Imposter Syndrome or Reality Check?

When I was in grad school (about 900 years ago), my labmate and I came across an ad in the school paper for a seminar on getting over "Imposter Syndrome."  My labmate and I spent our days talking about how we had no idea what was going on with our research and trying to get the HPLC to work.  Like most grad students, we were just thrown in the lab and told to follow someone around until we figured out what we should work on.

The ad for the seminar said something like "Think that you aren't smart enough to be in the place you are?  You may have Imposter Syndrome."  Or something equally as dopey. We had never heard of Imposter Syndrome (described in this article), but we were both full of doubts of our abilities and intelligence, even though we were in a PhD program at a good school.  We felt like we just fooled people into thinking we were scientists.

We went to the seminar and sat in the back.  The room was set up with tables that already had papers all over them.  When the speaker began talking, she instructed us to take one of these worksheets and write down positive qualities about ourselves.

"Oh my god," I said to my labmate.  He looked equally horrified.  "I thought they were going to lecture us on what it was and how to cure it.  I didn't know it would be interactive."

I felt no self-consciousness as I stood up and left the room.  We didn't even try to sneak because we wanted out of there so badly.

Recently, I've seen a ton of articles about Imposter Syndrome floating around.  Whenever I read one, I think to myself "is it imposter syndrome?  or are these people just being realistic?"  In grad school, I knew I didn't understand the science behind gel polymerization.  I had to look it up every time I trained someone.  My estimation of my abilities was based on reality.  The reality of almost losing an eye while handling liquid nitrogen.  I know from experience the most confident people are delusional, but does that mean we should follow their example?

On the other hand, it isn't good for the soul to tell yourself everyday that you have no idea what's going on and someone is going to find out.  Most other people don't have a clue what is going on.  They are also faking it.  Look at Donald Trump.

So instead of telling yourself that you deserve the great job or prestigious position you've landed, tell yourself no one else deserves it either.  It might as well be you.