Intermediate Software Engineer and WiT Lead

How to Empower Yourself

Hello everyone! I’m thrilled to introduce myself as Alison Fernandez, the proud leader of Unosquare’s “Women in Tech Guild” and a passionate software engineer. In this role, I’m committed to fostering an empowering community for women in our field, promoting diversity, and driving innovation. Through this blog post, I look forward to sharing insights, sparking meaningful conversations, and celebrating the achievements of women in technology.

At Unosquare, we care about our employees and want to support their personal and career growth. We believe empowerment is critical to our success, so let’s dive into ways you can empower yourself.

What is empowerment?

Let’s start with fundamentals. Am I going to go to the Oxford Dictionary for this one? Yes, indeed. Why? Because we need a foundation. Here, we have two definitions: “the authority or power given to someone to do something” and the second, “the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights.”

With these definitions in mind, self-empowerment is the conscious process of taking control of your personal and professional life. Good? No! Great! We now have a definition and a concept, which is a fantastic starting point for learning why everything we discuss in this article is vital. With this foundation, let’s investigate “why” it’s important to empower yourself and how to do it.

Why empower yourself? 

There are many reasons; they can differ for each person depending on their goals, passions, dreams, and more. Embracing your strengths and believing in your capabilities can lead to a life filled with more meaningful achievements and satisfaction. When you take charge of your growth and development, you boost your self-confidence and open doors to new opportunities and experiences. 

More important than just the reasons, let’s consider the benefits that lie in the results of making yourself better equipped to handle life and work’s challenges and changes: 

• It will increase your ability to make better decisions.
• It will help you to recognize your power.
• It will make you feel happier.
• It will help you to take charge of your destiny.
• It will encourage you to develop your skills.
• It will bring you closer to achieving your goals.
• It will help you to grow professionally and in your personal life. 
• It will help you to empower other people too.

Empowering yourself can bring amazing things to your life. One of the main reasons I decided to focus on empowering myself was to make positive decisions that would bring me closer to achieving my goals, to be confident about my ability to create and execute those decisions, and, last but not least, to empower others. These are the drivers behind my writing this post, especially that last point about empowering others. 

My goal (and we are going to talk about goals in a moment) is that colleagues reading this feel inspired to take at least one step forward to begin relying on their judgment and skills, cultivating a more profound sense of fulfillment and creating a stronger connection to their goals and aspirations. 

Getting Started

How to empower yourself

Let’s talk about some tips that can help you to empower yourself. 

Know yourself

It is something that most of us don’t usually think about, but how will you be able to achieve your goals and wildest dreams if you don’t know yourself? If you don’t know what makes you happy, what motivates you, or what you’re good at, how can you improve every day? Why you feel how you feel and how to manage all those emotions begins with “knowing yourself.”  

We must ask ourselves these things regularly to move toward our goals, achieve what we want, make us happy, and make our lives easier and more meaningful. It would help if you made it a habit to consistently assess what drives you to be better or what keeps you from doing so. 

Also, your understanding of self will help you understand others better, which will help you have a better relationship with other people (family, friends, coworkers, partners, etc.) and develop a more robust network. 

There is a famous quote that I like so much, and I think fits perfectly here:

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
– Aristotle

Recognize your abilities

We can consider this part of knowing yourself, but I highlighted it as essential. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses makes you one step closer to working on them. You can improve your weaknesses and strengths by working on them consciously. It will help you to be better at what you are doing, be confident as you know what you are capable of and be closer to achieving your goals.

To recognize your abilities, ask yourself, “What things am I good at?” “How can my ability help me to achieve my goals?” and “Is there something I need to work on to achieve my goals?” Ask yourself these questions regularly to learn more about discovering and recognizing your abilities.

Set reasonable goals.

We all have big goals that we want to accomplish, and that’s wonderful, but if we want to succeed on the first try, we need to divide those big goals into smaller ones. Taking things step by step will make it easier to achieve each step, and without even noticing, we will be closer to achieving those big goals.

To set reasonable goals that are easier to accomplish, I recommend you put them in S.M.A.R.T. order.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time-based

Here are some questions that can help you with that under each criteria:

Forbes has a great article on S.M.A.R.T. goals that I highly recommend. 

Assess your knowledge and skills.

We already discussed the importance of recognizing your abilities and setting your goals. Now is the time to talk about increasing your knowledge and developing the skills to help you achieve those goals.

Once you have recognized your weaknesses and strengths and have set your goals, you need to define how you will accomplish those goals. What do you need for success? 

