Types of Imposter Syndrome

When I graduated with my PhD, I dedicated my dissertation to “the imposters.” Not “the people with Imposter Syndrome,” but “the imposters.” Why? Because I knew from personal experience that people with Imposter Syndrome doubt themselves so much that they even doubt whether they have Imposter Syndrome.

“Maybe they have Imposter Syndrome, but I’m actually an imposter,” a friend confided in me. I’d been thinking the same thing about myself.

Nowadays, I feel more comfortable in my skin, but I still notice that people with Imposter Syndrome often start by asking if they actually have it. In addition to self-doubt, there’s another reason people do that: Imposter Syndrome isn’t very clearly defined! After all, it isn’t an official diagnosis, so different people use the term in different ways.

So let’s get a little more clear about what Imposter Syndrome really is and what types of Imposter Syndrome exist.

What Is Imposter Syndrome?

Imposter Syndrome describes a situation where you feel like there’s a gap between your performance and expectations, but there’s no real evidence for that gap. Instead of seeing everyone else’s acceptance of you as evidence that the gap doesn’t really exist, you see it as evidence that you’re fooling them, and worry about the day they finally realize that you’re underperforming.

There are two ways to get the idea that this gap exists:

1. By underestimating your performance.
2. By overestimating expectations for your performance.

I’ll discuss one personality type that tends to underestimate their performance: The Second-Guesser.

Then I’ll cover two ways you can overestimate expectations for your performance. The Perfectionist comes up with overly high expectations on their own, while The Realist hears these overly high expectations from other people.

Finally, I’ll discuss a type I call The Outsider. This isn’t really a type of Imposter Syndrome, but since being treated like an outsider can make people feel like they don’t belong, it sometimes gets confused with Imposter Syndrome.

Type 1: The Second-Guesser

“I’m good at this – or am I?”

Are you terrified of being arrogant? Of taking a stand and then being wrong? Do you have trouble making decisions without getting other people’s opinions?

Then you might be a Second-Guesser. With this type of Imposter Syndrome, you care a lot about getting things right and you don’t assume that your own opinion is the best one. That’s great – it makes you honest and trustworthy. But if it goes too far, you don’t trust yourself even when you should. That’s when it becomes Imposter Syndrome.

You might have moments of feeling brilliant, followed quickly by embarrassment that you ever thought such a thing. You might get angry at your workplace for treating you unfairly, and then wonder if it’s really all your fault. If your performance is worse than you think it should be, you’ll be down on yourself even if your manager seems satisfied.

Your loved ones will try to push you to believe in yourself, but that feels fake to you, and the idea of being overconfident is too scary. So you need a different approach.

What to Do About It

Fortunately, fakeness and arrogance are not the only kind of confidence that exists. It’s possible to truly believe in yourself and be humble at the same time. I call this authentic confidence. When you find your authentic confidence, you’ll be able to trust yourself enough to listen to your gut and to know that even if the work is hard and you make some mistakes, you can see it through. To learn more about authentic confidence and how to find it, come to my upcoming workshop, Authentic Confidence: The Healthy Way Out of Imposter Syndrome.

Type 2: The Perfectionist

“I should be better at this.”

Do you find yourself thinking that your manager is wrong to be satisfied with your work because it doesn’t meet some standard that you imagine your work should live up to?

Do you think that some of your accomplishments “don’t count” because they’re not perfect enough, or you didn’t do them all by yourself?

Then you might be a Perfectionist.

I define perfectionism as holding yourself to unreasonable standards. Imposter Syndrome expert Valerie Young defines five types of Imposter Syndrome based on which kinds of unreasonable standards you hold yourself to:

• The Perfectionist: you should never make mistakes
• The Expert: you should know everything
• The Soloist: you shouldn’t need help
• The Natural Genius: you shouldn’t struggle
• The Superhuman: you should be able to juggle it all

These largely overlap with my 7 Myths of Perfectionism:

1. “If I start, I have to finish”
2. “The first draft has to be the final draft”
3. “I have to do it the optimal way”
4. “If it’s not perfect, it’s worthless” (like Young’s Perfectionist)
5. “I shouldn’t need help” (like Young’s Soloist)
6. “I should be good at things immediately” (like Young’s Natural Genius)
7. “I should work the maximum amount possible” (sort of like Young’s Superhuman)

In the context of Imposter Syndrome specifically, one common kind of unrealistic expectation is to believe that you should be an expert already, even when you’re new. Everyone has to go through the novice stage, but it’s hard for a perfectionist to accept that.

