how did you gain more confidence early on in your career?
tldr: not sure if it’s imposter syndrome or if i’m actually an imposter, but if it’s the former i’d sure love tips!
i am a pre-doc. my PI has been really nice and affirming of my work. during our evaluations, he basically said that i was doing a good job but am just not very confident in my abilities despite my performance. i also notice that this is an issue with some of my female colleagues as well, and i’ve received similar feedback from other profs i’ve done research with.
i think it’s really difficult to see myself as someone who can get into a good ph.d. program bc of a few flaws on my application but can’t tell if i’m just psyching myself out or not. i think it’s good to be at least aware of the flaws in my application but it’s also making me a little stressed with the next cycle so close and so little time to improve. it’s also very difficult at this age to tell if you’d be a good researcher or not, and your first job after undergrad always involves a lot of growing pains
id love any concrete ways you all (esp. women in econ) have helped figure out your imposter syndrome, especially when you were very early in your careers. any tips on navigating the weird pre-doc phase would also be helpful. thanks!