Whether you are an experienced apprentice, you have started at a new company, or you are starting your first job, it is normal to feel nervous in the beginning and question if your decisions and actions in your role are correct. Apprentices commonly experience imposter syndrome. An apprenticeship is a unique route to gain experience and an education. While you are working you may see your peers at sixth form or university and this may make you rethink your decision due to the imposter syndrome you are experiencing. These feelings do not define you or your abilities, your employer hired you as they can see the skills you possess, how you can develop in your team and how you can have a successful career. You also had the belief that you could do this role, and develop in your chosen industry, as you applied for it and went through the interview process. Trust the instincts of your past self and those that hired you instead of your current self-doubt. There are a number of things you can do and implement to reduce imposter syndrome, allowing you to excel in your career.
Professional Development-
Apprenticeships are designed to allow the participants to learn on them. To be able to see the impact you are having in your team, due to the quality of work you are producing and the skills you possess, you need to focus on your professional development. Your employer is not expecting you to know everything in your role when you join and they don’t expect you to be able to independently carry out a project. What they do expect is that you have a willingness to learn, will ask questions to more experienced colleagues and engage with training courses. By shifting your focus from what you cannot do to what you can learn, you will be able to develop skills, gain experience and build your confidence, consequently reducing imposter syndrome. Developing new skills can take time, to assure yourself that you are developing, keep track of your learning. For your apprenticeship you will need to track your new learning and how it aligns with your industry’s KSBs, to do this create clear, chronological logs of your learning so that when you review it you can easily identify your progress. In addition to keeping a log of your learning, when you have completed new tasks ask your colleagues for feedback and record it along with what you can do to improve the quality and efficiency of your work. By reflecting on your work, you will be constantly improving and becoming more confident in your skillset.
Volunteering-
A part of developing impostor syndrome is having low confidence in yourself, to build on this you will have to look for opportunities to push you out of your comfort zone. By volunteering for roles where you have to speak publicly, perhaps in a CPD event, will make you do extensive research into the required topic and work on your team engagement. Consequently, you will improve your public speaking skills and increase your general knowledge of that specific topic related to your role. In addition, you can join in team discussions allowing you to get used to voicing your opinion and you can also volunteer for project work or smaller work related tasks allowing you to develop your skills and allowing your team to know that you are reliable and eager to learn. By implementing the different practices, you will feel part of your team and have an increased confidence in your knowledge and skills.
