‘Imposter Syndrome’ Affects 65% Of Professionals Study Says

It is an issue that plagues a majority of people, in their careers and often outside of them. That sense that you are underqualified for the position you hold, and it’s called Imposter Syndrome. The inability to internalize your own success and attribute it to external factors or luck, and is more common than you might believe.

Market research technology firm, InnovateMR, headquartered in Calabasas, California, has released a new study concluding that 65% of professionals today suffer from Imposter Syndrome.

This study was prompted by Vice President of Marketing and Communications at InnovateMR, Brittany Nicols, who grounds these findings in her own engaging personal story as a high-ranking business leader without a traditional college education.

In an online blog she writes how she spent most of her early professional career needing extra personal justification for her own success, and its impact on her confidence. Now that she can put a name to this issue, she is determined to educate professionals everywhere and offer her guidance to overcoming Imposter Syndrome.

“Yep, just like Abraham Lincoln, Walt Disney, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Mark Zuckerberg, I don’t have a college degree. However, I don’t have billions of dollars in my bank account to free myself from the voices of insecurity and self-doubt wracking my brain,” Nicols states in the article. “These feelings formed a pattern which would continue. It wasn’t until very recently that I was able to put a name to what I felt: Imposter Syndrome.”

She discusses how this would plague her throughout her career, and that no matter how dedicated or successful she was she would never feel like she had properly achieved it and that lack of a degree plagued her mind with doubt. But she is not alone, especially as a young female professional.

Some findings of this study include:

• 75% of female executives surveyed reported experiencing Imposter Syndrome.
• 53% of female professionals between the ages of 25-34 are currently experiencing Imposter Syndrome.
• 85% of women have not spoken to someone at work about their struggles, for fear of being seen as weak.
• Less than 5% of employers directly address Imposter Syndrome with their staff.
• 50% of Imposter Syndrome sufferers are working moms, but still, have a higher focus on work than personal life due to feelings of guilt.

Questioning your own validity can be a normal thing, but it is important to recognize that you are not alone in that doubt and that that doubt does not represent the reality of your ability or others’ perceptions of you.

Source: https://prn.to/3u0ucx7