I Don’t Belong Here
Reflection on Chapter 9: How Do I Obliterate Imposter Syndrome?
Each blog post in this series will take a moment to reflect on the questions at the end of each chapter. Feel free to join the conversation by responding in the comments with your answers to the discussion questions (with plain text or a link to your post).
Here is the question for the ninth chapter:
Reflect back to a time you felt imposter syndrome. What triggered this occurrence? How could you get around this obstacle in the future?
I had been extended a contract to do some e-learning development work for Junior Achievement, my first corporate job in learning and development. I wasn't nervous before the interview, or I wasn’t nervous after I was able to get Microsoft Teams, which I had never used before, to work.
Shortly after completing the necessary paperwork, I received an email that immediately made me feel like I didn't belong. The email itself was nothing unexpected, just about a meeting to go over onboarding materials, but I noticed that there would be one other person going through the onboarding with me and that person was Cara North.
As far as I was (and am) concerned, Cara was a rock star in instructional design and e-learning development. I had already been an observer in a few programs or interviews she was featured in or hosted and her LinkedIn posts taught me a great deal about instructional design. I was dumbfounded.
Now, Cara was being brought in to do work at a higher level of pay and responsibility than I was, however, being included in the same onboarding email as someone whom I had learned so much from was something that made me feel out of place.
Quick aside, Cara was incredibly kind throughout the onboarding meeting and was very helpful in the brief amount of time I worked at JA before accepting a full-time position at Stride.
References
Hobson, L. (2021). What I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an Instructional Designer. Independently published.
