When You Know You're Good at Your Job... But Can't Believe It
When success on the outside doesn't match how it feels on the inside
“You’re the search expert, right?”
I remember sitting in a conference room, 15 years into my IT career, and feeling my stomach tighten at those words. Expert. The word felt too big, too final, too... untrue.
I had the certifications. Successful business. Client projects around the world. Conference talks on four continents. From the outside, I looked like someone who had it all figured out.
Inside? I was convinced that any day, any moment now, someone would realize I didn’t actually know what I was doing… There were so many real experts all around…
The Silent Epidemic in Tech
Imposter syndrome in IT isn’t just common - it’s almost endemic. And there are specific reasons why those of us in technology struggle with it more than people in many other fields.
I worked with a senior manager a few years ago, let’s call her Sarah. She’d just finished presenting the quarterly roadmap to the board - a big deal, high stakes, lots of executives in the room. She walked through the details, answered questions, defended her team’s decisions. From the outside, she was professional, articulate, confident.
The CEO stopped her afterward: “That was excellent, Sarah. Really solid work.”
She smiled, thanked him, walked back to her office.
And there, when she closed the door, she immediately collapsed into her chair, her hands shaking.
For long hours that afternoon and evening, she mentally replayed every single thing she’d said. That one slide where she’d paused for a second - did they notice? The details she’d simplified for the non-technical board members - was that dumbing it down too much? Did she sound too confident? Not confident enough? And all the questions - did her answers make sense, or did she just... make something up?
The presentation had gone well. Objectively, really well. But in the privacy of her office, Sarah was convinced she’d somehow fooled everyone. Again - like so many times before.
This is what imposter syndrome looks like from the inside.
Think about it: In tech, we work in an industry where everything changes faster than we can learn it. The framework you mastered last year might be deprecated today. The programming language everyone swore by is suddenly “old school.” There’s always someone younger, faster, and seemingly smarter, knowing it better.
We’re surrounded by brilliant people. We see their polished LinkedIn profiles, their smart posts on social media, their confident conference presentations, their impressive GitHub contributions. What we don’t see are their 2am debugging sessions, their rejected pull requests, or the times they Googled “how does this even work” just like we do. And we also don’t see them questioning themselves often the same way we do…
And here’s what makes it worse: in IT, our work is visible in ways that feel exposing. Code reviews. System outages. Performance metrics. When we make a mistake, it’s not hidden in a private document - it’s there for the whole team, the whole company, and often, to the whole world to see.
When “Not Knowing Enough” Becomes Dangerous
I’ve watched imposter syndrome play out in many tech professionals I coach, and I’ve lived it myself. The risks are real, and they’re specific to our industry.
It amplifies burnout. When you already feel like you’re barely keeping up, you work longer hours trying to “catch up” to where you think you should be. You say yes to every project and side hustle because you need to prove yourself. You can’t rest because rest feels like falling behind. Eventually, your body and mind can’t sustain it.
It paralyzes career growth. You don’t apply for the senior role because “there’s so much you still don’t know.” You don’t speak up in meetings because “someone smarter than me has probably thought of this.” You don’t negotiate salary because “I’m lucky to have this job at all.” One of my coaching clients - a software engineer at a major financial firm - told me: “I keep waiting to feel ready. But what if I’m never ready?”
It creates toxic perfectionism. White trying to hide that we feel like imposters, slowly we become perfectionists. We spend hours on work that should take minutes. We check our deliverables seventeen times before submitting it. And still, we’re convinced we’ve missed something. We feel we are still not enough.
It isolates us. When you think you’re the only one who doesn’t really know what they’re doing, you stop being honest with colleagues. You stop admitting when you’re stuck. You stop asking for help. And isolation makes everything worse.
I remember a period where I prepared for every client meeting as if I were defending a PhD thesis. I’d stay up late, researching every possible question they might ask, trying to have an answer for everything. Because if I couldn’t answer something perfectly? That would prove I was the fraud I feared I was.
It was exhausting. And it was unsustainable.
The Truth Nobody Talks About
Here’s what I’ve learned in the past 25+ years: The feeling of “I don’t know enough” isn’t proof that you’re an imposter. It’s proof that you’re in a field that changes constantly and that you care about doing good work.
The senior developers who look so confident? They’re Googling things too. The CTO making architectural decisions? They’re also dealing with uncertainty. The difference isn’t that they know everything - it’s that they’ve learned to be comfortable with not knowing everything. - Or at least, to hide their feelings, and keep all their insecurities behind the doors. Just like Sarah did after the board meeting.
And here’s the thing about imposter syndrome in tech: it often hits the good ones hardest. The people who care deeply about quality. The ones who understand the complexity of what they’re working on. The ones who know enough to know how much they don’t know.
If you were actually incompetent, you probably wouldn’t be worried about being incompetent.
What Actually Helps
I’m not going to give you a list of “5 easy steps to overcome imposter syndrome” because that’s not how this works.
But I can share what helped me:
Name it. When that voice in your head starts saying “you’re not good enough,” recognize it for what it is. That’s imposter syndrome talking, not reality. Distance yourself from it. You are not this voice.
Take a note on your phone and write down every time you help someone, solve a problem, or receive positive feedback. When the imposter voice gets loud, open this list and read. Evidence matters.
Talk about it. Find one person you trust and tell them: “I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing.” I promise you, they’ll nod and probably say “Me too”. Breaking the silence breaks the isolation, and that alone makes everything easier.
If you feel, you can message or call me. I’ll nod and share stories of mine for sure…
Reframe “I don’t know.” In tech, “I don’t know” should not be end of the conversation - rather the beginning of problem-solving. Some of my best moments as a consultant came from saying “I don’t know - but let’s figure it out together.”
Slowly I learned that it’s not weakness. That’s how innovation happens.
Set boundaries. You cannot learn everything. You cannot be an expert in everything. And constantly trying will only feed the imposter feelings. Choose what really matters to you, and get good at saying no to the rest.
Work with your body, not just your mind. Imposter syndrome lives in your nervous system, not just your thoughts. When I feel it arising, I notice it in my body first - the tightness in my stomach, the shallow breathing, the urge to make myself smaller. Taking a walk in nature, and moving my body - these aren’t luxuries, they’re necessities for managing this naughty monster of mine.
A Different Way Forward
To be clear: in my own life, the imposter syndrome didn’t magically disappear. Even now, sometimes I wonder “who am I to say I’m an expert?” But I’ve learned to recognize that voice.
What changed wasn’t that I suddenly felt like an expert. What changed was that I learned that being good at what I do doesn’t mean knowing everything, having all the answers, or never feeling uncertain. It means showing up, always honestly, doing my best work, and being willing to learn and grow.
And that’s what I want for you too.
You’re not an imposter. You’re a skilled professional in an impossibly fast-moving field, trying to do good work while dealing with the entirely normal human experience of self-doubt.
That doesn’t make you a fraud. It makes you human.
And I believe, maybe that’s exactly what the tech industry needs more of.
If you're struggling with imposter syndrome, burnout, or feeling lost in your tech career, I'd love to talk. Book a free discovery call, and let's explore what's possible when you stop trying to prove yourself and start trusting yourself instead.