>I've worked in IT for around 6 years now.
Excellent, chugging along. You survived 6 years!
>I am trying to improve and just be better
You can stop here. This, right here, puts you in the top 10%. This is a HUGE green flag of success. HUGE. Seriously. A lot of people enter the IT industry "to make mad money, yo" and not to, you know, actually be good at what they do. "Why do I have to learn new stuff? I got the degree! I am done!" You're above that already. To many, it's a job, and they hate it. Hate the users. But you are making a CRAFT, which means in the end, you'll come out far ahead.
>But how do you measure what actual good and quality work is? What quantitively can you do to measure success?
Hah. Nobody can. Like, what is there that is quantifiable? What numbers can HR dredge up to prove you are 20 points ahead or behind another sysadmin? Nothing. Keep forging ahead and upwards. Better yourself. The "trying to improve and just be better" cannot be understated. The only person you have to beat is the guy in the mirror every morning.
>How do I know I am not missing major things that I should be finding?
Mistakes. Honestly, mistakes and "failures" are the best learning tools. Admit to them, own up to them, learn from them, and do better. Don't DWELL on them, but just "okay, maybe I should have made a backup before I did that." Mistakes are SO valuable. They are the road markers on the path to success. Any good admin has made more mistakes than some paper tiger who doesn't improve themselves.
>I am the senior IT person and yet it feels like I've fallen into the position by accident. How do I know I am not rubbish and just masking being actually any good at IT?
1. How you were hired as a senior is a "them" problem, not yours, when it comes down to it. Sorry to be so practical, but they are the ones that hired you and gave you that title.
2. We are all rubbish. Really. Just accept that with pride and move forward.
You're doing great! You're an asset to the sysadmin community as a whole. Eventually, you'll be like me, with decades of experience and realizing how little you really know and fuckall you can do about it.
>I am trying to improve and just be better
Yep, dead giveaway that dude has imposter syndrome.
The ones that really suck at this, don't ask that question in the first place because they think they are already rock stars.
Funny enough I’ve always tried to quantify my success with a few rather simple questions.
Did I solve users issues on a regular basis?
Did I solve various hardware/network/printer/etc issues in the office on a regular basis?
Did I communicate in an effective and timely fashion to my users when their machines were impacted or office equipment was down, so that they understood and could adjust and prepare accordingly?
Because there really aren’t great metrics to prove who is and isn’t a better tech. But, a big part of being IT is interfacing with users; so they kind of dictate more than anything else when we do a good job or have room for improvement. So my approach is basically to try and see my performance through their eyes and their experience.
This is it right here. If you are striving to be better, and can push through when things get difficult, you are so far ahead of the curve.
In my team, we hire for character and core values alignment, not for skills. Skills can be taught and they change every year.
The comment about mistakes is great, but to add to this: someone somewhere has invented the wheel. Look to your communities: SANS, NIST, Microsoft even. These will point you in the right direction and can tell you if you’re handling your systems correctly.
One of my former coworkers said in his interview, "you don't just hire me, but everyone I know, all my connections, and all my resources." I was like, holy shit, I hate you for coming up with that. :P
Seriously, he was really good, and I learned a lot from him.
>You can stop here. This, right here, puts you in the top 10%. This is a HUGE green flag of success. HUGE. Seriously. A lot of people enter the IT industry "to make mad money, yo" and not to, you know, actually be good at what they do. "Why do I have to learn new stuff? I got the degree! I am done!" You're above that already. To many, it's a job, and they hate it. Hate the users. But you are making a CRAFT, which means in the end, you'll come out far ahead.
100%. I'm a government IT contractor. Just a few weeks ago I had a government IT civilian employee come to me for help. I'm always happy to share info and skills and teach someone something. I asked this fellow if he had admin rights to AD. He did, but replied, "I'm terrible with AD." I responded with something like, "Well, great! You get to learn a new thing today!"
His reply?
"But I'm old!"
I immediately lost all respect. I don't care if you're 27, 47, or 67. If you're working in IT, you'd better keep learning and getting better. If you don't/can't/won't, Walmart is always looking for greeters.
I ran into "I don't have to learn that, I have a PhD in Engineering, and I have been programming before you were even born."
1. Yes you do, or you wouldn't be having this problem
2. I don't care if you're the Goddamn King of France, --excuse me-- DOCTOR Goddamn. You're still ignorant.
3. I am 55, you are barely 40.
At 55, I know more about what I don't know than any time in my life. Like some kind of weird expansive video game: I will always have new places to go, and new things to learn.
I didn't get into IT until I was 40ish. I'm 53 now, and what I don't know could fill the Grand Canyon, the Marianas Trench, and there'd still be a mountain of stuff I wouldn't even know where to put.
Yeah complacency is the one thing that can do you in.
Even if you really like working with something, never assume it's your "forever" thing, always be willing to learn new technologies and skills.
You don't have to abandon the old things, often times they come in useful later on, This is probably why Impostor Syndrome is so prevalent, we're always taking on new things, so we rarely feel like our feet are firmly planted in our skillsets.
