A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.
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This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.
Totally selected the wrong meme for the old title, but here we are.
I actually really like this. I suffer heavily from Imposter Syndrom, and one of the biggest realizations I had was that my new project manager manages to keep his job despite being absolutely horrible at it.
The one previous to him was worse.
Unfortunately it's a "liars market" in that liars get "whatever" jobs they want, to hell with credentials.
Unfortunately I'm pretty much incapable of bullshitting, I'm honest to a gigantic fault. So many job listings with insane requirements and then people say "just apply anyway." ....no? They're asking for a thing and I don't have it. I'm not the kind of person to Google "how to do my job" after I've been hired.
I seriously need to get out of my job, but seeing all these "dog shit cleaners. Masters degree required. Pay: $2/hr" is insanely depressing...
Most jobs are terrible at distinguishing between requirements, responsibilities, and nice to haves. Most requirements are actually responsibilities which means you'll need to learn those skills but don't need to already know them. As long as you think you can pick them up you should be fine.
You apply anyway because half the time the things jobs "require" is the same marketing fluff they add everywhere. Similarly to you I have a hard time bullshitting because I try to be honest about what I know and what I don't, and for the first few years of my career I was incapable of bullshitting. Then my credentials were required for a project and I had to sit down with a sales person to "fix up" my resume. It went something like this:
"Was Power BI used in this project?"
"Well, yes, but I didn't really use it. I opened it maybe once."
"I'll mark it down as experience with Power BI"
Really opened my eyes to how things get done. Some of what gets added as "requirements" tend to never come up. During an interview it's always worthwhile to prod a bit at the requirements to see what is and isn't bullshit, because I guarantee there is always some bullshit that you will never need.
Similarly don't be afraid to bullshit a bit on your resume because you can't know everything about everything. Bit of technical jargon but I'll get to the point, I swear. My first job switch was for a position that required experience with microservices. This was in the early days when people were still figuring out what these mystical microservices are. I was then working on a project that was using a microservice architecture, but I never felt like the project was getting any real benefits from that decision and the applications didn't feel "micro". Nevertheless I put it down as experience and I rationalized it as it's experience either way. If it's done right and I see it done the same way in a different project then it does mean I have the experience. If it's not done right then I'll have the experience of how it could be done wrong which means I still have some experience. Kinda BS but it landed me the position. I then learned that my experience was both right and wrong, so I quickly learned from the mistakes of the previous project, learned how to do it right and applied them in the new project. In the end I was highly regarded in the project despite at first feeling like I bullshitted myself in. As long as you're willing to put in the effort to overcome your shortcomings you're allowed to bullshit a little, because nobody cares as long as things get done without huge issues. Just don't sell yourself on things you know you can't overcome.
My team is currently hiring, and I got to listen in on the conversation with HR when they were developing the job posting. The job posting includes requirements that the team knows they are unlikely to find, especially finding all of them in a single candidate. The posting calls them requirements, but really it's more of a wish list. If you come across listings where you meet half of their requirements (wish list), and think you can learn some of the others, you should apply.
Apply. Just be honest on your resume and honest in the interview. Source: I sometimes hire, but do not write the job postings.
Allegedly the only way to get rid of imposter syndrome is to just... do your work/stuff until it goes away.
I've been at the same job for 9 years, but I don't feel any more capable than at the start. I still have no idea what I'm doing while being sure others are constantly judging me. Any day my manager will take me apart to put me on a PIP or outright fire me. I've "known" this for years, and I'm as convinced as ever that it will happen eventually, soon even.
Yeah, I'm not sure if it ever goes away..... I recently got invited to sit on the national licensing board for my field. I'm literally helping make the test to see if you're an imposter, and I still feel like an imposter.
You are in the perfect position to help your brothers out!
This makes me think of those who design the US immigration forms.
"Are you coming here to commit crimes?"
( ) Yes ( ) No
Me too.
Imposter Syndrome is just the flipside of Dunning-Kruger. You must not let it paralyse you but you should know that it is a good thing. You can't get better unless you believe there is room to get better. And there always is room to get better, so you've been on the right track from the getgo.
Seems to be a requirement for managerial positions that you are completely worthless as a person. The majority of management I've seen in my time did nothing but actively take away value from the company, the employee's lives, and the customer's experience.
I would, but now there's free LLM's that can do what I do literally for free and 1000x faster.
Past that, I have no marketable skills that a modern LLM doesn't also have, and better. I very much doubt I'm alone in this. Between now and say, two to five years tops, my employers will know it too.
