130: 4 Ways to Beat Imposter Syndrome as a Data Analyst (you’re not alone)

Speaker A: 00:00:00

Do you feel like you're not qualified to land a data analyst role? If so, you're not alone. I'm right there with you.

And so are hundreds of other aspiring data analysts, and we're all experiencing something called imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is basically when you feel like an imposter, you feel like you don't belong and you feel like you don't have enough skills.

And even the skills you do have, you doubt your own abilities. And it's very common in the data industry specifically because there's a lot going on in the data industry. There's always a ton to learn.

There's a lot of technical skills, there's a lot of technical abilities that you have to learn, and that's always going to lead to more imposter syndrome. There's always new things in the data field as well. New softwares, new functions inside of existing tools, so on and so forth.

Also, a lot of us don't have, like, a formal education in what we're doing, right. I became a data analyst without having a data analyst undergrad or master's degree or something like that.

So they don't have, like, that nice piece of paper a lot of the time that says, hey, you actually can do this. We can compare ourselves to others a lot in this industry as well, and be like, wow, this person's such a good analyst, I wish I was like them.

And if you're trying to land a job, of course there's constant rejection where you literally have the feeling of, I'm not good enough, they're not choosing me, so something must be wrong with me.

So there's a lot of ingredients that mix together to come against us as aspiring data analysts and make us feel this imposter syndrome, but by the end of this episode, you're going to have four actionable steps to overcome imposter syndrome and move forward confidently in your data career. So let's get into it. Number one is to build products.

And of course, if you've ever listened to any of my episodes previously, you know, I am a huge projects fan.

I talk about the importance of projects because it's tangible evidence to recruiters and hiring managers that you can actually do what your resume says you can, right? And a lot of you guys who are pivoting from other careers, or you just don't have experience, right? You don't have data experience.

And so projects allows us to create our own data experience, but not only is it tangible evidence to recruiters and hiring managers, but it's tangible evidence to you as well. It can help you be like, wow, I built this. So like for example, let's say you're learning SQL, you're starting from scratch, you don't know anything.

If you build a project and you learn SQL, as you're building that project, they'll be able to look at that project and be like wow, look what I built. Look at all these queries I wrote. Look at these insights that I gleaned three weeks ago. I didn't know any of this.

And so that is like a really good, almost like a before and after picture. When you're losing weight, you're like wow, I actually did this. As many of you guys know, I like to run.

miles with: 4000

So it's like you're running far and you're running high. And when I got invited, I was like, man, I am not an ultra marathoner. I can't do this. And whenever you say I can't do this, I'm nervous about this.

That's the imposter syndrome you're feeling inside.

miler with: 6000

milers all the time with: 4000

I was like oh, I can actually do this hard thing because I've done hard things in the past.

That's exactly what projects can do for you is you can be like, man, I'm nervous about this python interview I have, or I got this interview and I have to know tableau. You can look back on your past tableau projects and be like, wow, I've built tableau stuff in the past. I can build tableau stuff in the future.

So projects give aspiring data analysts a lot of confidence. Number two is to ask yourself a simple question of what's the worst thing that can happen.

A lot of the times we do this thing called catastrophizing where basically we assume the worst thing that can happen will happen. And we get really nervous. We like almost stop thinking. Our body goes into fight or flight mode and we're unable to think clearly.

I found whenever I feel imposter syndrome, or whenever I'm scared to do anything, if I ask the simple question of what's the worst thing that can happen? And actually walk through it step by step of like, what actually happened, what does that mean for me in my life?

What changes the worst case scenario isn't that bad. So for example, let's say that you landed an interview for this new business intelligence engineer role.

You're feeling a lot of imposter syndrome, and you're nervous about the interview. One thing that you can ask is what's the worst thing that can happen? The worst thing that can happen is you bomb the interview.

Dang it, that's not good, right? We don't like to bomb interviews, but like, how does your life change? You still don't have a job, which is exactly where you're at right now, right?

You have new experience in the interview, so that way you have, you can build on that and be less scared for the next interview. Like really, there's only good outcomes that come from that, right?

Of course we're disappointed that we could have done better, maybe, but like really we're in the same place as we were in the beginning. Another question I think you can ask yourself is, can I do this? Even if I don't feel confident, right? Like, am I able to get this done?

Because it's really important to remember that the confidence equation, this imposter syndrome equation, is basically your confidence level equals your perceived ability minus perceived standards around you.

So if you feel like you don't have, you perceive your ability as low and everyone else is better than you, that's when you'd have this imposter syndrome and negative confidence, basically.