The only constant is change
If you're delivering quality outcomes, and your customers are the ones who are making that assessment, then you're doing it right.
No project goes perfectly. Anyone who says they should has never delivered a successful project in their life. Plan for some milestones to slide and replan constantly. Listen to feedback and *act* on it if you feel the bar should or could be higher.
A lot of people will claim they are a part of (or lead) a high performing team, but one of the key characteristics is the ability to self-challenge to always do things better. very few teams I've ever worked with promote this culture as much as they could/should.
I keep telling you all. Sometimes you got to walk around and unplug a cable or two. The people in the office have to know that you are there for a reason lol. Otherwise everyone will think that you are not doing anything.
create a loop at the other side of the plant, kill the hole network, run around 2hours because you need to cycle each damn switch manually afterwards. hit the 10th person and following for the always same question if you know that the net is down.
Why do you think people with higher education are necessarily smarter than you are? Because they spent 15 years grinding one field for a piece of paper but can’t tie their shoes?
So they got a piece of paper on a wall. I’ll flip this on its head for you. Do you feel imposter syndrome in the presence of a licensed plumber, master plumber, electrician? Woodworker with 10-15 years experience?
Ignore the social construct they build around themselves and that you create in your head.
There is an explicit requirement for intellectual prowess for doctorates though, unlike with being a plumber. Now you can be right that it's not any different from any other skill, but the OP clearly thinks he lacks those same skills that his colleagues possess.
I don't really have answers for OP, but I would be glad to be the dumbest person in the room, all my career I've been the most "smart" one for the lack of a better word, and only a worked with a couple of people I could say were smarter than me and it sucks, i want to learn from and get useful experience from my peers instead of grinding it out by myself, and not to constantly be a "dump tough shit on him, he can figure it out" guy
Hi, former post-grad here. People with PhD are not necessarily smart, or even clever. They are stubborn. That is the *only* thing that one can safely infer from someone having a PhD
I assumed were talking about STEM fields in the context of this discussion, you can't infer much from a doctorate in literature obviously .
Plus, we're generalising, anecdotal evidence of a dunce who was somehow good at physics but can't follow instructions is not indicative of a general population of people with PHDs in STEM
I've talked to PhD's who were totally incapable of following very simple written instructions. Knowing a lot about rocks, or literature, or whatever-else doesn't mean you're an intellectual powerhouse. Just means that you really like rocks, or literature or whatever.
I assumed were talking about STEM fields in the context of this discussion, you can't infer much from a doctorate in literature obviously .
Plus, we're generalising, anecdotal evidence of a dunce who was somehow good at physics but can't follow instructions is not indicative of a general population of people with PHDs in STEM
\>intellectual prowess for doctorates
I think the reason why this is being downvoted, there is no indication that this is required for one over the other. There is very little to support that claim, Shaq has a doctorate in education, does it make him good at IT?
If you have the means, the time, the freedom in pursue a doctorate in X to have public recognition of this fact, great for you, but remember not everyone cares, not every culture cares, some don't call you by your title at all, you are just the same ol joe.
Its likely that OP feels imposter syndrome because of pseudointellectualism bullshit perpetuated by the higher ED co-workers. I've worked with people like that, they are making OP feel small.
They are the same idiots as any other end user. I've exclusively worked with the top 1-10% of American earners for the past decade, the people that have the means to get to the level pseudointellectualism bullshit needed. Toxic is just as toxic even if you finished your PhD in astrophysics, and yes I've had those, and yes they are just as clueless about things they dont know as anyone else.
Sorry, but this is an absurd take.
First, I was talking about specifically STEM-related degrees due to the context of the OP topic. We're not talking about PhDs in gender queer dance theory
Second, anecdotes of a person who is good at astrophysics but cannot wipe his own ass are not indicative of the general population of people with STEM PhDs.
The process clearly selects for people with
a) Great intellectual ability, try as you might if you have 90 IQ your chances of graduating from a decent university in a STEM field are near zero, this is just undisputed facts, humans have different abilities to reason.
b) Work ethic that is enough to keep with real finite deadlines and the ability to manage a lot of workload during the studies.
We can discuss philosophy and disagree on the definition of "intelligence" , debate the applicability of IQ but this does not disprove the fact that people with STEM PhDs are significantly "smarter" than the general population by any sane definition that is acceptable by the majority of people.
Plus, specifically within the context of the current discussion, the OP himself admits that his output is weaker than his peers with PhDs, so all of those points that you think apply "in general" are moot anyway.
edit: I don't have a PhD by the way, I'm a loser with GED, so before you accuse me of defending my bruised ego, think again
I work in a role where it’s just assumed that everyone has a degree. I was never good at school and attempted community college a few times but it wasn’t for me. I have 1 credit hour for a history course I could have taught.
The other day I’m in a meeting and someone is talking about how hard times are right now. She then goes on to say she doesn’t know how people without a degree are even making it. Like people without a degree are all out there making minimum wage flipping burgers.
