Module 4 · Thinking skills · Moderate evidence

Feeling like an impostor

Feeling like a fraud who will be found out is common among capable people. What it is, and what helps.

7 min read · Level: Practising · Free — no account needed to read

The idea

Impostor feelings are the sense that you do not really deserve your place — that your success is luck, that others overestimate you, and that one day you will be found out. They are surprisingly common among capable people, especially when they are new to a role, a field or a group where they feel different from others.

These feelings are not a diagnosis and not proof of anything. They often grow when people discount their own achievements (“I just got lucky”), hold themselves to perfect standards, or compare themselves with the most confident-looking person in the room. They can also be made worse by environments where people like you are underrepresented.

What helps is gathering honest evidence of what you have done, talking about the feeling with people you trust — who often feel it too — and treating mistakes as normal parts of learning rather than as exposure.

Why it works

Impostor feelings can lead people to overwork, avoid opportunities or hide their ideas. Understanding them makes it easier to stay in the room and keep growing.

A real example

The situation

In her first month as a junior engineer, Rosa is sure everyone else understands the codebase and she was hired by mistake. She works late every night so nobody finds out.

What happened

At lunch she admits how she feels to a more experienced colleague, who laughs and says she felt exactly the same for her first year. Rosa starts a list of things she has solved. The feeling does not vanish, but she stops working until midnight and starts asking questions.

The takeaway

Naming the feeling and collecting evidence made it smaller than the silence had.

Use this when you are…

• you feel like a fraud despite doing well
• you put your success down to luck
• you are new to a role or group and feel you do not belong

Common mistakes

• Believing the feeling proves you do not belong. It is common among capable people.
• Overworking to avoid being “found out”. It feeds the fear and costs your health.
• Keeping it secret. Others around you often feel the same.

What the evidence says

Moderate evidence: Several studies support it, but the effects are smaller, the studies are fewer or less rigorous, or results vary between groups.

Impostor feelings are widely described in research across professions and are linked to perfectionism and self-doubt. Studies on what reduces them are more limited, but support, evidence of achievement and normalising mistakes consistently help.

Where this comes from: Self-efficacy research; American Psychological Association (APA); Self-compassion research.

Fields that study this: Clinical psychology, Sociology.

Try it now: Your evidence file

1. Write down five things you have done in your role or studies that went well.
2. For each, write what skill or effort it took — not just luck.
3. Keep the list somewhere you can return to on doubting days.

Practise with a guided technique

• Three good things — (3–5 min · Moderate evidence)
• Fact or story? — (3–5 min · Practical evidence)
• Reach out to one person — (5 min · Moderate evidence)

Questions to think about

• What do you tell yourself about why you succeed?
• Who could you talk to honestly about feeling like an impostor?

Try this today

Add one thing to your evidence file today, and tell one person you trust how you have been feeling.

Afterwards, ask yourself

What did your evidence file show you that the feeling did not?