This was a blog post I wrote a while ago as part of the Global Leadership Program (GLP) at Macquarie University. Unfortunately the GLP was shut down by the Vice Chancellor’s office before it could be posted but I wanted to still post it on my own in case it could help anyone going through something similar to me. I learned some really valuable and sometimes difficult lessons directly because of the Global Leadership Program and to have it axed from the university when it has benefited so many students is devastating. I hope in the future it can be reinstated for students or a similar program can be put in place. Below is my word-for-word blog post originally submitted to the GLP. Enjoy!
Now listen, I’m not saying my imposter syndrome has been defeated because it certainly hasn’t but my growth as a person from my first year at Macquarie University to my last year has been dramatic to say the least.
So let’s break it down. What happened? When I joined GLP it was honestly mainly to appease my overachiever gene (not my only reason, but a forefront for sure). I wanted that extra star on my transcript to help me get into industry. I also joined just after we had started getting back into in-person classes so I was excited to meet and talk to new people.
At the same time that I joined GLP, I had also been promoted at my current job from data entry to Data Manager. Scary. Extra scary as I had no formal training, everything I learnt I had learnt on the job and I was the only person in my department. So began the imposter syndrome.
It started off small, like a little snowball at the top of the hill. It wasn’t too bad, my job was still relatively the same and my career trajectory was also still similar. Then more projects started coming in, along with more opportunities. And I flipped my entire career trajectory upside down.
Let me take a couple steps back, when I started university my main goal was to become a database administrator, this was the next step in my career and it seemed like the right step since I loved my job as a Data Manager. That changed when I became a student society executive for the Macquarie Association of Computing Students (MACS). I loved the community and guess what? Another tick for GLP. I got to talk to industry, to who would become my friends and mentors, and experiment with different areas of technology, including cybersecurity. After some positive aggressive reinforcement from friends and the executive team, I tried my first hacking competition in October 2022, and I was hooked. This is where my career trajectory started turning on its head.
In the next year or so I would compete in multiple cybersecurity competitions, learn cybersecurity practices, attend conferences, help found Women in Cybersec at university and choose cybersecurity classes for my electives. My own job as a Data Manager had even evolved to include a cybersecurity focus. Once internship applications had started opening, I decided to take a leap of faith and applied to cybersecurity-based internships so that I could get a taste of what the industry looks like. After countless applications, interviews and rejections, I landed one at Deloitte.
That snowball I talked about earlier? Yeah that’s not a snowball anymore, that’s a fully fledged snow boulder coming right for me.
Uh oh.
Did I calm that imposter syndrome down before I got to Deloitte? No, no I did not. In fact it was actually one of my mentors that helped me get over it while I was there, or at least start to. While at my internship, we were encouraged to have many coffee catch ups with all different people and departments to get to know the company as well as the broader team that we would be a part of. I met countless partners, directors, managers and graduates that were all completely different with different paths and degrees (one of the cyber partners had a degree in German!) and all had landed at one of the Big 4 after an incredible journey.
I talked to my mentors about imposter syndrome while I was there and managing it and one of the biggest pieces of feedback I got was about reflection. I remembered that I too had a journey like the people I talked to, I was a jeweller once (whole other story), then in Data Entry, a Data Manager, a Student Ambassador, a President of a student society, and now I was at Deloitte still following my dreams even though they had changed a bit. I remembered all the amazing things I had been able to do, all the experiences I gained because I put myself out there. Because I said yes.
Slowly but surely the snow boulder melted back down into a snowball. Into something more manageable. If it wasn’t for the GLP and that little extra bit of motivation to push myself, to get out there, to say yes, I don’t think I would have ended up where I am today and I don’t think I would have been able to tackle my imposter syndrome as well as I have been able to. Don’t get me wrong, it is still 100% there but when it starts to get in the way, I’ll sit down and reflect on all the amazing things I’ve done and are going to do and tell myself, “I worked hard to be here, I deserve to be here”.
TLDR; Say yes to the opportunities given to you as long as you are able, don’t be scared of new opportunities and always be as adaptable as you can be to new situations that arise.