Wanderlust: Expat Life & Style in Thailand June / July 2017: The Business Issue | Page 30

FOOLED YOU:
THE RISE OF THE
CAREER FRAUDS
Impostor syndrome among high achievers has been well-
documented since the 1970s. While it has since been debunked
as a uniquely female phenomenon, it’s an experience that seems
to be expressed more frequently and strongly in women. In this
article, Annaliese Watkins examines how impostorism might
be holding you back when you could be pushing forward.
I
t began as my career did. My first
writing job out of university was with
a small SEO firm dealing with local
companies — plumbers, pet shops,
driving instructors — writing copy
that would get their modest business-
es noticed on Google. I was good at it.
Great, actually. I consistently achieved
higher rankings for clients than my col-
leagues. And yet I harbored a pervad-
ing sense that it was all happening by
luck. Instead of giving myself credit
for a job well done, I felt I was some-
how tricking everyone around me into
thinking I was competent. It was only a
30 WANDERLUST
matter of time, I thought, before they’d
find me out.
This looming cloud of fraudu-
lence only grew as my prospects did
and I moved onto bigger and better
things, swapping carpet cleaners for
big brands like Manchester United
and luxury fashion houses. Every
time my manager asked to have a pri-
vate chat with me, I feared the worst:
That’s it. I’ve been rumbled.
Perhaps back then, new to my field
and still with much to learn, it wasn’t
so strange to feel inadequate. But now,
almost ten years later and far more ca-
pable, there are still times when I feel
like a fraud, balancing on the brink of
being found out. And I’m not alone.
SPEAKING OUT
In a 2013 interview with Rookie
magazine, actress and UN Women
Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson
disclosed the doubts she faces when
contemplating her successes: “It’s al-
most like the better I do, the more
my feeling of inadequacy actually in-
creases, because I’m just going: ‘Any
moment, someone’s going to find
out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t
deserve any of what I’ve achieved.’”
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