The Imposter Staff Engineer’s Journey to Leadership

Abstract

I, an undercover Imposter Syndrome sufferer, masquerade as a Staff Software Engineer amid an army of coding geniuses. Imagine you’re playing a video game where you’re pretending to be a powerful leader, but deep down, you’re convinced you’re not really good enough. That’s my daily life as a staff software engineer leading a team, except it’s not a game, and the ‘quit’ button doesn’t work. In this talk, I’ll tell you about my hilarious misadventures and unexpected triumphs in the rollercoaster ride of being a staff software engineer and how my team still manages to create cool things despite my ‘imposter’ moments.