So you can see that there are many different ways you can create these unreasonable expectations for yourself. And you don’t have to feel bad that you’ve created these standards — it’s obviously a common thing to do, and people have good reasons for doing it. But it is making your life a lot harder than it needs to be.

What to do about it

You’re in luck — I have lots of resources for perfectionists!

1. Sign up for my free workshop on Authentic Confidence, where I’ll guide you through exercises to recalibrate your expectations.
2. Read my blog post, The 7 Myths of Perfectionism and How They’re Holding You Back.
3. Sign up for my free guide, How to Move Out of Perfectionism, at the end of that blog post.

Type 3: The Realist

“I’m not as good at this as they think I am.”

Just as “sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” so is sufficiently advanced skill. If you know a lot more about something than your friends and family do, they might think you’re a magical genius. Our whole society has done this with certain jobs: rocket science of course, but really anything mathematical or scientific, including software development.

It’s not just about magical thinking, either. It’s also about having a fixed mindset, which is when you assume that people are simply good at something or bad at it, rather than understanding that they develop their skill over time. 

You were there all those days when you studied, practiced, made mistakes, and learned from them, so you understand that you weren’t born being good at what you do – you worked for it. But for everyone who wasn’t there, it’s very easy to fall into a fixed mindset and assume you’re just a different kind of person, a kind who was born to do your job. The kind who never makes mistakes, or otherwise does impossible feats.

When these people talk about your amazing talents, you see the gap between your performance and their expectations. If you let their expectations become your expectations, you get the Realist type of Imposter Syndrome. You start to think you really are falling short, just because you realistically see that you’re not a magical unicorn who was born doing calculus!

What to Do About It

Even if you have a ways to go in your career, you’re more of an expert on it than people who aren’t in it. So define for yourself what it takes to do your job and what realistic good performance looks like – including the mistakes and setbacks that are a totally normal part of the experience. 

It’ll still be awkward when your aunt gushes that she could never do what you do, but at least it won’t undermine your own confidence.

Not Imposter Syndrome: The Outsider

“I don’t feel like one of the team.”

Your coworkers treat you differently. Maybe they don’t invite you when they go out for drinks after work. Maybe they seem to doubt your abilities. Often this happens to people just because they’re different — the only woman or person of color on the team, the only person from a different country or social class, the only disabled or neurodivergent person.

This doesn’t happen because you have any misconceptions, either about yourself or about expectations. It’s about how other people treat you. So it’s important for us not to lump this in with Imposter Syndrome, which sort of implies that you’re just imagining it.

However, although this situation doesn’t start with your self-esteem, it can affect your self-esteem. Belonging is a basic human need! It’s painful to be left out, and it’s only natural for you to start wondering if it really is about you, or the quality of your work. That can turn this “I’m Being Treated Like an Imposter” syndrome into “Now I Actually Do Feel Like An Imposter” syndrome. 

What to Do About It

Try to spend time with people who support you and make you feel a sense of belonging. You may choose to try to change the culture at work, but bear in mind that it takes a lot of energy and you don’t have to give your energy to that project any more than you want to. If you’re being bullied, consider ways to protect yourself. Overall, remember that there’s nothing weak about needing a sense of belonging; it’s how we’re wired.

How to Overcome Imposter Syndrome

This workshop is now over, but join my mailing list to hear about future ones!

If you’re struggling with any of these types of Imposter Syndrome – but especially if you’re a Second-Guesser – join my mailing list to hear about my upcoming free online workshop, Authentic Confidence: The Healthy Way Out of Imposter Syndrome.

This workshop will be hosted by WEST Diversity and Inclusion, a group that pairs women and nonbinary technologists with mentors in their fields.

In this one-hour interactive workshop, you’ll learn:

• The reason that most advice for Imposter Syndrome doesn’t really help
• How to change your thinking so that you’re not holding yourself to impossible standards
• How to change your feelings so that you don’t feel like an imposter even when you know better

You don’t have to keep fighting this feeling day in and day out. Your own Authentic Confidence is just beneath the surface.