Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
M A N A G I N G I M P O S T E R
S Y N D R O M E
N O RT H E A S T P H P 2 0 1 7

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
M A N A G I N G I M P O S T E R
S Y N D R O M E
N O RT H E A S T P H P 2 0 1 7

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
A B O U T M E
• Web Developer for 13 years.
• Lead Web Engineer at 10up - we’re hiring!
• WordPress Core contributor.

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
A N I M P O S T E R ’ S S TO RY

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
FA K E I T ’ T I L Y O U M A K E I T

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
G E T T I N G M Y D R E A M J O B

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
R E A L FA C T S F R O M T H E
I N T E R N E T

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
I M P O S T E R S Y N D R O M E
• Term was coined in 1978 by clinical psychologists Dr.
Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes.
• Over 70% of people have experienced it at one time or
another in their lives.
• High achievers are most likely to suffer from it.

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
C H A R A C T E R I S T I C S
• Inability to internalize successes and a persistent fear
of being exposed as a “fraud”.
• Proof of success is dismissed as luck, timing, or as a
result of “tricking” others.
• Success doesn’t make it go away.

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
D U N N I N G - K R U G E R E F F E C T
• The opposite of Imposter Syndrome.
• A cognitive bias in which low-ability individuals
mistakenly assess their ability as much higher than it
really is.
• Misconception of self VS Misconception of others

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
W H AT T H E Y K N O W
W H AT I
K N O W
P E R C E P T I O N O F K N O W L E D G E

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
U N S O L I C I T E D A D V I C E

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
R E C O G N I Z E I T

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
TA L K A B O U T I T

MeImposter Syndrome

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
A U TO M AT I C T H O U G H T S

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
T E A C H

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
K E E P T R A C K O F Y O U R
S U C C E S S E S

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
M I S TA K E S M A K E Y O U
H U M A N , N O T U N Q U A L I F I E D

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
Y O U C A N ’ T K N O W
E V E RY T H I N G

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
20 Hours a Week X 50 Weeks X 10 Years
10,000 Hours

• HTML
• CSS
• PHP
• Vanilla
Javascript
• Vagrant
• VVV
• VIP Quickstart
• WordPress API
• Object-
oriented
programming
• Design patterns
• jQuery
• AJAX
• JSON
• The Command
line
• WP_CLI
• Bash scripting
• Grunt
• SASS
• ES6
• Webpack
D AY TO D AY S K I L L S

IT’S OK

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
L E T I T M O T I VAT E Y O U

Ryan Welcher • @ryanwelcher • NorthEast PHP 2017
10up.com/careers/
joind.in/talk/338d8
Thanks!