File LLMs under "confidently doing it wrong". They don't know anything, they just parrot what was scraped off the internet
Not disagreeing, but what does that help the thousands who will still lose their jobs regardless?
People who know whats good and wont settle for mediocrity are out there. Market to them!
Just wait it out ..... being confidently wrong only works for a limited time until people realize it isn't working at all .... and the point at which people, especially corporate leaders, realize it isn't working is the point when they start seeing that they aren't making money any more.
Jokes on you, OP's job is parroting things that were scraped off the internet!
Yeah, but when I do it it's funny because it's a reference
Funnily enough, that’s also what a large portion of people do too, just regurgitate stuff without comprehending its meaning.
Lots of people get ~~phds~~ masters and bachelors while just being able to answer textbook questions, start questioning them to get them to apply that knowledge and it’s just air. It’s literally what people call “book smart” vs “street smart”.
start questioning them to get them to apply that knowledge
That's literally what people do to get a PhD, they defend their thesis by answering a bunch of questions from professors about it. That's the point of a PhD.
It has nothing to do with "street smarts" unless the degree is from the "School of Hard Knocks".
Sorry maybe not phds specifically, but masters and bachelors definitely. Lots of certificates and qualifications require just written tests, no practical testing.
Ok, but you specifically said "PhD". Your comment sounds like you just don't know what a doctorate is.
I knew plenty of people that also do just that
I’m in the same boat as you. Nothing I can do can’t be done by an LLM or someone with Google. I fucking hate my job but realistically I won’t find anything better.
As I get older I think I get less confident in others faster than I get more confident in myself.
Me too. Feels shit doesn't it?
It's pretty freeing to realize that most people have no idea what's going on and that includes who you may perceive is at a high level. (Almost) Everyone has to report to someone and once you get past three levels from the top, it's like playing a game of telephone where the people at the top start with gibberish in the first place.
Do your best, learn every day (or don't), and don't be so hard on yourself. Nobody has any idea what's going on.
Everyone has to answer to someone.
Underlings to their managers, managers to senior management, senior management to C-suite, CEO has to answer to the board and shareholders.
Yeah but once you're at the level of senior management the answers can just be some buzzword biz nonsense and people will gobble it up.
been battling impostor syndrome for my whole career, and today i learned that one of the new (not new to the field) people on my team doesn't know how to use excel, the thing i spend like 50% of my working hours using.
worrying for my team and maybe the industry, but very comforting personally lol
Ask how much they get paid, then go to your boss asking for a raise because you can actually use excel, and this other person can't. You deserve more than they do, and id your boss won't give you the raise, you can go down to your coworkers level and stop using excel.
It never takes them long to see your value when you stop giving it to them.
This is just describing the last owner of our house.
Lol, my wife and I are having to deal with a retaining wall built in the 70s and left to rot. It was a cheap-ass railroad tie and wood retaining wall and if it's not fixed, our house will slide off a hill.
$170k to fix... When I said lol earlier, I meant I want to cry.
Holy fuck, we have a railroad tie retaining wall for the bank in our back yard, but that's keeping the bank from sliding towards the house, not for keeping the house up, and still, it's not even holding much back. I'd never trust that for anything critical. No way that would ever be approved today.
They're literally not approved by state ordinances anymore. And the previous 30 years of owners just completely neglected it. The soil erosion is so bad and it's a shame because we can see the remnants of what used to be a beautiful backyard.
We thought the fix would be closer to 50k when we bought it, which would have been mostly paid for by our previous house sale. But here we are with an entire house worth of repairs in our lap...
Brother, did you and I buy a home from the same family?
This helped me be confident I could learn to drive as a grownup: there are people out there who vote for deplorable and appalling candidates and have no self-awareness about it. Yet everyone pretty much appears to be able to drive alright.*
* does not apply in Boston namaste
Saying things confidently incorrect is like my whole identity.
You said that fairly confidently.. do I believe you or not?
What if I'm indeed mediocre at the thing and this only encourages to believe in my self inflated ego and carry on like normal?
Man I really used to rinse people when I was young.
Yes, but do you have plans to do it better and/or are you getting paid?
I was really on board until the last sentence basically perpetuated the same issue 😅 They think they're believing in their own excellence. Rather, admit your flaws and accept them because that's okay. Try your best to do better everyday.
I am sure the people she is denegrating are comforting themselves even now, imagining she is talking to them.
I know my worth!
...it's less. As in: worthless. Lol