Becky struggled with imposter syndrome after comparing herself to peers with high-profile research, but an Academy cohort helped her recognize her own value. She used mindfulness and breathing exercises before her interview to manage anxiety, and when her computer crashed during it, she handled the moment well. Personalized feedback from the group made all the difference.
Probably being more confident in the importance of the things that I'd done and the things that I could sell myself with. I felt previously a little bit like the world was full of everyone else who's done these big high-flying fancy research projects or these fellowship projects, and I was just little old me having done run-through training but very slowly because of family reasons, and that I didn't really have anything much to offer. And then actually, by the time I finished the Academy, I was like, I have done things and they do matter and people do want them. And teasing those out over the course was probably the biggest shift for me, really. Actually quite calm, and that was because the work I'd done in the time closer to the interview made it very clear that if anything was going to hold me back in this interview, it was going to be my own mindset and confidence and of getting flustered. So I spent the night before and the morning before, rather than trying to remember new things or learn new things, chilled out. I did a bit of cheesy mindfulness and breathing practice before I went in to try and get that mindset calm, because I knew that that was going to be the thing that threw me, if anything. Yeah, I was actually strangely calm going into it, which was nice. When I walked out the door, That's when I went, oh my goodness, the computer crashed and this was awful. And then I had my, my me meltdown, really. Um, not a meltdown, but that's when I started to think that it had actually gone really badly. And actually, it was only later down the line when I started to think through it all that I was like, actually, I handled that all right.
I, I'm pleased that that happened because that— all that, these feelings about, oh, this is, you know, it was a disaster, I messed it up. That's the sort of thing that you could have brought into the interview and would really have affected you, but whatever you did, you managed to hold all of that out to perform well, which is really, really good.
Absolutely do it. No regrets from doing it. And I think the thing for me was, although it was a group course with a cohort, that actually the feedback and the advice you get given is Uh, it's really personalized. We've never met before, but within just a few sessions, you'd picked out what it was gonna be for me that was gonna be my issue. Um, and to be able to then know that in advance and build on it was, yeah, really, really helpful. Being part of the group and hearing other people's, um, answers and seeing their— it was also really helpful because there'll be things that some people said and I'm like, yeah, I've done that. And I would never have thought of bringing it up before, but actually that's really useful to know. So yeah, for me, a much better format than sitting in a lecture theatre for a day or something like that.
