Overcoming imposter syndrome and marketing your professional identity

This episode is all about imposter syndrome and professional identity formation and how they can impact your pursuit of post-graduate training opportunities. Questions we discuss: What is imposter syndrome? Is it restricted to just student pharmacists What is professional identity, how does it relate to imposter syndrome? How can you identify if your imposter syndrome fears aren’t actually true things? What are some strategies to build confidence and limit imposter syndrome? How can you develop and market your professional identity into your self-branding? What advice would you give pharmacy educators to support professional identity formation and curb or limit imposter syndrome? This episode's take-aways: 1. Imposter syndrome: feeling of inadequacy or doubting your capabilities. This feeling is not restricted to just students or residents. In fact, it is commonly felt by everyone, even those who are seasoned in their careers, especially when they have new experiences. This is an ongoing phenomenon you will encounter throughout your career. 2. Professional identity: thinking, feeling, and acting like a given profession (i.e. pharmacist). The “feeling” component of this can be difficult and can take a long time to develop the core values and behaviors of the profession. It takes a lot of time and experience to “feel” like a pharmacist. 3. Relationship between imposter syndrome and professional identity: not having fully developed a professional identity can lead to feelings of inadequacy (i.e. imposter syndrome). Professional identity formation goes through periods of growth, expansion, and reconstruction over the course of one’s career which can lead to feelings of imposter syndrome during those changes. Normalizing these feelings and embracing these new, but sometimes uncomfortable, experiences is fundamental to overcoming them. 4. Strategies to overcome feelings of imposter syndrome: Normalize the feeling Be transparent and discuss it with mentors Share experiences with one another Reflect