If you have assessed that you need to improve your skills, you can plan to get those skills and knowledge to the level needed.

If you feel your skills are on track, ask yourself if you need to improve them even more. If so, that’s okay and set a plan to make it happen. You can use that time to improve the other skills if no improvement is needed.

Develop a positive attitude!

Let’s be clear: I do not mean that you need to see all the things cheerfully or that you need to be happy no matter what. That is not a healthy approach and won’t last long. But you can work to develop a positive attitude to take on challenges, move ahead, learn, and do the things that will help you achieve your goals. Pay attention to the things that motivate you; if you feel motivated, your attitude is likely positive, and things are going smoothly. Also, consider using positive affirmations to support all aspects of your life, including your attitude. 

Do positive networking.

Somebody once told me that it is essential to surround yourself with positive people because the people you spend time with can define many things, including growth and empowerment. If negative people or people surround you in their comfort zone without any plan to change, it is more likely that you will fall into the same pattern. Or, if you do make changes, you might not receive the support you need from those people. Instead, if you surround yourself with positive people, they will encourage you to accomplish your goals and dreams and push you to accomplish some of your challenges.

Also, look to be near people with more knowledge than you in the areas you’re interested in because you can learn a lot from them. Sometimes, we are scared about being surrounded by people with more knowledge because we do not want to feel dumb, but I think that is wrong. It is a great opportunity; they are often happy to help you and share their knowledge and experience.

So, the takeaways here are:

• It is imperative to surround yourself with positive people. 
• Try to spend time with people who make you feel the empowerment we are discussing.
• Grant yourself the opportunity to meet new people and learn from them. 

Practice self-care.

You must take care of yourself and have a positive mental outlook because things are typically influenced to go well if you are feeling good. When you approach things with a negative perspective, it can harm how things go. Daily reflections on how we feel and think allow us to give 100% to our work and life. You are the engine that drives your life, so take care of yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually. 

Also, remember that if you are not feeling good, it is okay to take a 

breath and look for the things you need to feel better. Try to schedule some time for yourself, for the things you like and make you happy, and relax. If you do this regularly, things will be easier for you, and you will have a better experience in this process and your life.

Conclusion

As we wrap up this discussion on empowering yourself, I hope you’ve found these insights and strategies inspiring and practical. Remember, empowering yourself isn’t just about achieving goals; it’s about embarking on a journey of self-discovery, growth, and fulfillment. It’s about becoming the best version of yourself, personally and professionally.

At Unosquare, we’re passionate about continuous learning and leveraging technology to enhance our lives. That’s why I strongly encourage you to keep exploring these topics. Dive deeper into the fascinating world of technology and ongoing learning by visiting Unosquare’s blog. There, you’ll find a wealth of information that can help you stay ahead of the curve, keep your skills sharp, and continue your journey of empowerment.

So, don’t stop here – let your curiosity lead you to even more knowledge and success. And connect with me on LinkedIn if you’d like to talk more about what we are doing in our Women in Tech Guild at Unosquare.

The distinction between IT consultant and software engineering roles often intertwine, and often, many job descriptions use the titles interchangeably. However, they hold distinct responsibilities and have different career paths. Understanding the nuances between these two professions will help someone considering a career in tech or businesses looking to find the track that is right for them, or if you are looking for support for your team, to hire the right talent. In this blog post, we’ll use Unosquare’s expertise and experience to dissect the roles of an IT consultant and a software engineer and help set the right path for understanding what you want to do or who you need to hire for your project.

Education Track

Let’s start at the beginning and look at what type of study, coursework, or degree you need to follow the track of either profession. The tech field is known for its flexibility in terms of educational paths, but there are definitely some preferred routes.

Degrees for IT Consultants:

• Computer Science: This is pretty much the gold standard for almost any tech job. A degree in computer science provides a strong foundation in programming, systems analysis, and network fundamentals – all crucial for an IT consultant.
• Information Technology: A more specialized degree in IT covers topics more closely aligned with an IT consultant’s role, like system administration, network architecture, and cybersecurity.
• Business Information Systems: This degree merges IT and business, perfect for those who want to understand how technology solutions fit within a business context.
• Management Information Systems (MIS): Like Business Information Systems, an MIS degree focuses on managing and implementing information technology in a business setting.

Degrees for Software Developers:

• Computer Science: Again, a computer science degree is highly valued. It dives deep into programming languages, software engineering principles, and algorithm design, which are the bread and butter of a software developer.
• Software Engineering: Some universities offer specialized degrees in software engineering, which focus specifically on the design, development, and maintenance of software.
• Computer Engineering: This degree combines electrical engineering and computer science elements and is excellent for those interested in hardware-software integration and software development.

