What if it wasn’t a lack of competence, but an excess of doubt?
You are considering changing jobs, but you are tired. Not physically. Tired of being vigilant, of feeling like you are playing a role, of waiting for the moment when people will discover that you do not really belong. A voice inside you whispers: ‘I am going to be exposed,’ ‘They are going to realise that I am not legitimate.’ This isn’t honesty. It’s not lucidity. It’s what’s known as imposter syndrome.
This feeling affects competent, committed people who are often demanding of themselves. And paradoxically, the further you progress, the more intense it can become. Because the stakes of disappointment grow. Because new experiences expose you. Because success does not calm doubt: it merely shifts it.
Impostor syndrome: a major obstacle to career change
Psychologists Pauline Clance and Suzanne Imes defined this mechanism in 1978. It becomes a major obstacle when it blocks access to a new career: not because you are incompetent, but because you doubt your very right to pursue something else. You don’t dare apply, or you over-control yourself in interviews. You interpret every silence as a rejection, every validation as a mistake. And you end up sabotaging your own efforts through excessive self-criticism. You attribute your successes to luck, misunderstanding, or the kindness of a recruiter. Rarely to your skills.
It is not a question of modesty or objectivity. It is a deep-seated doubt, often long-standing, that causes you to question the legitimacy of your position, even in the face of concrete evidence of competence.
Several factors contribute to this syndrome:
* You were raised in an environment where success had to be exceptional to be recognised.
* You come from an unconventional or self-taught background, which makes you more vulnerable to “official” criteria of legitimacy.
* You are a perfectionist, and therefore very demanding of yourself.
* You are moving into a new professional environment (career change, promotion, change of sector).
These contexts foster a form of constant self-monitoring: you feel like you got there by mistake, and that you have to prove, day after day, that you deserve to be there. It’s not that you’re less competent. It’s that no one has taught you how to fully take your place. Imposter syndrome describes a gap between what you achieve and what you think you deserve. You attribute your successes to luck, misunderstanding, or the kindness of a recruiter. Rarely to your skills.
This feeling of illegitimacy persists even when evidence to the contrary accumulates. And it is not resolved by performance: it sometimes grows stronger as you progress. Because the more you enter a new world, the more you fear that you will not live up to the image others have of you.
It is not your position that is being questioned. It is you who are not granting it to yourself.
Jean, 48, a former technical agent who retrained as a trainer: ‘I knew how to explain things, I got positive feedback, but I felt like an intruder. I kept thinking: when are they going to realise that I’m not a real trainer?’
Mina, 39, former assistant turned HR manager: ‘I tick all the boxes, but I still feel like I’m being tested. It’s as if I have to prove every day that I’m not a casting mistake.’
Martine, 54, an engineer who became a project manager, confides: ‘Every time someone congratulates me, I smile, but I grit my teeth. I tell myself that one day they will see that I am not as competent as they think I am.’
These voices are not talking about a lack of competence. They are talking about a discrepancy between your reality and your view of yourself. What you do exists. What you feel comes from elsewhere.
Three ways to dispel doubt
* Write down what you have achieved without external validation. A situation, a gesture, a transformation.
* Ask two people you trust what they consider to be natural about you that you tend to downplay.
* Stop trying to persuade. Focus on what you bring to the table here and now.
Changing careers does not mean taking someone else’s place. It means taking your place in a space that you have already begun to build.
👉 Identify your appetences: your appetites do not judge what you know how to do, they reveal what you enjoy doing. It is by refocusing on this enjoyment that you will rediscover your inner legitimacy, free from any external judgement.
