What Do I Do When I Feel Like A Fraud at Work?

What Do I Do When I Feel Like A Fraud at Work? 

Sick of the nausea when your name gets called in meetings? Read this blog post. 

"They see right through me." "I'm not qualified, not like them." "How did I even get this job, anyway?" "Getting fired is just around the corner, I feel it."

How many of these whispered fears have come out of your mouth this month?

If your answer is more than once or twice, you're likely struggling with feeling like a fraud at work—one of the most common imposter syndrome examples to date.

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And, if you're struggling currently, you're not alone. Current data suggests that 70-84% of individuals experience imposter syndrome at any given time, meaning that you're in good company (and that it's a normal part of the personal development process).

Feeling fraudulent doesn't have to define your professional story, though. Our team rounded up a list of possible reasons your imposter syndrome is kicking up, as well as tips you can start using today to silence the voice—for good.

Recognizing When You Feel Like a Fraud 

The first step to successfully managing imposter syndrome is recognizing when it happens, and what possibly triggers it. Avoidance isn’t the move here—awareness is. Once you determine when it happens to you, typically, you can stay prepared with a kit of techniques and tools to bring you back down to reality. 

Not sure where to start? Here are a few imposter syndrome examples that might jog your memory—gauge how you feel after reading each one. 

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• The Perfectionist Trap: You spend three hours perfecting emails which should take two minutes. Nothing ever feels “good” or complete. Once you send it you panic, dig in sent, and check five times over for typos. The thought of a mistake brings you physical pain. 
• The Know-It-All Complex: Asking questions is a sign of weakness, or so you may feel. So, you prepare for meetings like it’s your Super Bowl, spending hours into the evening looking at reports that likely won’t even get mentioned. 
• The Lone Wolf Experience: Trust no one. If you want to get a job done right, do it yourself. Exposure is weakness, and weakness is fatal. You have to be perfect at everything, all by yourself—every time. 
• The Overachiever’s Dilemma: You feel that you have to work 60-hour weeks just to “fit in” with the high-performing culture you’re immersed in…and you’re convinced that if you slow down, they’ll sense that you’re weak, or a failure—resulting in your termination. 

Add any of these experiences in with the vicious physical symptoms that surface when you feel like a fraud, and you have a recipe for chaos. 

Thankfully, though, the cycle stops today. 

Strategies to Try When You Feel Like a Fraud at Work 

It’s time to leave the feel-good platitudes and kitten posters behind. Here are a few battle-tested strategies that actually work to combat the imposter syndrome examples we talked about above: 

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• Document your wins. Sounds dumb? Maybe to some. But it’s worth it. Your success journal serves as a reminder of every “win” you’ve gotten, giving your brain something solid to justify your success against. This works psychologically to combat negativity bias that may be inbuilt from past triggers and experiences, making it harder for your inner critic to rewrite reality. 
• Reframe your dialogue. If you’ve found yourself in a cycle of saying “I don’t belong here,” or “I got lucky,” it’s time to verbally re-state those thoughts. Transform those phrases into psychologically healthy alternatives rooted in truth—like “I am growing into this role,” “I’m learning and practicing,” or “I worked hard and it paid off.” It’s been psychologically proven that people who practice active and intentional reframing showed increased resilience and better performance over time. 
• Speak your truth. Of course, we don’t recommend dumping on people in the break room. However, we do recommend identifying trusted mentors, counselors, and peers who can come alongside you and remind you of who you really are—even in moments of doubt. You can find a local therapist here. 
• Invest in competence. Sometimes, the best way to stop feeling like a fraud at work is to invest in actual courses and resources to help make you objectively competent in your niche. You wouldn’t do this to prove anything to anyone but yourself—giving your brand another piece of solid proof that you are, in fact, qualified. 

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Takeaway 

Truth bomb time: You're not a fraud. You're a professional who's still figuring things out—and that's exactly what you're supposed to be doing. That's what we're all doing, in fact.

Learning to tell your story authentically makes the difference between feeling like a fraud forever and building genuine confidence. Your professional narrative deserves to be heard, both by yourself, honestly, and other stakeholders.

Why? Simple. 

Because when you are able to clearly define your objective value in a role, beyond who you are as a person (you have inherent value simply for being you!) that naysaying voice starts to fade. 

After all—it's hard to feel like a fraud when you're looking at evidence of your hard work and wins.

This is why video resumes have become a huge game-changer for professionals like you who feel like a fraud at work. There's something powerful about playing yourself back and soaking in the right things you HAVE done instead of overthinking mistakes you've made.

It's time to stop letting imposter syndrome write your story. Instead, it's time for you to grab the camera and tell it yourself to your dream jobs and supervisors—laying everything on the table authentically and on your own terms.

Explore RealHire's video resume tool for free today and experience the difference true confidence makes.