Gen AI Engineering Days 2024

Survey results ring the alarm
‘Impostor syndrome’ affects almost 58% of tech professionals
Survey results ring the alarm
‘Impostor syndrome’ affects almost 58% of tech professionals
A small survey conducted by Blind earlier this month shows alarmingly high percentages of tech professionals experiencing impostor syndrome. Do you feel like you don’t deserve your position despite all the effort and accomplishments you’ve achieved in the workplace? Then maybe you should take a look at this article.
Some months ago, after the suggestion of one of our readers, I wrote an article on . The article was based on the results of the and personal research.
According to the Stack Overflow survey, mental health issues like depression and anxiety are particularly common among the respondents. In the US, particularly, almost 20% of respondents said they deal with either or both. The largest percentage reported a mood or emotional disorder.
Now, this has been linked to a couple of mental conditions related to the workplace. The most prominent condition known to mentally affect developers is the ‘impostor syndrome’. In short, those who suffer from the syndrome are convinced that whatever they do, there will always be someone else in the work environment that is far better, far smarter and far more talented.
Reportedly, seem to suffer from the impostor syndrome. However, a lot of male developers have admitted to of this syndrome.
SEE ALSO: Mental health among developers and ethical implications
The ultimate result of this condition is the need of the developer to work as hard as possible, push themselves beyond the limits in order to achieve a goal that, in their mind, is unachievable since there will always be someone better than them.
That, in consequence, can result in the so-called ‘real programmer’ syndrome. It should be noted that, although it is called a syndrome, it has not been medically recognized as such. A wrote:
You know a programmer isn’t a Real Programmer when they don’t volunteer to work 60 to 80-hour weeks (for no extra monetary compensation, remember) because it’s “fun”. All they really need in thanks is a company t-shirt and the occasional slice of pizza on those late nights.
Earlier this month, conducted by Blind painfully reinforced the feeling we got from the StackOverflow results.
The team of Blind’s Work Talk blog asked their users to answer one simple question: Do you suffer from impostor syndrome? The results are worrying, to say the least, and with a total of 10,402 users on Blind responding, we can say that the percentage is representative.
Over 57% percent of the respondents reported suffering from the impostor syndrome. It’s worrying and saddening to see that one of the most important professions nowadays has that alarming percentage of individuals depreciating their skills.
SEE ALSO: Ethics education among developers: Is it adequate?
. They are among the most accomplished and hard-working professionals in modern history and yet, way over half of them feel undeserving of their positions and achievements.
Thankfully, there are a couple of initiatives, like , an initiative of the Travis Foundation that tries to raise awareness on mental issues among people in tech and help guide individuals towards professional help, if needed. I strongly advise anyone of you who experiences these kinds of feelings to reach out. Developers are no impostors. If anything, they are real-life heroes because, without them, no aspect of modern life could run!
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More articles on this topic
Creating value, AI operational design, and enhancing industry standards Charting the Way Forward for AI-Native Software Organizations
Enhance innovation by giving developers the freedom to experiment Why Developer-Centric AI Will Transform Business
Women, Leadership, and Innovation: A Q&A with Lauren Nagel "High-scaling cloud architecture has empowered founders and creators — especially women — to keep moving forward with their ideas."
UI/UX Designers and Software Developers: Future Proof Your Career Unleash Your Potential: Lucrative Niches for Web Design and Development in 2025 and Beyond
Gen AI Engineering Days 2024
Live on 29 & 30. October 2024 13:00 – 16:30 CEST