Ada Lovelace Day has swung by once again to remind us of the valuable contribution women have played throughout the ages when it comes to STEM-related industries like tech.

Started in 2009 by fellow technologist Suw Charman-Anderson, Ada Lovelace Day honours the outstanding work of a woman who’s now, quite rightly, considered to be the world’s first computer programmer.

So, what can a woman born over two centuries ago teach us about our role as women in the 21st century’s tech industry?

Well, although I can’t ask her, I believe that Ada Lovelace is a huge historical role model for women currently working in the tech sector. For me, she’s up there with the likes of modern-day trailblazers including, Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley, and Baroness Martha Lane-Fox.

The one superpower that binds all of these ‘women in tech’ together is that they’ve all shown stoic determination to succeed, despite working in a male-dominated industry where the odds were overwhelmingly stacked against them. However, each has no doubt had to deal with ‘imposter syndrome’ to varying degrees throughout their careers.

As a senior woman in tech, I’ve been on my own journey to shut out those nagging thoughts, and I’d like to impart some of my advice to aspiring female technologists.

So, what is imposter syndrome?

Well, according to Time magazine, 70% of people identify with the symptoms of it at one point in their life.

For many people, imposter syndrome leaves them feeling like a fraud – believing that they are not worthy of the salary or role that they’ve worked so hard for. The anxiety that rises up means that people often think they are going to get found out as incapable by their peers and colleagues.

This certainly resonates with me. I distinctly remember my first position as a senior engineer where I tried to find a desk that was facing a wall so that no one could see my screen. Not because I wasn’t working – I was working a lot – but because I feared that someone might catch me Googling something I was supposed to know or see me trying a really ‘stupid’ code solution that could never work.

Today, I know that being able to Google the right solution whilst trying different variations (that might not even work) is part of being a software engineer. The ability to find appropriate solutions on Google; try different things, and step back/start again, are some of the attributes I look for in a senior software engineer.

In 2018 I took part in a programme that allowed me to meet some of Europe’s most successful female technologists. Despite how professional, intelligent, successful and inspiring these women were, they all spoke about how they had suffered from imposter syndrome.

This really opened my eyes to the issue and over the years that followed I started ignoring this little voice little by little and started learning a lot more about myself – my motivations and accepting myself for who I am.

I’m not sure if imposter syndrome will ever fully go away, but if you invest in yourself and work on your confidence, I believe you can silence any doubts very quickly. Today I want to share some of the mindset changes that helped me the most.

Live by your own values/rules

Firstly, you can only really be an ‘imposter’ if you’re living by the values and expectations of others. This is something I’ve learned to stop doing over the years.

As children, we’re impressionable, to say the least, particularly when it comes to doing the ‘right thing’ as directed by our parents, teachers and guardians. With a built-in disposition to please from an early age, some of us find it hard to shake this off in later life when we’re faced with people we perceive to be ‘senior’ or ‘superior’ in knowledge.

I’ve certainly developed my career over the years by working with some exceptional bosses and peers of all genders, however, it is up to us as individuals to sift through the advice and guidance we’re given and draw our own conclusions. Without getting too philosophical, we have to live our own truth and hold ourselves to the standards that we set, not those of others.

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For example, in my earlier career, I was once told by a senior colleague that a female colleague needed to “toughen up”. This statement came from what I know now was a bad people manager who thought this was the right way to motivate and push his staff to be more productive.

However, if I’d listened to this advice I would have been living in an imposter state that would have eventually worn me down. On reflection, it’s not that women in the tech industry need to ‘toughen up’, it’s that the industry itself needs to get kinder.

Thankfully, I’m now an xDesigner and know that not only can I be my true self at work, but I’ve got a team of people behind me that want me to succeed and fulfil my true potential. There’s nothing quite like a positive working environment to silence those negative imposter thoughts.

You’re a kind person…so be kind to yourself

If you’ve ever suffered from imposter syndrome, you’ll know that it’s easy to get tangled up in a negative cycle of thoughts.

I think it would be truly fascinating if we had the technology to listen in to how other people talk to themselves. I am sure we’d all be pretty shocked at how negative and vicious we can sometimes be.

As a result, I now live by the rule that we should all treat ourselves like we treat others in our lives – with kindness and respect. In a tech sector that is constantly evolving at pace – but at the same time requires diligence and discipline – it’s easy to get down on yourself from time to time.

When this occurs, I always think about my golden rule of kindness to one’s self. We waste enormous amounts of physical and emotional energy when we beat ourselves up.

Embrace and own that compliment

One common symptom of imposter syndrome is that people often can’t take a compliment from a colleague. They shrug off the compliment because they feel unworthy or think that their success was down to pure luck, and not as a result of their hard work.

Many years ago, this was a trait that I used to inhabit in my daily work. For a female working in a tech company surrounded by some exceptionally bright people (many males too), this is an easy behaviour to slip into.

However, my advice is this. Not only should you embrace a compliment for your sterling effort, but you should also wear that compliment with pride. I believe that every compliment you accept unquestioningly is one step on the way out of Imposter Ville via the Confidence Highway.

By accepting positive recognition for your hard work, you’re accepting that you’re just as good as anyone else at your job – whether as a technologist or in any other role in life.

Send that internal imposter packing

Some of my advice may not work for everyone – as we’ve highlighted, we’re all unique. However, I do think the universal moral of the story here is that like those female technologists that went before us, modern women in tech need to continue to be fearless, and free, and foster even more belief in themselves and their role within our thriving technology sector.

After all, the females of yester-year broke some huge barriers, and it’s on the latest generations to channel their inner Ada so that they can keep the spirit of positive change alive for future generations.

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