Imposter Feelings Resources

This year I’ll be presenting a talk on Imposter Feelings or, more commonly known as Imposter Syndrome. The title of the talk is “Imposter Syndrome: I Don’t Feel Like Who You Think I Am.” and it is scheduled to be run at BSidesNOVA in February and BSidesCharm in April.

[UPDATE] – Links to the videos from:

• BSidesNOVA talk is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls-dnpeKRR0
• BSidesCharm talk is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulJ2p_RkJWY

I intend on making a fuller blog entry about it after the talks but wanted to provide some resources that I found helpful during my researching the talk content. They are in no specific order.

1. Dr. Pauline Clance (one of the original people that described Imposter Phenomenon) – http://paulineroseclance.com/impostor_phenomenon.html
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
3. https://counseling.caltech.edu/general/InfoandResources/Impostor
4. http://startupbros.com/21-ways-overcome-impostor-syndrome/
5. http://www.apa.org/gradpsych/2013/11/fraud.aspx
6. http://www.nature.com/naturejobs/science/articles/10.1038/nj7245-468a
7. http://impostorsyndrome.com/
8. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/caroline-dowdhiggins/impostor-syndrome_b_1651762.html
9. http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/life-strategies/job-career/how-to-conquer-impostor-syndrome
10. http://geekfeminism.wikia.com/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
11. https://www.amazon.com/Impostor-Phenomenon-When-Success-Makes/dp/0553257307/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1486162491&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Impostor+Phenomenon%3A+When+Success+Makes+You+Feel+Like+A+Fake
12. http://bsris.swu.ac.th/journal/i6/6-6_Jaruwan_73-92.pdf
13. Nickolas Means’ RailsConf 2014 talk – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_Vqp1dPuPo

The talk’s abstract is below and I will update this post with links to the video of the talks after they are completed.

Several years ago I was walking back to my hotel after a day’s worth of DerbyCon talks and it hit me all at once. “I’m an infosec fraud. I’m not finding 0-day exploits. I’m not hacking cars or Internets of Things and I don’t know PowerShell. I don’t belong in infosec.” It was a hard revelation to grasp because I loved infosec and the people in it. But that was my “truth” back then and I went home and looked for jobs outside of the computer industry. What I didn’t know at that time was that these feelings were normal, showed I was learning and growing and that they also had a name: Imposter Syndrome.

Does this sound like someone you know? If so, come join me and learn not only about “Imposter Syndrome” but how I am dealing with it and how you and your colleagues can too.