03-18, 15:45–16:15 (Europe/Paris), VIP Area
Various studies show that more than half of engineers suffer from imposter syndrome. Based on other sources and industries, these numbers might be even higher for women and underrepresented people. It is undeniable that imposter syndrome also has a stifling effect on community contributions. Can we dare to imagine how much potential could be unlocked if we were to provide more support to our peers suffering from it?
This talk aims to bring light to the conversation around imposter syndrome and provide strategies on how to tackle it in cloud native communities. To illustrate better, the presenters will first talk about their personal experience with imposter syndrome. Together, we will explore how to recognize imposter syndrome and the role microaggressions and discrimination play in exacerbating it. The main portion of the talk will then focus on providing people with tools to overcome imposter syndrome together.
We want our talk to encourage members of the cloud native community to actively overcome their imposter syndrome. In doing so, we aim to help individuals reach their full potential by increasing contributions, building confidence, and making the existing community more inviting for new members and underrepresented people.
The presenters will use their mentor-mentee relationship as an example to illustrate the ways they support each other in overcoming imposter syndrome. Through this talk they will invite others to do the same in their own communities.
Kat Yang (they/them) is a software engineer at Grafana Labs. They are a maintainer of the backend open source project. Since Kat is coming to tech from a nontraditional background, they are passionate about accessibility in tech for everyone, especially for people from underrepresented groups.
Ida is a Software Engineer who enjoys building and maintaining software in an open source manner. She is an advocate for gender diversity in tech and enjoys mentoring and supporting underrepresented people.