It's funny how certain things can shake your confidence to the core.
For example, in my professional career, I've never interviewed for a job I didn't get.
(I definitely DON'T count my history of part-time jobs while studying ... it's ridiculous how hard I tried to get a retail job and could never break out of hospo/customer service. But in the end I managed to crack the office admin market, and that suited me WAYYY better.)
So when a coworker at a previous job offhandedly mentioned that I wasn't the first choice candidate to get that role, I had a bit of an internal meltdown. It all worked out, she assured me, for the best, because I was a great fit for the position. The preferred applicant had terrible references, while mine were glowing, which sealed the deal and led to an offer.
I put my streak down to the fact that although I've never had a 5-year plan or 10-year plan (or hell, any plan beyond about 6 months to a year, tops) when I HAVE set my sights on the next step, I've had a pretty good idea of what I wanted.
But I still suffer terribly from impostor syndrome. Clearly I know my shit to some degree, or I wouldn't be where I am today. And yet most of the time I still feel like I don't belong. Particularly as my personality is all kinds of wrong for the professional working world and its open plan offices: introverted, highly sensitive, a slow burner rather than an on-your-feet thinker, someone who needs a maker's schedule rather than a manager's schedule.
Although it's a long, slow work in progress, I am finally shoring up my own confidence, independent of external factors. If that conversation were to happen today, I honestly think that would flow right past me. I mean that, for real.
Let's take my reactions to a couple of recent situations.
One involved harsh criticism of something I worked on, voiced by someone much higher up the food chain than me. Once upon a time that would have devastated and humiliated me, and probably kept me up at nights in a furious tangle for days after. Instead, I was cool as a freaking cucumber throughout. I felt hardly any emotion at all. I had utter faith in the work and no doubts whatsoever. This was a view shared by and backed up by several other people - I promise it wasn't a case of me having blinkers on or being precious about the whole thing.
Another had nothing to do with me but was one of those cases where it fell to me to straighten things out. This had me secondguessing myself a few times, I admit. And I have never been the type of person to say "I am 100% sure that..." But I was, in fact, certain of this particular fact, and I stated this out loud. This was for a minor, tiny thing really ... but mustering the courage to draw that line was a huge deal for me. And I was right.
Confidence - it hurts when it gets chipped away in big chunks, but it builds back up again over time without you even noticing.