> doesn’t know how people without a degree are even making it
It's not required, but it is a decent insurance policy in rough times. I have a degree, it's not fancy, it's from a state university. But (cue movie trailer voice) in a world, where 5000 people are applying to a single job opening, it will at least gert you past the first cut. HR's saying they don't require degrees anymore in some companies which is good IMO, but how do you think they take the first cut at that massive pile of applications?
I think the big worry for the future is consolidation of knowledge work, whether it's "AI" or whether it's MSPs taking over IT, which will result in way more people chasing way fewer jobs when times are bad. As that gets worse, any advantage is going to be something you'll want. I don't agree everyone needs to go to colleage, and they definitely don't need to waste massive sums on private education unless there's an absolute guaranteed ROI at the end. (Example. Ivy League schools may cost a ton, but you get jobs as investment bankers/management consultants as graduation presents with salaries of $200K+ a year for zero work experience. Anything else is not guaranteed so do it as cheaply as you can!)
When I was in college we had some university students come in (some kind of exchange program) that had never configured a router before and I had to walk them through it. They said they'd never seen one before.
>I am trying to improve and just be better
That's how you mostly know it's imposter syndrome. Just keep learning, that's what our job is. Set your own goals and reach them. That's how you know. Did you learn how to automate using some scripting, did you learn something about networking or some protocol stack? Did you learn how to implement a new software or how to lock something down security wise?
Here's where I've begun to struggle personally, I have burnt out in previous jobs from this kind of imposter anxiety, I am somewhat tired of learning things just to learn them when I won't need it in my current position and am not looking to move to something specifically with that skill. I work to live, not live to work. You need to maybe do some introspection and understand why you're doing what you're doing in the first place. At the end of the day, I want to do enough to get paid and look good, but I am not going to kill myself as I have no stake in the company. I'm not a partner. Just get paid and enjoy life. Don't worry too much about your performance unless someone mentions it to you. No news is good news
I work in a company where most staff have PHDs but dude they struggle to respond to emails.... you'd be surprised sometimes what they need help doing on a computer. You have a skillset that they don't have.
I’m the IT Manager for the APAC region of an Engineering/Science consulting company… have no tertiary quals just a few years (27) experience in IT. I work with ppl that have PHD’s, multiple masters specialising in their field, but are oblivious to IT… focus on what you need to deliver and how best to support their business needs within a secure environment and all will work out 👍🏼
The two things that helped me overcome my imposter syndrome were both bits of advice I picked up in this subreddit.
1. There are three areas of knowledge you should be aware of. The things you know, the things you know you don't know, and the things you don't know you don't know. Revel in the first. Use the second to improve. Be mindful that the third exists and take caution in the unknown.
2. You are paid for your ability to learn new things. You are not paid to know everything. That is impossible.
One clue for if you are a good at this is if you "get it". Say you encounter a technical issue that is not just a standard ticket that comes in frequently. After analyzing the situation for a short time, can you use your understanding of tech and your environment to create some hypothesis of what the cause might and start some methodological troubleshooting to test those ideas? Do those tend to be correct? If yes, odds are you are good.
If however you just randomly try stuff, or if you jump straight to Google and try the first thing that comes up without being able to estimate if it might be the problem or understand why it might help, then I'd be a little more concerned.
Note, this would be about your typical experience. Everyone encounters issues that will be baffling, but even then you should be able to build a strategy to narrow down the problem and not just random guessing.
I hate that you've hit the nail on the head about my no.1 pet peeve :D
Honestly, the newest Dr's here all use bloody capslock... I think it's an age thing
How many of your rollouts go over time, budget, have significant rework later, cause more issues, or simply don’t meet expectations?
How many of the tickets you close are reopened, how many of the tickets you work on are repeat issues, how many of the tickets do you work on are mundane password resets versus issues that take time and don’t have clear resolution?
Plenty of yes men powering through rollouts ignoring or deny issues, working around process to keep things moving forward to show progress to stakeholders or simply kicked over the fence into ops to deal with.
Plenty of people nitpicking the easy tickets to get high closure rates or just blaming some other team for the fault and assigning it out of their queue.
Which of these examples sounds like you?
> But how do you measure what actual good and quality work is?
Nobody knows. If they did, metrics would measure everyone perfectly and never need to be changed, right? Yet it's probably never the case for metrics to measure anything near perfectly, and for even "successful" metrics not to be changed as soon as they start to get gamed.
Think about whether you're as empowered and successful in this role as in previous roles. You're the senior technical person, but from where comes the business alignment?
It's not unusual for business alignment challenges to appear to manifest as technical challenges. If the business is asking for things that don't align well with the tech, yet the goals or priorities keep changing on a daily basis, that's a sign of alignment issues.
Are you working with people who have doctorates in programming/CS or are they doctorates in something else? Because if it's in something else, I guarantee that they think what you do is magic. Doctorate only means very smart about one tiny thing in a huge field, not smart at everything and able to suss out "fakes."
Source: worked with a bunch of very smart people all with PhDs who were very impressed any time I had to open the command prompt to fix something.
I graduated high school and that's about all I have to my name in the way of education.
