Kate Thought

Finding Confidence in Your Expertise. Self-Discovery.

Every employer apparently wants to see:

  • Seasoned
  • Expert
  • Proficient
  • Skilled
  • Knowledgeable
  • Accomplished
  • Practiced
  • Qualified

Product Manager, Scrum Master, Project Manager, and so on. 

When I see these adjectives in job ads, I always stop and ask myself, “Am I? Am I good enough to declare it?” 

(And from another side, there is the current trend to have “imposter syndrome.” It seems like you are not good enough or modest if you don’t have it, doesn’t it?)

Some time ago I had an interesting session with V. Malina. She is a neuropsychologist, Ph.D. in Education, researcher, and author of several methods for diagnosing and transforming personal and corporate strategies. In two words, she can read your goals and thoughts just by looking at a piece of paper where you’ve drawn something automatically without thinking during a meeting, perhaps because you were used to doing it during meetings or were bored.

No need to roll your eyes, I’m not the kind of person who asks witches or esoterics for advice. This is serious, this is science. The session was dedicated to my career path because I wasn’t sure who I was after all and what I wanted. And I want to share one interesting discovery from the session:

“When you work in your area of expertise (the area which is really yours and you enjoy being there), you feel like you do almost nothing, but the work is done and you don’t understand what you are paid for because all the work seems to be done by others, and you are just standing beside.”

I laughed a lot when I heard that statement because that was exactly how I felt at my previous role. My teams consisted of high-level specialists in their domain knowledge areas. It was a real pleasure and delight to collaborate with them, keep a good working atmosphere while product development  and maintain the real team spirit.

So, that feeling meant I chose the expertise area correctly; it really fits me. 

But still, as usual, I had some doubts, and then she asked me, “Kate, what was your favourite subject in high school?“

I was shocked by the question. I got a medal after finishing school, which means I was excellent in all subjects. You call such people “nerds” in English. I was mixed emotionally and couldn’t remember at once if I felt pleasure in learning any subject; it was mostly the duty to be excellent.

Only in the evening, when I calmed down, I suddenly remembered how addicted I was to informatics classes in school and university (we had them at the Civil Engineering faculty; we wrote programs in Basic language). In high school (it was a long time ago; I finished it in 2001), I didn’t have a personal computer at home and I was eager to do something on PC. I attended all classes, computer club, and even agreed to print the school wallpaper just to spend more time with computers and technology.

I felt so happy and relieved when I recalled this time: my interest and happiness.

Conclusion.

Don’t be nervous when you feel you’re doing nothing at your job while all your colleagues say they enjoy working with you and appreciate the value you bring to your team, product, and company. It may mean that you are exactly in the right place—in your area of expertise.

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