper is called “From hiding to sharing” and it looks at what actually happens to people when they are coached for impostor syndrome.
I chose this title because impostor syndrome makes you hide: hide your uncertainty, your questions, the fact that you stayed up until midnight re-reading documentation you felt you should already know.
Cybersecurity is uniquely good at creating the conditions for impostor syndrome to thrive.
Think about it. The threat landscape changes constantly. There is always something new to learn. Someone in the room will always know more than you about something. The stakes are high and the consequences of getting things wrong are visible and sometimes very public.
Add to that the fact that many people in cyber came from non-traditional backgrounds: career changers. self-taught professionals, people who got their first certification and landed a role before they felt fully ready. Which, by the way, is most people.
As a result there are a lot of very capable people walking around feeling like they are one question away from being found out.
As Alyssa Miller said to TechTarget, between 80 and 90 percent of people in cybersecurity and tech have experienced impostor syndrome at some point. So if you are sitting in a team meeting feeling like the only one who doesn’t fully know what they are doing… you are probably not the only one.
It is worth naming what it actually feels like because impostor syndrome doesn’t always look the way we expect.
Sometimes it looks like not speaking up in meetings even when you have something useful to say. Sometimes it looks like over-preparing. Redoing work that was already good enough. Adding one more certification to the pile before you feel ready to go for the promotion. Sometimes it looks like downplaying your achievements when someone compliments you. Attributing your success to luck or timing rather than to your own ability. And sometimes it just looks like exhaustion. Because holding up a version of yourself that you don’t quite believe in is genuinely tiring.
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What came through clearly in the coaching conversations I studied is that impostor syndrome is not a fixed state or a character flaw. It is not evidence that you actually are incompetent. Rather, it is often a response to transition, growth and to finding yourself in new territory.
It was very clear to me that the professionals I worked with were not impostors. They were learners. The problem was that they had stopped being able to see the difference.
Coaching helped them move from hiding to sharing. From managing the fear alone to being able to name it out loud, normalising it. In this way the fear doesn’t disappear but it loses some of its power.
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A few things that I know work from both the research and the coaching room.
- Saying “I think I’m experiencing some impostor syndrome around this” takes it from a vague persistent anxiety to something you can actually look at. You can’t work with something you won’t acknowledge.
- Try separating the feeling from the fact. Feeling like you don’t know enough is not the same as not knowing enough. Your brain is not always a reliable narrator. What does the actual evidence say?
- Stop waiting to feel ready. Readiness is rarely something you feel before you start. It is usually something you feel after. The next step creates the confidence, not the other way around.
- Finally, talk to someone. Not because a coach or a trusted colleague has magic answers but because having a space where you can say what you actually think without fear of judgement changes your perception. The shift from hiding to sharing is not small and it is often the beginning of everything else.
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If this resonates with you and you are ready to stop hiding and start building the career you actually want, I would love to talk.
Book a free 30-minute consultation here and let’s get started.