Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass, Professional Development

Imposter Syndrome: How to keep it from limiting your potential

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

You’re smart, ambitious, and eager to make your mark in the world. You’ve built a foundation for a long and fulfilling career, and even have “proof” in the form of accolades and positive feedback. Maybe you recently got promoted to “that dream job”.

Yet, on some days, you can’t shake the feeling that you’re not truly deserving of what you have. When you reflect on your career so far, you attribute your success (“if I can even call it that“) to a series of fortunate events strung together by a few key people you were lucky to meet. Secretly, you know you only got to where you are because “the role happened to become available at the right time“, or “I was lucky to be placed on a high visibility project that caught the eye of my CMO“. On bad days, you’re overwhelmed with anxiety that one day a thread will be unraveled, exposing what lies underneath: you got here by fluke and you’re not actually as awesome as others may think.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass, Professional Development

A case for the steady, corporate 9-5

Let me get this out of the way: there is no shame in having a steady, 9-5 corporate job. For most of the population, it is an absolute privilege. Knowledge-based work in a cushy office sure beats clocking in at a minimum wage job, fighting for hours (from personal experience). But for many well-educated, high-achieving young professionals, working at a corporate job can be the equivalent of a death sentence.

Steady Freddy, however, loves his 9-5 gig at a multi-national corporation. He doesn’t think of it as “selling out” because he chose a more stable path. He’s only 25, so he’s not sure whether this will be a slam dunk for life. But for now, he doesn’t mind the predictable schedule. He also recognizes the many other benefits beyond a steady paycheck. Be like Freddy and consider the bigger picture.

It’s not a zero-sum game (the end of my attempt at basketball references).
Photo by Marcel Schreiber on Unsplash

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass, Professional Development

Why your career is not like a video game

4 min read

A few years ago, an article by Oliver Emberton that compared human life to a video game went viral. In a brilliant way, he used the structure of a video game to explain why it’s important to live with a strategy in mind. Think of it as the ultimate game guide for life. I loved the article so much that I had it bookmarked, and occasionally still revisit it 5 years later.

I definitely can’t call myself a hardcore gamer, especially now that I’m a stuffy, boring adult (whoa). But at 13 years old, I received my first Nintendo Gameboy Pocket for Christmas – Pikachu-yellow and glorious. I spent most of my allowance money on AAA batteries because my parents wouldn’t buy me a charger. Whatever money was left, I saved up to buy the latest Pokemon games as soon as they were released. I was sentenced to wearing glasses shortly thereafter, probably because of the countless days and nights I spent leveling up my Lapras to beat the Elite Four.

Today, it seems everything can be gamified. How fun your latest vacation was can be measured by the number of likes on Instagram (fortunately, this might go away). How good you are at public speaking can be measured by the number of connections who endorse you on that skill on LinkedIn. How savvy of a shopper you are can be measured by how many PC Optimum points you’ve banked. But the more I thought about the analogy of a video game, the more I realized it shouldn’t be compared to your professional life.

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Veronica Yeung Kick Ass, Professional Development

#10yearchallenge

I was talking to a coworker today about all of the recent Facebook/Instagram posts on the #10yearchallenge, and I’ve come to one conclusion: the only people who do it are the ones who haven’t visibly aged (and want the kudos for it). Am I bitter about not being one of those people? Not at all…

Regardless of the intention, I do think the idea of taking a long look back and seeing how far you’ve come can be rewarding. In a lot of posts, I see people talking about difficult situations they were in 10 years ago that seemed impossible to overcome (long-term partner cheating, complicated medical conditions, rock bottom self-esteem). Fast forward to today, those same people can now only remember snippets of those episodes because time has diluted most of the emotional charge associated with those bad times.

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Veronica Yeung Early Career Advice, Kick Ass

4 promo-blocking behaviours that most people think are good

6 min read

It’s a lovely Spring morning, and the aroma of fresh coffee beans envelope me like a cashmere blanket. I’m at a local coffee shop about to meet with a mentee, Nate*, who I haven’t seen in several months. He reached out via LinkedIn a few weeks earlier, as he was in town for a few days and “could really use some career advice”.

After ordering our respective lattes and a bit of catching up on life, our casual chit-chat evolves into a full-on rant about how he’s being passed up for promotions at his job. 

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