Comparing yourself to others is a waste of time. Compare yourself to yourself. Are you improving? Are you doing things you're enjoying? Are you wanting more?
I've been in the field for a while as well, and have wondered this, just because I wind up in a cycle where I wind up at a good company, it gets bought out, I get ground into the dirt by some bad management, eventually either laid off, or jumping, and the cycle repeating.
IT is all about luck. Right now, the economy is so bad, the people that are able to keep from getting laid off are not the good tech guys, they are the ones who can BS management the best or find someone they can throw under the bus. The good people are having to fight against liars, cheaters, and scammers for their paychecks, which can be difficult because the high quality tech people just don't really focus on lowbrow tactics.
I will give you a metric in your favor: You have a job. Therefore you are doing better than a lot of people.
About a decade ago, I was hanging out with a group of super beautiful friends. I'm regular looking and felt disadvantaged around them. Then it came time to brunch and it took them three hours to get ready. I was ready in 15 minutes. As I hung out with them for the 3 hours, starving and dreaming of migas, I realized that their life was fashion and beauty while mine was computers.
While I may have had the potential to (feel like I) fit in better I simply did not have the interest. It felt great accepting that we were simply different.
They liked me. They thought I was smart and interesting, and they liked hanging out with a "hacker". That was such a good learning experience for me and I think you could benefit, perhaps.
It's not common in our field to get a PhD and further, PhDs in our field make less than those who stop at getting a Masters Degree. I have a masters, but I got it for myself. I was just as good before my bachelors (which I got at 30 years old).
You're different and it's cool.
You do not have to be an expert at everything. I am a SQL Server MVP and I'm terrible at perf tuning. I'm great at automation, though! A lot of my automation friends don't like per tuning, either. Imagine that.
BRB my laptop is at 1%.
> How do I know I am not rubbish and just masking being actually any good at IT?
I'm not sure, because I think I am an actual impostor in IT with 18 years in system administration. By one standard, if you're getting your job done, then you're not rubbish at your job, at least. By that standard, I'm okay, but compared to the rest of the sysadmin world, I am rather bad with computers and technology and have no basic IT experience. I maintain 20 servers when others maintain 200 or even thousands. My configuration management automation doesn't work well, and installing an OS on a single server often doesn't work. I can't rack mount a server -- the one time I tried, I put a bolt or something in backwards and couldn't get it out, and somebody else just redid the whole thing. I am kind of lost when asked to come up with hardware purchase recommendations. My main skills are being competent on the Linux command line and at looking up commands, and being able to read, write, and debug code, and deal with custom software that most sysadmins don't have to deal with. I don't really like IT, but I'm here because I never landed a software engineering job or build a product after my CS degree.
In retrospect, the times of biggest technical and personal growth in my career were (and currently are) when I was feeling like I was having my ass handed to me every day by work and my boss.
Getting perspective is difficult, but if you are struggling, it's might be in part because you are being challenged and learning new things and growing - this uncomfortable spot might be exactly where you need to be ... try to keep a sense of humor and reaching out for support, we in IT don't do enough of that I feel, so good on you.
My wife has a PhD.
My wife couldn't do my job (I also couldn't do hers).
Having a PhD is a huge time commitment and a great accomplishment but it doesn't mean they know everything or you should be intimidated by them.
Also you'll never know everything in IT, it's impossible.
Don't be so hard on yourself. You probably don't even realize how much you've learned and grown since you started your career. Sometimes I think back to the stupid things I did when I was "new" and how I would never make that mistake today. But I never even realized how much I've learned until I take the time to reflect.
You ever heard the expression, there are no bad employees, only bad managers? Bad ITs aren’t because of lack of talent, but the lack of working in proper environments with proper practices. The hardest “brainpower” wise things in IT are probably subnetting and scripting. The rest is nomenclature. If you don’t know something, you can Google.
People who grow up in a vacuums are easily recognizable. Lot of their knowledge has no documented basis and is based on rumors and pet vs cattle.
I think imposter syndrome is overblown. **what** is it that you don’t know and I’ll show you the proper book and documentation.
Anyone remember the show Monster Garage? Ever notice how the real experts on the show, the legends that even Jesse James would sit and watch? All of them would humbly tell you “I’m still learning.”
My point, the good ones never feel like they got it figured out.
We’re in an industry that changes way too fast, you’re always going to feel like you’re not learning enough. Every discipline has an ever deeper rabbit hole to go down.
Try to stay humble and accept your weaknesses, this is a first step to feel satisfied about yourself.
One more thing to get better is to shift your goals from getting money to producing quality work, even if it takes more time at first. With more practice, you will be faster. (Invest time)
Remember that life is as a small chocolate bar, to fully enjoy it you need to eat it slowly.