Alternative Pathways:

• Bootcamps and Online Courses: Bootcamps and online courses have gained traction, especially in software development. They offer intensive, practical training in specific programming languages or development tools.
• Certifications: Certifications in particular technologies or methodologies (like Agile, Scrum, etc.) can bolster your qualifications, especially for IT consulting roles.
• Self-Taught Route: Particularly in software development, being self-taught, coupled with a strong portfolio, can sometimes substitute for formal education.

Key Takeaways:

• Foundational Knowledge: A strong foundation in computer science principles is invaluable for IT consulting and software development.
• Specialization vs. Versatility: Software development leans more towards technical specialization, while IT consulting often requires a broader, more versatile understanding of technology and business.
• Continuous Learning: The tech field evolves rapidly. Continuous learning through courses, certifications, and self-study is crucial regardless of your degree.

While there are preferred degrees for entering the fields of IT consulting and software development, the tech industry is known for its openness to diverse educational backgrounds. The key is a solid foundation in tech principles, a willingness to learn and adapt continuously, and a passion for technology.

IT Consultant vs. Software Engineer: The Key Differences

Though these roles seem similar, they are distinct in their responsibilities, skill sets, and career trajectories. Let’s break it down:

Scope of Work:

• IT Consultant: Think of IT consultants as the Swiss Army knives of the tech world. They’re versatile, adaptable, and ready to tackle various challenges. Their work often involves advising businesses on how to use technology to meet their goals, solve specific problems, or improve the efficiency of IT systems and processes. It’s not just about tech; it’s about understanding business needs and translating them into technical solutions.
• Software Engineer: Now, software engineers are the architects and builders of the digital world. Their primary focus is on creating and maintaining software applications, which involves coding, yes, but also a lot of planning, testing, and problem-solving to ensure that software runs smoothly and efficiently. Software Engineers are deeply involved in the technical nitty-gritty of software development.

Skill Set:

• IT Consultant: These pros need to be tech-savvy, no doubt. But equally important are their analytical skills, communication prowess, and understanding of business processes. They’re often in client-facing roles, so distilling complex tech concepts in simple terms is the type of talent this role needs.
• Software Engineer: For software engineers, it’s all about technical proficiency. They need a strong command of programming languages, software development methodologies, and systems engineering. Their role is less about direct client interaction and more about diving deep into code and technical challenges.

Work Environment:

• IT Consultant: Diversity is the name of the game here, as IT consultants often work for consulting firms or as independent contractors, and they hop between different projects and clients. Consider then that you will constantly adapt to new environments, teams, and challenges or look for talent who excels and feels comfortable with this interchangeability. 
• Software Engineer: Software engineers usually find themselves in more stable, predictable environments, whether it’s at tech companies, startups, or corporate IT departments. They tend to have longer-term involvement with specific projects or products.

Career Path:

• IT Consultant: The consultant’s path is dynamic. It can lead to specialized consulting roles, management positions, or even pivoting into different areas of business and technology.
• Software Engineer: Software engineers have a clear-cut trajectory within the tech domain. They can move up to senior developer roles, become experts in specific technologies, or transition into management positions in engineering teams.

Is a Consultant Better Than a Software Engineer?

Whether being an IT consultant is better than being a software engineer is akin to comparing apples and oranges. Both roles have their unique set of challenges and rewards. As noted in discussions on platforms like Reddit and Quora, IT consultants often work with various clients and industries, allowing them to tackle diverse problems and continually adapt to new environments. The benefit of this type of exposure can lead to a broader skill set and a more dynamic work life.

On the other hand, software engineers, as highlighted in our digital product development services at Unosquare, typically focus on building and maintaining software. This role allows for deep specialization in specific technologies or industries, offering a sense of mastery and the chance to intensely influence the products they work on.

Which is Better: IT or Software Engineering?

Deciding which path is better depends largely on individual preferences and career aspirations. If you enjoy diverse challenges and working with different clients, IT consulting, as shown in our delivery model at Unosquare, could be more fulfilling. It’s a role that demands adaptability, strong communication skills, and a broad understanding of various technologies and business processes.

On the other hand, software engineering is ideal for those who are passionate about coding and wish to delve deeply into the technical aspects of software creation and problem-solving within a specific domain as detailed in Indeed’s career advice, software engineers often find satisfaction in seeing their code come to life in products used by end-users.

