“I don’t add any real value to the team” 

“I don’t know how good any of my ideas are” 

“I am not good enough” 

Imposter syndrome. You’ve probably heard about it. You’re probably experiencing it right now. And you’re not alone. Two weeks back, we at The Ken put out a survey on imposter syndrome. Since then we have received over 115 responses from young professionals in the 18-25 age group. The survey was titled “Are you good enough at your job?”

You probably took the survey. I read and reviewed each and every response and called up over 30 people from the survey who consented to have a follow-up conversation with me. There was only one thing on my mind: why do so many of them in the first two years deal with imposter syndrome? 

Before the survey, we looked at imposter syndrome as something you get over as it hinders progress. But after the survey, it’s clear that small doses of workplace imposter thoughts can fuel your growth and help you get ahead, too. 

Host Akshaya Chandrasekaran will take you inside the minds of fascinating people, highly ambitious and top performers – who all consider themselves imposters at work.

Have a work bestie who makes your days at the office brighter? We want to hear from you. Take the survey and let us know: 

Download the brand-new app here.

Recommended reading: You can check out Basima Tewfik's study here.

If you have a career question you want us to cover? Tell us. 

This episode was written and hosted by Akshaya Chandrasekaran, and produced by Anushka Mukherjee, with audio engineering by Rajiv CN. 

The First Two Years is produced from the newsroom of The Ken, India’s first subscriber-only business news platform. 

Subscribe for more exclusive business stories, deeply-reported newsletters, and a whole lot of stuff.