Combating Imposter Syndrome

“You’re not good enough to be on this team.”
“You tricked them into hiring you.”
“It’s a matter of time before you get found out.”

Fortunately, this isn’t feedback from my leadership or peers—although how wild would it be if someone opened a conversation with that? #ToxicWorkEnvironment. 

These are my own thoughts. And they’ve been especially loud ever since I joined the Product Marketing team at Wiz. I’m surrounded by some of the smartest people I’ve met in my career, working in an intense, fast-paced environment, where the product is widely adopted and rapidly evolving. It’s amazing, but rather than relishing in it, I’m questioning whether I belong. 

I know I’m not alone. 62% of people struggle with some form of Imposter Syndrome, and yet the statistic offers little comfort when the voice in your head feels uniquely convincing. Having gone through this a few times, I’ve realized Imposter Syndrome doesn’t disappear with growth.

So rather than trying to silence it, I built small practices that keep it in perspective and prevent it from dictating how I show up. 

A Quick Primer on Imposter Syndrome 

If you’re not interested in the extra exposition, skip to the next section. 

Imposter Syndrome is a behavioural health phenomenon characterized by the persistent belief that your success is undeserved, that you got lucky, and it’s only a matter of time before someone figures it out. That inability to internalize success often leads people with Imposter Syndrome to experience feelings of anxiety, self-doubt, and depression.

It shows up in various ways. You receive praise for performance, but you don’t really hear it because they’re just “being nice”. During a team call, you struggle to contribute to the conversation, so of course, your teammates are judging you. And after no one reacted to a post you shared in Slack, it’s a definite sign you’re about to get fired. 

We can laugh about these examples when we call them out, but the crippling thing about Imposter Syndrome is that over time, neutral moments begin to feel like negative signals that strengthen the saboteur. 

Outwardly, nothing appears wrong. Work gets delivered. Conversations happen. Wins accumulate. But internally, a parallel narrative runs questioning whether any of it is real or sustainable. The gap between how others experience you and how you experience yourself begins to widen, and it’s in that gap where Imposter Syndrome grows. 

Emails to your Future Self 

To help keep the voices at bay, one of the activities I committed to before joining Wiz was to schedule emails to my future self over the next year. It sounds odd, but having gone through the process of joining a new company a few times now, I have a good pulse on how my temperament fluctuates as I onboard into an organization. The emails that hit my inbox serve as an anticipatory form of feedback to keep myself in check.

The reason this works is because you’re borrowing clarity from a calmer, more level-headed version of yourself. The stress of being in a new environment can trigger a state of fight or flight, which hinders your ability to reason logically.

Having a drip of pre-planned emails introduces a counter-narrative. One that anticipates the ebbs and flows you will experience, frames it as part of the process, and provides validation on how you’ve overcome it in the past. 

If you’re curious, here’s an excerpt from my week 18 email: 

“Salman, 

By now, your enthusiasm for the Wiz has likely been curbed by your overwhelming imposter syndrome. This is normal and consistent with previous timelines. Let’s reiterate, you’ve been here before and successfully navigated your way through it. Before you say “Yes, but this time it’s different because it’s Wiz.” Remember, you said that every other time. The CX use case at Vidyard? Your first launch at Miovision? How about messaging for the Smart Builder at Unbounce? Learning about Business Customer Identity at Okta? Or trying to make sense of AppSec at GitLab? 

In every situation, you suffered from imposter syndrome. You were so hard on yourself, but came out the other side stronger…You don’t need to be perfect on day one, you just need to show you’re constantly growing…

Keep growing.” 

Talk to Yourself in Third Person 

Have you ever noticed it’s easy to give people advice when they’re going through a tough situation, but when we go through something ourselves, we lose that clarity? Advising others feels simple because we have a sense of distance from their woes, which is more challenging to do for yourself. When we evaluate our own qualms, the framing shifts from a curious, coaching stance of “Why don’t you think you can do this?” to a first-person spiral of “There’s no way I can do this.” 

Anticipatory feedback is helpful, but we also need to address in-the-moment coaching, which is where addressing yourself in the third person can be a powerful tactic—and the research proves it. 

In his book Magic Words, author Jonah Berger references a study where 89 participants were split into two groups and given five minutes to prepare a speech on why they were a good fit for their dream job. The first group was told to coach themselves in the first person, whereas the second group was told to coach themselves in the third-person. The results of the study showed that the second group not only delivered more confident, compelling speeches, but they also experienced less anxiety going in and less self-criticism coming out of it.

I’ve applied this several times over the past few months. Whenever I catch myself saying, “I don’t belong here.” I step back and reframe it as “Why wouldn’t Salman belong here?”. 

Keep a Win Bin 

Imposter Syndrome is sneaky because it’s a feelings problem, masquerading as a facts problem. One antidote is to log evidence that challenges the voice in your head through a win bin. 

Call it whatever you want—a hype file, a brag bag, an awesome possum doc—the name matters less than the habit itself, but it’s simply a running document where you capture positive feedback you’ve received. It’s something I picked up at my last gig and serves as a private, honest record of proof that you are providing value.

Over time, it does three things: it trains your brain to scan for evidence instead of feelings; it builds identity continuity that you do indeed provide value; and it reduces catastrophic thinking by giving you something concrete to reach for when the spiral starts.

My personal win bin includes screenshots of kudos in Slack from my peers and notes on feedback I’ve received in person. The win bin doesn’t stop the voice from showing up, but it does give me receipts to challenge it. 

***

I used to believe it was a phase, something that faded as competence grew. Experience, I thought, would eventually replace doubt. But what I’ve come to realize is that Imposter Syndrome doesn’t disappear with growth. Growth is what invites it in. The critical reframe is that it shows up because you care. It’s a sign that you’re in a room where the standards are high, and you actually want to meet them. The goal isn’t to silence the voice; it’s to build scaffolding to help manage it so it doesn’t impede your growth or destroy your self-worth. 

A mentor once told me it’s better to be in a place where you know 20% of the job versus 80%, because you have more room to stretch—even if you fail in that environment, you’ll have learned a lot more. Imposter Syndrome is the tax you pay for choosing the harder room.

If you’re reading this and are afflicted with self-doubt, I hope some of these techniques help. 

And remember: you are enough.