Can a Software Engineer Be a Consultant?

Absolutely! The skills of a software engineer can be precious in a consulting role. A software engineer with strong technical expertise can transition into consulting, offering insights and solutions to clients based on their technical prowess. This hybrid role can be enriching, as it combines the satisfaction of solving complex engineering problems with the dynamic nature of consulting work.

Which Role is Better: Developer or Consultant?

Choosing between a developer (or software engineer) and a consultant role again refers to personal preference and career goals. Consulting might be your calling if you thrive in a varied work environment and enjoy interfacing with clients and understanding their unique needs. You will likely hire a consultant if your company’s work culture is an “all hands” approach.

In contrast, if you find joy in the art of coding and creating and refining software products, a developer role might suit you better. This path allows for deep technical expertise and the chance to be intimately involved in the product development lifecycle. If you have strong technical leadership and a track record of successful delivery, a software developer is the skill set that would best augment your technical team(s). 

Conclusion

IT consulting and software engineering offer rewarding career paths with challenges and opportunities. When choosing between these two paths, assessing your skills, interests, and career aspirations is essential. Whether embracing the dynamic nature of consulting or delving deep into the intricacies of software development, both roles play a pivotal part in the tech industry.

By leveraging insights from various sources and our own experience at Unosquare, we hope this article sheds light on these two fascinating career paths in the tech world.

There are some crucial aspects to consider when taking care of people engagement, which shouldn’t be limited to the occasional team-building activities. To successfully engage new or former members in your team, every person requires a friend, a clear responsibility, professional growth, continuous feedback, along with the usual periodic team building activities.

1. Find a Friend and a Mentor

Every team member needs someone to trust, to ask for help, especially when they are new to a team. Can you remember your first day on a job? Do you remember having a feeling of not belonging to that place? A place where everyone seemed to know each other, what to do, and exactly how to do it, leaving you feeling lost. This is why having an ally is crucial. A team lead should naturally be the friend and mentor needed to create a strong relationship with every team member while identifying the right team member to assign to ‘the new guy’ to feel comfortable during their first days. It doesn’t mean to babysit, but to be a person who can answer questions and provide additional guidance. In the best-case scenario, that assignment ends in the friendship it’s intended to create. Finally, and most importantly, the goal is to promote an environment of solid communication, a safe place to ask questions, to ask for help. An environment where every voice is valued and heard, and everyone can trust each other.

2. Have a Clear Responsibility

Feeling that you are contributing to something bigger than yourself expands your perspective, gives you purpose and a sense of belonging. Hence the need for everyone to have opportunities to serve in the team and/or the company. Some of those opportunities are available and created by the company, such as social programs, technical groups, leadership roles, etc. Others are specific to each team, from production incident to release champion (the latter focused on IT teams). On other occasions, you will need to create small responsibilities that promote active participation and accountability. Some members will be proactive and take those roles; however, others will require an invitation to serve. Identify the strengths of your team members, look for the best opportunities with which you can provide them, and ask them whether they feel comfortable accepting the assignments.  

3. Encourage Professional Growth

Helping your team grow professionally, both in hard and soft skills will provide them with a sense of value and improvement. Helping them develop their technical skills will let them feel that they have all the necessary tools to face the challenges ahead. They will take ownership of their projects. This also requires helping them learn new technologies so that they can maximize their opportunities and self-confidence. Helping them improve their soft skills will enhance communication, organization, coordination, attitude, etc., which will promote a healthy environment surrounded by synergy. Each member doing their best will ultimately make the team proud of itself. Improving their skills will prepare them to look for promotions, leadership opportunities, or salary adjustments.

4. Gather Continuous Feedback

Providing continuous feedback to someone open to receiving it will allow them to adjust their actions. Whether you are a new or old team member, there is a time during which questions like, “Am I doing well?” or “Is there anything I need to improve?” come to your mind. Everyone needs to receive feedback. If it is positive, this is the time to congratulate your teammate and provide a sincere compliment to continue doing what they are doing so well. It is an opportunity to help them grow, reach their potential, and contribute more efficiently to the team if it is negative. Not only for the assigned task but also help to create a great work environment. Do not limit yourself just to providing feedback in formal and scheduled situations. Do it constantly. During retrospective meetings, at the end of a project: do it as soon as you can.