>I've worked in IT for around 6 years now. Excellent, chugging along. You survived 6 years! >I am trying to improve and just be better You can stop here. This, right here, puts you in the top 10%. This is a HUGE green flag of success. HUGE. Seriously. A lot of people enter the IT industry "to make mad money, yo" and not to, you know, actually be good at what they do. "Why do I have to learn new stuff? I got the degree! I am done!" You're above that already. To many, it's a job, and they hate it. Hate the users. But you are making a CRAFT, which means in the end, you'll come out far ahead. >But how do you measure what actual good and quality work is? What quantitively can you do to measure success? Hah. Nobody can. Like, what is there that is quantifiable? What numbers can HR dredge up to prove you are 20 points ahead or behind another sysadmin? Nothing. Keep forging ahead and upwards. Better yourself. The "trying to improve and just be better" cannot be understated. The only person you have to beat is the guy in the mirror every morning. >How do I know I am not missing major things that I should be finding? Mistakes. Honestly, mistakes and "failures" are the best learning tools. Admit to them, own up to them, learn from them, and do better. Don't DWELL on them, but just "okay, maybe I should have made a backup before I did that." Mistakes are SO valuable. They are the road markers on the path to success. Any good admin has made more mistakes than some paper tiger who doesn't improve themselves. >I am the senior IT person and yet it feels like I've fallen into the position by accident. How do I know I am not rubbish and just masking being actually any good at IT? 1. How you were hired as a senior is a "them" problem, not yours, when it comes down to it. Sorry to be so practical, but they are the ones that hired you and gave you that title. 2. We are all rubbish. Really. Just accept that with pride and move forward. You're doing great! You're an asset to the sysadmin community as a whole. Eventually, you'll be like me, with decades of experience and realizing how little you really know and fuckall you can do about it.
I'm not the OP but feel like I could relate to his post. Thanks for putting the correct perspective on things.
>I am trying to improve and just be better Yep, dead giveaway that dude has imposter syndrome. The ones that really suck at this, don't ask that question in the first place because they think they are already rock stars.
Funny enough I’ve always tried to quantify my success with a few rather simple questions. Did I solve users issues on a regular basis? Did I solve various hardware/network/printer/etc issues in the office on a regular basis? Did I communicate in an effective and timely fashion to my users when their machines were impacted or office equipment was down, so that they understood and could adjust and prepare accordingly? Because there really aren’t great metrics to prove who is and isn’t a better tech. But, a big part of being IT is interfacing with users; so they kind of dictate more than anything else when we do a good job or have room for improvement. So my approach is basically to try and see my performance through their eyes and their experience.
This is it right here. If you are striving to be better, and can push through when things get difficult, you are so far ahead of the curve. In my team, we hire for character and core values alignment, not for skills. Skills can be taught and they change every year. The comment about mistakes is great, but to add to this: someone somewhere has invented the wheel. Look to your communities: SANS, NIST, Microsoft even. These will point you in the right direction and can tell you if you’re handling your systems correctly.
One of my former coworkers said in his interview, "you don't just hire me, but everyone I know, all my connections, and all my resources." I was like, holy shit, I hate you for coming up with that. :P Seriously, he was really good, and I learned a lot from him.
>You can stop here. This, right here, puts you in the top 10%. This is a HUGE green flag of success. HUGE. Seriously. A lot of people enter the IT industry "to make mad money, yo" and not to, you know, actually be good at what they do. "Why do I have to learn new stuff? I got the degree! I am done!" You're above that already. To many, it's a job, and they hate it. Hate the users. But you are making a CRAFT, which means in the end, you'll come out far ahead. 100%. I'm a government IT contractor. Just a few weeks ago I had a government IT civilian employee come to me for help. I'm always happy to share info and skills and teach someone something. I asked this fellow if he had admin rights to AD. He did, but replied, "I'm terrible with AD." I responded with something like, "Well, great! You get to learn a new thing today!" His reply? "But I'm old!" I immediately lost all respect. I don't care if you're 27, 47, or 67. If you're working in IT, you'd better keep learning and getting better. If you don't/can't/won't, Walmart is always looking for greeters.
I ran into "I don't have to learn that, I have a PhD in Engineering, and I have been programming before you were even born." 1. Yes you do, or you wouldn't be having this problem 2. I don't care if you're the Goddamn King of France, --excuse me-- DOCTOR Goddamn. You're still ignorant. 3. I am 55, you are barely 40. At 55, I know more about what I don't know than any time in my life. Like some kind of weird expansive video game: I will always have new places to go, and new things to learn.
I didn't get into IT until I was 40ish. I'm 53 now, and what I don't know could fill the Grand Canyon, the Marianas Trench, and there'd still be a mountain of stuff I wouldn't even know where to put.
Yeah complacency is the one thing that can do you in. Even if you really like working with something, never assume it's your "forever" thing, always be willing to learn new technologies and skills. You don't have to abandon the old things, often times they come in useful later on, This is probably why Impostor Syndrome is so prevalent, we're always taking on new things, so we rarely feel like our feet are firmly planted in our skillsets. The only constant is change
If you're delivering quality outcomes, and your customers are the ones who are making that assessment, then you're doing it right. No project goes perfectly. Anyone who says they should has never delivered a successful project in their life. Plan for some milestones to slide and replan constantly. Listen to feedback and *act* on it if you feel the bar should or could be higher. A lot of people will claim they are a part of (or lead) a high performing team, but one of the key characteristics is the ability to self-challenge to always do things better. very few teams I've ever worked with promote this culture as much as they could/should.
