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Date: 2024-12-07 07:12 pm (UTC)While there are many reasons that impostor syndrome is considered an occupational hazard where I work, there have also been countervailing pressures that have helped me. One big one is that promotion has generally been based on "is doing next-level work" - the downside is that it's harder to be promoted and takes longer, but OTOH it resists the Peter Principle. Another is that there's a promotion path for people who don't want to, or shouldn't, be in management roles (Software Engineer -> Senior Software Engineer -> Staff Software Engineer -> Senior Staff Software Engineer).
I think the one that helped me the most was fairly individual, though.
In 2008 I interviewed with two different companies; one was a small specialized tech company based in Cambridge, and the other was a giant generalized tech company based in the Bay Area. While the latter had a local office, it didn't have any roles for me at the time so I took the smaller company's offer because I didn't want to relocate.
Three years later, BigCo bought SmallCo (and significantly grew the local office overnight in the process).
Six weeks after the deal closed, I got email saying "we interviewed you a few years ago and you didn't want to relocate; we have some opportunities in Cambridge that might work for you, would you like to talk?"
I replied "I think at least one of those is the open headcount on my current team, since I work here now that you bought my company."
Having my interview from three years ago be good enough to get a cold call email from a recruiter was a really strong boost of "okay, maybe I do belong here after all".