Early careers: The imposter’s guide to method acting

How to accept and succeed on projects outside your comfort zone

It is easy to feel like a fraud. As an early-career academic, it is almost part of the job description. Everyone else seems to know more than you. Everyone else is more effective. Everyone else is just, well, better than you. And it won’t be long until you are exposed as the sham you clearly are.

This misconception is known as ‘imposter syndrome.’ At the University of Kent I worked with Caron Fraser Wood, of project consultants Mindset Method, trying to help early-career researchers (ECRs) to recognise, accept, and overcome this.