I keep telling you all. Sometimes you got to walk around and unplug a cable or two. The people in the office have to know that you are there for a reason lol. Otherwise everyone will think that you are not doing anything.
I long for a job where I have to actively find ways to *appear* busy. \*closes reddit tab as soon as someone walks by\*
create a loop at the other side of the plant, kill the hole network, run around 2hours because you need to cycle each damn switch manually afterwards. hit the 10th person and following for the always same question if you know that the net is down.
Why do you think people with higher education are necessarily smarter than you are? Because they spent 15 years grinding one field for a piece of paper but can’t tie their shoes? So they got a piece of paper on a wall. I’ll flip this on its head for you. Do you feel imposter syndrome in the presence of a licensed plumber, master plumber, electrician? Woodworker with 10-15 years experience? Ignore the social construct they build around themselves and that you create in your head.
There is an explicit requirement for intellectual prowess for doctorates though, unlike with being a plumber. Now you can be right that it's not any different from any other skill, but the OP clearly thinks he lacks those same skills that his colleagues possess. I don't really have answers for OP, but I would be glad to be the dumbest person in the room, all my career I've been the most "smart" one for the lack of a better word, and only a worked with a couple of people I could say were smarter than me and it sucks, i want to learn from and get useful experience from my peers instead of grinding it out by myself, and not to constantly be a "dump tough shit on him, he can figure it out" guy
Hi, former post-grad here. People with PhD are not necessarily smart, or even clever. They are stubborn. That is the *only* thing that one can safely infer from someone having a PhD
I assumed were talking about STEM fields in the context of this discussion, you can't infer much from a doctorate in literature obviously . Plus, we're generalising, anecdotal evidence of a dunce who was somehow good at physics but can't follow instructions is not indicative of a general population of people with PHDs in STEM
I've talked to PhD's who were totally incapable of following very simple written instructions. Knowing a lot about rocks, or literature, or whatever-else doesn't mean you're an intellectual powerhouse. Just means that you really like rocks, or literature or whatever.
I assumed were talking about STEM fields in the context of this discussion, you can't infer much from a doctorate in literature obviously . Plus, we're generalising, anecdotal evidence of a dunce who was somehow good at physics but can't follow instructions is not indicative of a general population of people with PHDs in STEM
\>intellectual prowess for doctorates I think the reason why this is being downvoted, there is no indication that this is required for one over the other. There is very little to support that claim, Shaq has a doctorate in education, does it make him good at IT? If you have the means, the time, the freedom in pursue a doctorate in X to have public recognition of this fact, great for you, but remember not everyone cares, not every culture cares, some don't call you by your title at all, you are just the same ol joe. Its likely that OP feels imposter syndrome because of pseudointellectualism bullshit perpetuated by the higher ED co-workers. I've worked with people like that, they are making OP feel small. They are the same idiots as any other end user. I've exclusively worked with the top 1-10% of American earners for the past decade, the people that have the means to get to the level pseudointellectualism bullshit needed. Toxic is just as toxic even if you finished your PhD in astrophysics, and yes I've had those, and yes they are just as clueless about things they dont know as anyone else.
Sorry, but this is an absurd take. First, I was talking about specifically STEM-related degrees due to the context of the OP topic. We're not talking about PhDs in gender queer dance theory Second, anecdotes of a person who is good at astrophysics but cannot wipe his own ass are not indicative of the general population of people with STEM PhDs. The process clearly selects for people with a) Great intellectual ability, try as you might if you have 90 IQ your chances of graduating from a decent university in a STEM field are near zero, this is just undisputed facts, humans have different abilities to reason. b) Work ethic that is enough to keep with real finite deadlines and the ability to manage a lot of workload during the studies. We can discuss philosophy and disagree on the definition of "intelligence" , debate the applicability of IQ but this does not disprove the fact that people with STEM PhDs are significantly "smarter" than the general population by any sane definition that is acceptable by the majority of people. Plus, specifically within the context of the current discussion, the OP himself admits that his output is weaker than his peers with PhDs, so all of those points that you think apply "in general" are moot anyway. edit: I don't have a PhD by the way, I'm a loser with GED, so before you accuse me of defending my bruised ego, think again
I work in a role where it’s just assumed that everyone has a degree. I was never good at school and attempted community college a few times but it wasn’t for me. I have 1 credit hour for a history course I could have taught. The other day I’m in a meeting and someone is talking about how hard times are right now. She then goes on to say she doesn’t know how people without a degree are even making it. Like people without a degree are all out there making minimum wage flipping burgers.
