Very often I meet friends, colleagues, workmates, internet acquaintances and also some not so acquainted beginning careers as myself. Something that came into light recently is how many of us struggle with the professional image that we idealize for ourselves.

Legend says that by 20 we all should know what to do, what we want to achieve. Around 30 there’s this pressure not only to know what we want but how to achieve it. The myth of the perfect professional has been bringing a lot of impostor syndrome to all of us.

It’s so easy to log in Linkedin and scroll through a feed where all our friends have great achievements and seem to be thriving perfectly in their careers. The Selective Success has spread from Instagram and Facebook to haunt professional beings.

Despite all that we see, it’s important to understand that this is just the pretty side of the embroidery. Turn it back and you will see the mess. Getting our professional life together is hard and not every day is productive. Working with a mentor, as I am right now, can be challenging for some people as they tend to think that they are the only ones struggling.

Being an Outreachy Intern made me realize how important it is to share our struggles. During our first meeting between alumni and new interns, we talked about our first week tackling our respective tasks. People mostly said that they were doing fine, but eventually, everyone opened up and exposed their feelings.

Some of us aren’t having any technical problems with our tasks, but realizing that it’s a bit overwhelming with all the new environment is important to show to others that it’s completely ok to be struggling.

We must take this to our professional journey, we need to accept that struggles will come and that’s alright to suffer with them.
I must admit that although I considered myself a very private person that worried about online security I had to Adapt. After having more contact with the Tor community there were tools and methods to be learned and used that I wasn’t expecting. Encrypting my e-mails was never something that I’ve considered doing, but it was necessary.

I struggled to try to understand the hundreds of different options to PGP encryption and trying to make something work out with my e-mail server. I felt like a tech noobie asking questions to my mentor and everyone in the community. Questions that now, two weeks later, I can see how shallow and easy they were.

Asking for help is necessary, it’s a process that may help us grow even though it may be embarrassing sometimes. With my mentor’s help, I was able to set a nice add-on on my e-mail to encrypt everything. It was something that I had tried to do for one entire week before giving up and asking for help.

So don’t let impostor syndrome crawl into your skin simply because you struggled about something. Asking for help and sharing problems don’t diminish your expertise and worth as a professional. If anything, it makes you a better person!

Copy? Over.