But if you just simply ask, you know, can I just do this even if I wasn't confident, right, your perceived ability can go up, the perceived standards can go down, and you can actually gain some confidence. I experienced this when I first started my data freelancing business and someone reached out to me and asked me to do a JavaScript freelancing job.

And I did not know JavaScript. So this case I wasn't feeling imposter syndrome. I was literally an imposter and I was really nervous, right?

But I was kind of excited for the challenge. And so I asked myself, okay, what's the worst that could happen? Can I do this even if I don't feel confident right now?

And I realized, well, I can definitely start without feeling confident.

Confidence is not a requirement for starting on this, and the worst thing that happens is I kind of fail the project and I just give guy the money back. I lose some hours, maybe on time, but I learn a lot in the process and I'm exactly where I was before.

The best case scenario is I learn JavaScript and get paid to do this project at the same time. The ceiling of that opportunity was quite high, so I ended up taking it and it ended up going just fine. I learned JavaScript, got the project done.

Most of the time the worst case scenario does not happen, and even if it did happen, it wasn't a big deal. I was going to live still. Number three is accept you'll never learn at all.

There's over: 2000

to just master one out of the: 2000

And on top of that, there's literally new tools and new functions coming out every single day in the data sphere and you're never going to learn it all. So it's okay if you feel like you don't learn it all, welcome to the club.

That's part of being in the data world is like you're always constantly going to be learning, and that's part of the fun, right? Is that we always get to learn.

Like that's one of the things I love to do, I love to learn, and I feel like in a data career I never stopped learning and I really enjoy that. So if you feel like, man, I haven't mastered this yet, no one really has, okay, no one really has.

And if they say that they have, they're probably lying. So don't even worry about it, just be like, okay, I know what I know, I don't know what I don't know, right?

And that's okay, I'm going to continue to learn. And what I have right now is sufficient. Number four is to fake it till you make it. And I know that sounds like you're lying, but here's the truth.

Like I said in number three, we're all just doing our best, we're all just trying to learn. And a lot of the times, we underestimate just how much that we can do. So one of my favorite phrases is fake it till you make it.

And I'm not saying to lie.

I'm not saying to, like, go out there and cheat your way through, but just know that you're maybe not giving yourself enough credit for what you have learned. One way that you can easily fake it till you make it is create an alter ego. This is called the Batman effect.

There's actually study where they took three different groups of children, gave them a difficult task, and actually distracted them. While they're doing the task now, to the first group of students, they didn't really say anything.

The second group of students, they said, hey, I want you to approach this project using your own mind, your own ideas, and as yourself. And in the third project, they said, hey, approach this as if you are Batman or Dora the Explorer or some other superhero or fictional character.

And what they found was this third group that actually approached the project, and the distractions with, like, a superhero mentality did a lot better. They were able to perform better on the project, and they were able to get distracted less.

This is what's called the Batman effect or the alter ego effect.

Basically, we as humans can perform better when we are actually trying to pretend to be someone else and act as if we were someone else that we respect and we admire. Instead of asking, what would I do in this situation, we ask, well, what would would Batman do in this situation?

And so create your own data analyst, Batman, whether that's Batman or maybe it's some sort of, like, person you look up to on LinkedIn, instead of asking, what am I going to do in this situation? Ask, what would they do in this situation? How would they approach this interview? How would they approach this python problem?

And then just do what they would do for me. I really like soccer, and one of my favorite soccer players of all time is Lapdon Ibrahimovic. You've never seen him play soccer before.

He is one of the most cocky people on planet Earth. And personally, I actually struggle with self confidence.

And so whenever I have to do something difficult, I think, how would Zlatan Ibrahimovic do this task? And usually that helps me accomplish the task a lot easier. Okay, a bonus number five. Way to fight imposter syndrome is with affirmations.

Affirmations are way that we can train our subconscious to actually help ourselves believe in ourselves. One of my favorite ones that I always teach my boot camp students is progress over perfection. I say that to them a ton.

I have them repeat it to themselves, and it really helps them realize, man, I'm trying for perfection, but I'm making good progress along the way, and that's what matters. Another good one is I may not be perfect, but I've come a long way.

And if you'd like some affirmations for your data journey, especially if you're trying to land a job right now, I have an awesome episode where I went through a guided affirmation meditation that we did together, and I'll pop it up over here on the screen and in the show notes down below. Imposter syndrome is real. You're doing great. Don't worry. I'm here to help if you need anything. See you in the next episode.

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