Fake It ’Til You… Wait, I Made It?

One of the most confusing things about our culture is we are told, “Fake it til you make it.” So how do you know you made it?

I think this is part of the struggles of the imposter syndrome. We spend so much time studying, creating, and moving goals that goal of “making it” that we don’t see the progress we have made. We only see the gaps in our knowledge and the skills we have yet to acquire. And we keep going even beyond the point of “making it” before we even realize it.

You are making it can look like knowing where to look. Have enough knowledge that you can translate the base into something meaningful in another skill set. It means being okay with not knowing but willing to find out and keep the curiosity alive.

All of this feels particularly true in the tech industry. In a space where things are continuously changing, there are always new libraries, languages, and technologies to learn. This is a place where every employer is looking for a Jack (or Jill) of all trades, but there is not enough time to be a master of all. Or sometimes, a master of some, or sum depending on how to look at it.

Sum being, the whole of its part, meaning you have made it because the total of your experience and knowledge has brought value.

So next time you that feeling like:

“I’ll never make it.”

“I’m a fraud.”

Realize that the sum of your experience means you have made it to this point, and you are just striving to make it to that next level.