Upskilling can overcome imposter syndrome as new technologies emerge in the workplace

Upskilling can overcome imposter syndrome as new technologies emerge in the workplaceIn this article, Kelly Hills discusses how Generative AI is sending waves through the technology community. Kelly explains how upskilling can help workers bridge skills gaps and combat imposter syndrome.Generative AI is sending shockwaves through the technology industry – both good and bad. While it has the potential to boost efficiency and take over repetitive administrative tasks, it’s also putting tech workers under pressure to react quickly and build new skills.The pressure heightened by Generative AI is already making some job roles redundant, as tools like ChatGPT produce work ‘indistinguishable’ from human output, and bringing automation to writing, debugging and formatting code.All of this will likely compound imposter syndrome if employees aren’t able to keep up and develop the skills needed to work alongside the tech as businesses embrace it.In fact, we are already seeing employees realise the need to upskill to work with the new technology – Pluralsight’s ChatGPT and Generative AI course has jumped into the top 2% of courses learnt on the entire platform since its release in December 2022.This feeling of needing to quickly embrace new technology or risk your role becoming redundant isn’t new. The pace of change happens very quickly, and many have felt like they were being left behind before the dawn of AI, whether that was learning a new programming language or working on a cloud migration for the first time. Especially as a software engineer, there is huge demand to react to new tech evolutions to level-up, increase efficiency and innovative capability.Honestly, when I started my career as a junior software engineer, I was seriously struggling with imposter syndrome. I always worried that my skills weren’t up to scratch. Although imposter syndrome does still sometimes creep up on me, learning how to gain confidence through upskilling has helped keep those feelings of inadequacy in check.Below are my five key pieces of advice for those who may be feeling similar pressure to work with Generative AI, and how leaning into a continuous learning journey can be empowering.ACCEPT THAT YOU CAN’T BE AN EXPERT IN EVERYTHING, ALL AT ONCENo matter your role, there will always be a lot to learn. Being a good software engineer is about staying on the learning curve. This is what makes the industry so exciting, but equally can be so daunting.For example, there are currently five main cloud computing environments in use, and these are still evolving. Understanding the intricacies of each would require countless hours of learning which is simply not feasible – trying to achieve this will lead to frustration and diminished motivation.Rather than feeling overwhelmed by the enormity, understand that there will always be new concepts, that you can keep expanding your abilities but that it won’t happen instantly. Take breaks to maintain focus and motivation while learning new technical concepts.VIEW SKILL DEVELOPMENT AS A CONTINUOUS LEARNING JOURNEYThe tech skills you learnt just six months ago may be outdated now – clearly evidenced by how quickly Generative AI has come to the fore, and the speed at which it is evolving. Viewing skill development as a continuous process that can be integrated into your daily routine rather than being done once and ‘completed’, is the best way to build momentum and prevent burnout.As well as embracing continuous learning, finding ways to put your skills into daily practice such as through the use of hands-on labs and sandboxes is also important. In fact, nearly two thirds of technologists say that these methods are the most effective at preparing them to apply new learning on the job.ADOPT A GROWTH MINDSET AND SEE LEARNING AS AN OPPORTUNITYThe majority of my peers, including myself, love learning and solving problems; that is what we do day in day out as software developers. Upskilling plays into that curiosity. Online...