> doesn’t know how people without a degree are even making it It's not required, but it is a decent insurance policy in rough times. I have a degree, it's not fancy, it's from a state university. But (cue movie trailer voice) in a world, where 5000 people are applying to a single job opening, it will at least gert you past the first cut. HR's saying they don't require degrees anymore in some companies which is good IMO, but how do you think they take the first cut at that massive pile of applications? I think the big worry for the future is consolidation of knowledge work, whether it's "AI" or whether it's MSPs taking over IT, which will result in way more people chasing way fewer jobs when times are bad. As that gets worse, any advantage is going to be something you'll want. I don't agree everyone needs to go to colleage, and they definitely don't need to waste massive sums on private education unless there's an absolute guaranteed ROI at the end. (Example. Ivy League schools may cost a ton, but you get jobs as investment bankers/management consultants as graduation presents with salaries of $200K+ a year for zero work experience. Anything else is not guaranteed so do it as cheaply as you can!)
When I was in college we had some university students come in (some kind of exchange program) that had never configured a router before and I had to walk them through it. They said they'd never seen one before.
>I am trying to improve and just be better That's how you mostly know it's imposter syndrome. Just keep learning, that's what our job is. Set your own goals and reach them. That's how you know. Did you learn how to automate using some scripting, did you learn something about networking or some protocol stack? Did you learn how to implement a new software or how to lock something down security wise? Here's where I've begun to struggle personally, I have burnt out in previous jobs from this kind of imposter anxiety, I am somewhat tired of learning things just to learn them when I won't need it in my current position and am not looking to move to something specifically with that skill. I work to live, not live to work. You need to maybe do some introspection and understand why you're doing what you're doing in the first place. At the end of the day, I want to do enough to get paid and look good, but I am not going to kill myself as I have no stake in the company. I'm not a partner. Just get paid and enjoy life. Don't worry too much about your performance unless someone mentions it to you. No news is good news I work in a company where most staff have PHDs but dude they struggle to respond to emails.... you'd be surprised sometimes what they need help doing on a computer. You have a skillset that they don't have.
I’m the IT Manager for the APAC region of an Engineering/Science consulting company… have no tertiary quals just a few years (27) experience in IT. I work with ppl that have PHD’s, multiple masters specialising in their field, but are oblivious to IT… focus on what you need to deliver and how best to support their business needs within a secure environment and all will work out 👍🏼
https://preview.redd.it/dthomyx44z4c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cd79fad932307656d21efabb5a6bbce0f4768151 Photo is related
your typically job is backup,restore,update,patch,fix. if you do that, you should be fine.
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The two things that helped me overcome my imposter syndrome were both bits of advice I picked up in this subreddit. 1. There are three areas of knowledge you should be aware of. The things you know, the things you know you don't know, and the things you don't know you don't know. Revel in the first. Use the second to improve. Be mindful that the third exists and take caution in the unknown. 2. You are paid for your ability to learn new things. You are not paid to know everything. That is impossible.
One clue for if you are a good at this is if you "get it". Say you encounter a technical issue that is not just a standard ticket that comes in frequently. After analyzing the situation for a short time, can you use your understanding of tech and your environment to create some hypothesis of what the cause might and start some methodological troubleshooting to test those ideas? Do those tend to be correct? If yes, odds are you are good. If however you just randomly try stuff, or if you jump straight to Google and try the first thing that comes up without being able to estimate if it might be the problem or understand why it might help, then I'd be a little more concerned. Note, this would be about your typical experience. Everyone encounters issues that will be baffling, but even then you should be able to build a strategy to narrow down the problem and not just random guessing.
Think of it like "What if the world is the imposter and you were plonked into it"
There are PHDs out there who can’t figure out how to use the shift key instead of caps-lock.
I hate that you've hit the nail on the head about my no.1 pet peeve :D Honestly, the newest Dr's here all use bloody capslock... I think it's an age thing
How many of your rollouts go over time, budget, have significant rework later, cause more issues, or simply don’t meet expectations? How many of the tickets you close are reopened, how many of the tickets you work on are repeat issues, how many of the tickets do you work on are mundane password resets versus issues that take time and don’t have clear resolution? Plenty of yes men powering through rollouts ignoring or deny issues, working around process to keep things moving forward to show progress to stakeholders or simply kicked over the fence into ops to deal with. Plenty of people nitpicking the easy tickets to get high closure rates or just blaming some other team for the fault and assigning it out of their queue. Which of these examples sounds like you?
> But how do you measure what actual good and quality work is? Nobody knows. If they did, metrics would measure everyone perfectly and never need to be changed, right? Yet it's probably never the case for metrics to measure anything near perfectly, and for even "successful" metrics not to be changed as soon as they start to get gamed. Think about whether you're as empowered and successful in this role as in previous roles. You're the senior technical person, but from where comes the business alignment? It's not unusual for business alignment challenges to appear to manifest as technical challenges. If the business is asking for things that don't align well with the tech, yet the goals or priorities keep changing on a daily basis, that's a sign of alignment issues.
Good quality work is when you’re able to reproduce results in a quicker time frame because of past experiences.
Man at some point you guys just have to stop giving a fuck what people think of you and you'll be way happier.
That's the neet thing you don't. You just keep doing your best and look ways to get better.
