How To Own Your New Job From Day One

If you’ve just landed a new job and feel like you’re going to be discovered as a total fraud, here’s how to own it from Day One.

Meg Mason

This is it. Today’s the day. The day everyone’s finally going to realise you’ve been faking it this whole time. That you got to where you are by luck, or lying, or both. And man, are they going to be mad when they find out the truth.

If that could be a recording of the loop-the-loop playing inside your head, then it’s a no-brainer: you’re a human being. And more than likely, a woman a high-achieving one at that. Because that particular strain of self-doubt has a name “imposter syndrome” and it’s practically endemic among smart, young women.

“I’m not good enough”

One official definition describes “imposter syndrome” as a “collection of feelings of inadequacy that persists even in the face of information that indicates that the opposite is true”. In non-official terms, that means the persistent feeling of being “Not Good Enough” and an “Epic Fraud” manages to make short work of the real talent, hard work, character, or stone-solid qualifications that got you where you are, and leaves you feeling like your success so far is a fluke, with the risk of exposure lurking round the corner.

“It’s even more common than most of us realise,” says Dr Joann Lukins, a performance psychologist. “But it’s often unspoken, which can leave us with the sense that we’re the only ones who struggle with that seed of self doubt, that we’re the only ones who are inadequate and don’t measure up, even though actual evidence doesn’t support these kinds of feelings