Original post author: Ryan
Tomorrow will be my first day at a new job. I'm very excited to start something new. Yet, I still have a little anxiety about my abilities. Will I be able to cut it?! Have I just fooled everyone into believing I'm qualified?! I've recently learned that these feelings are described as "impostor syndrome." You can read about it on this Wikipedia page. It's an eerie thing to feel, but I'm used to it because I felt it for the entirety of my five years at my last job. I felt like I was hired through some sort of clerical error, and that I didn't belong alongside the MIT and Berkeley grads. It's important to power through those thoughts.
Years ago, when I played ultimate frisbee, I had a coach tell us to be "good nervous" before a big game. He said you don't want to be "bad nervous" - which is really just being a complete wreck. He said you also don't want to be completely confident; because that's when you let your guard down. These rather simple words of wisdom have helped me embrace a little bit of anxiety before big presentations and - well - first days at jobs.
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