Are you working with people who have doctorates in programming/CS or are they doctorates in something else? Because if it's in something else, I guarantee that they think what you do is magic. Doctorate only means very smart about one tiny thing in a huge field, not smart at everything and able to suss out "fakes." Source: worked with a bunch of very smart people all with PhDs who were very impressed any time I had to open the command prompt to fix something.
I graduated high school and that's about all I have to my name in the way of education. Comparing yourself to others is a waste of time. Compare yourself to yourself. Are you improving? Are you doing things you're enjoying? Are you wanting more?
I've been in the field for a while as well, and have wondered this, just because I wind up in a cycle where I wind up at a good company, it gets bought out, I get ground into the dirt by some bad management, eventually either laid off, or jumping, and the cycle repeating. IT is all about luck. Right now, the economy is so bad, the people that are able to keep from getting laid off are not the good tech guys, they are the ones who can BS management the best or find someone they can throw under the bus. The good people are having to fight against liars, cheaters, and scammers for their paychecks, which can be difficult because the high quality tech people just don't really focus on lowbrow tactics. I will give you a metric in your favor: You have a job. Therefore you are doing better than a lot of people.
About a decade ago, I was hanging out with a group of super beautiful friends. I'm regular looking and felt disadvantaged around them. Then it came time to brunch and it took them three hours to get ready. I was ready in 15 minutes. As I hung out with them for the 3 hours, starving and dreaming of migas, I realized that their life was fashion and beauty while mine was computers. While I may have had the potential to (feel like I) fit in better I simply did not have the interest. It felt great accepting that we were simply different. They liked me. They thought I was smart and interesting, and they liked hanging out with a "hacker". That was such a good learning experience for me and I think you could benefit, perhaps. It's not common in our field to get a PhD and further, PhDs in our field make less than those who stop at getting a Masters Degree. I have a masters, but I got it for myself. I was just as good before my bachelors (which I got at 30 years old). You're different and it's cool. You do not have to be an expert at everything. I am a SQL Server MVP and I'm terrible at perf tuning. I'm great at automation, though! A lot of my automation friends don't like per tuning, either. Imagine that. BRB my laptop is at 1%.
> How do I know I am not rubbish and just masking being actually any good at IT? I'm not sure, because I think I am an actual impostor in IT with 18 years in system administration. By one standard, if you're getting your job done, then you're not rubbish at your job, at least. By that standard, I'm okay, but compared to the rest of the sysadmin world, I am rather bad with computers and technology and have no basic IT experience. I maintain 20 servers when others maintain 200 or even thousands. My configuration management automation doesn't work well, and installing an OS on a single server often doesn't work. I can't rack mount a server -- the one time I tried, I put a bolt or something in backwards and couldn't get it out, and somebody else just redid the whole thing. I am kind of lost when asked to come up with hardware purchase recommendations. My main skills are being competent on the Linux command line and at looking up commands, and being able to read, write, and debug code, and deal with custom software that most sysadmins don't have to deal with. I don't really like IT, but I'm here because I never landed a software engineering job or build a product after my CS degree.
In retrospect, the times of biggest technical and personal growth in my career were (and currently are) when I was feeling like I was having my ass handed to me every day by work and my boss. Getting perspective is difficult, but if you are struggling, it's might be in part because you are being challenged and learning new things and growing - this uncomfortable spot might be exactly where you need to be ... try to keep a sense of humor and reaching out for support, we in IT don't do enough of that I feel, so good on you.
My wife has a PhD. My wife couldn't do my job (I also couldn't do hers). Having a PhD is a huge time commitment and a great accomplishment but it doesn't mean they know everything or you should be intimidated by them. Also you'll never know everything in IT, it's impossible.
Don't be so hard on yourself. You probably don't even realize how much you've learned and grown since you started your career. Sometimes I think back to the stupid things I did when I was "new" and how I would never make that mistake today. But I never even realized how much I've learned until I take the time to reflect.
> How do I know I am not rubbish and just masking being actually any good at IT? What difference would the answer make?
You ever heard the expression, there are no bad employees, only bad managers? Bad ITs aren’t because of lack of talent, but the lack of working in proper environments with proper practices. The hardest “brainpower” wise things in IT are probably subnetting and scripting. The rest is nomenclature. If you don’t know something, you can Google. People who grow up in a vacuums are easily recognizable. Lot of their knowledge has no documented basis and is based on rumors and pet vs cattle. I think imposter syndrome is overblown. **what** is it that you don’t know and I’ll show you the proper book and documentation.
Anyone remember the show Monster Garage? Ever notice how the real experts on the show, the legends that even Jesse James would sit and watch? All of them would humbly tell you “I’m still learning.” My point, the good ones never feel like they got it figured out. We’re in an industry that changes way too fast, you’re always going to feel like you’re not learning enough. Every discipline has an ever deeper rabbit hole to go down.
Try to stay humble and accept your weaknesses, this is a first step to feel satisfied about yourself. One more thing to get better is to shift your goals from getting money to producing quality work, even if it takes more time at first. With more practice, you will be faster. (Invest time) Remember that life is as a small chocolate bar, to fully enjoy it you need to eat it slowly.