Recognizing the Imposter

Being a business major can be amazing but very daunting at the same time. When I started college as a freshman, I didn’t have an issue with imposter syndrome. Pretty much everyone was starting at the same level, so there wasn’t a reason to be intimidated. As semesters went by and my classification went up, I began to feel the imposter syndrome grow more and more. 

As I entered into my junior year, I began to see my classmates and other young adults my age making big moves. Some were becoming social media managers. Others were becoming brand ambassadors. Classmates were announcing how they have this internship and that internship. I didn’t even have the courage to apply for a simple E-board position, better yet, a brand ambassadorship. 

As time went on, I tried applying for different internships. I tried various industries, different job titles, different areas. Nobody would get back to me. It became a regular thing to see rejection emails in my inbox. Constantly seeing “Thank you for applying, sadly you don’t fit our qualifications.” was weighing pretty heavy on me. This made the imposter syndrome worse for me. I would try not to compare myself, but the same platform I was using to apply for internships was the same platform where people would announce their new accomplishments. This made it hard to avoid. 

I decided to change my major to computer information systems thinking I would obtain more opportunities and everything will be amazing, but that wasn’t the case. My imposter syndrome actually got worse. It was probably the worst it’s ever been in my entire college career. 

I realized it wasn’t the major, the school, or the students that were making my imposter syndrome worse. It was me. I realized that I was so focused on keeping up with my class that I was losing time to better myself. So I decided to make a change. I changed the way I looked at the entire picture of what I wanted for my life. I changed my major back to marketing, and I got to work. I created a portfolio, graphics, applied to internships, etc. it was almost as if I received a second wind under my wings. I’m more clear of my path and what I want. 

But even with all this change, my imposter syndrome isn’t 100% gone. I still have negative thoughts pop up here and there. Thoughts where I doubt myself and try to talk myself out of things. It’s never going to go away permanently. You just have to know who you are and speak positively toward yourself. 

I really wanted to share my story to let people know imposter syndrome is normal. Everyone deals with it at least once in their life. Like I said before, imposter syndrome is something that I still deal with to this day, but it’s getting better. 

• hcgsu
• HCXO
• impostor syndrome
• mental health