Recently I came across this article in "The RED Alert" put out by the graduate research office at LaTrobe.
"the burden of feeling like an imposter ..."
"Many of us in our group have experienced ‘imposter syndrome’. As with many other syndromes, graduate researcher imposter syndrome is a complex set of psychological feelings that in this case is hidden by the PhD cloak of feigned confidence. We pretend to know what we’re doing, what we’re saying, what we’re studying, while at the same time being fearful of difficult, wicked questions that our supervisors and progress committee may put to us. This uncertainty and insecurity is further compounded by a sense of ‘aloneness’, a feeling that we are travelling with others on parallel rather than intersecting paths. While our paths may appear to cross, there are very few people to talk to about our passion, our problems, hopes and anxieties. Instead, the anxiety continues to lurk, and each day we step onto another lonely path of head in PC in the hope that our individual journey will be worth it in the end and that in the meantime we are not found out ..."
And there I was, waiting for the Graduate Research Committee to quietly tap me on the shoulder and say.
"Shane, I think it's time we had a little chat ..."