5. Engage in Team-Building Activities

Successfully engaging your team should not be limited only to the daily job interaction. Team building activities are great opportunities to connect. Sometimes those activities such as having lunch together, gaming nights, Netflix parties, trivia gatherings, etc., or organized time and collaboration will provide a space where the team can interact, have fun, and enjoy each other. Do it constantly, involve other team members to organize it, and actively participate. Be creative and plan activities that everyone can enjoy according to their different personalities. These activities are an excellent opportunity to get ideas and ask for help for the next activity. Those don’t have a very elaborate plan that requires a budget. Most of them can be simple but will have a significant impact on building synergy in your team.

Building strong cohesion and people engagement in the team is a process that requires a new mindset and everyone’ pulling their weight. That can be developed if you have friends you can go to when having professional or personal issues, contributing to something bigger than you, and serving others when you are proud of your team because of the skills developed. They of you, when you’re constantly receiving feedback, appreciated when doing great, and receiving recommendations on how to correct your direction. When out of a job, activities are constantly facilitated. The synergy, unity, and commitment that were once goals are now a reality.

Ready to augment your team with quality assurance delivery professionals?

I have enjoyed my time with Unosquare and encourage anyone interested in staff augmentation services to reach out to us via our website contact form. Unosquare has world class customer service that supports business continuity and we can find support for your teams quickly and efficiently. Here at Unosquare, we have over 2,000 successfully completed projects, over 750 engineers, and more than 120 distributed teams. We know what it takes to meet and exceed project needs. Want to learn more about what Unosquare can do for your company? Check out our blog here.

Unosquare’s Women in Tech Guild (WIT) is committed to building a strong community of women who support each other professionally because we believe that when a woman helps another woman, they both benefit. We chartered this group to improve our technical and soft skills and grow professionally. Our mission is to bridge the gender gap in the technology industry and attract more women to our ranks. 

I have written this post for my colleagues to help identify a problem that impacts more than 75% of women, especially women of color and the LGBTQ community. That problem is Impostor Syndrome. Let’s take a look at what it is, how to identify it, and, most importantly, how to overcome it. 

What is Impostor Syndrome, and how does it affect your work?

Impostor Syndrome is a psychological pattern involving intense feelings of self-doubt where a person feels like a fraud despite the external evidence about their accomplishments and competence. Those who suffer from this Syndrome strongly believe that they don’t deserve their achievements or that it was only luck that they were successful.

Individuals who suffer from Impostor Syndrome internalize the thought that they are a fraud because they underestimate their abilities, intelligence, and capabilities. Moreover, the constant fear of being exposed as a fraud increases their anxiety levels, driving them into depression.

Impostor Syndrome can affect all professional areas without distinction. However, with its accelerated growth, individuals in the tech industry are particularly susceptible due to the constant mountain of pressure to be successful. Tech professionals need to continually learn and process information to keep up to date in an environment where new features and technologies are released every day. Recent studies have reported that as many as 58% of employees working at large tech enterprises, including Facebook, Apple, and Uber, have suffered from Impostor Syndrome. 

What are its symptoms?

The general, underlying feeling of Impostor Syndrome is that you believe you are a pretender. Either you didn’t earn your position and don’t deserve your achievements or got them by chance.

At this point, questions and doubts start to fill the mind of the tech professional:

• “What am I doing here?”
• “I am not a developer. I am fooling myself and other people.” (feels fake)
• “I have no idea how I got through the interview process.” (feels only luck dictates results)
• “My IQ is not high enough to work here.” (doubts inherent ability)
• “I need more training to feel like I deserve to be here.”

Also, frequently there are expectations of failure:

• “If this becomes difficult, I will quit. I am not intelligent enough.”
• “Why am I trying if I will fail anyway?” 
• “I don’t know how I did something before, and I don’t know how to do it again.” 
• “I’m not sure if I will be able to meet the team’s expectations.”
• “I will be ridiculed and fired when people realize I am not as smart as I portrayed myself as being.”

All those thoughts lead you to experience negative emotions like anxiety, sadness, hopelessness, and dejection despite external evidence of their competence. 

What are its causes?

There are many causes related to this Syndrome, and studies estimate that 70% of people will experience at least one episode of the Impostor Syndrome in their professional or personal life. Let’s look at some of the frequent causes:

Certain early family dynamics  

The family rewards their children according to labels like the “intelligent one,” “good one,” “beautiful one,” “smart one,” and so on, giving them the false idea that they only possess one ability and nothing more.

Social stereotypes  

At times, people who belong to minority populations have the notion that they don’t fit in, they are not enough, or they don’t deserve their achievements or the good things happening to them.

Sexual stereotypes  

Studies have shown that women suffer more impostor syndrome than men, especially in work environments dominated by men. Evidence has proven women consistently have lower expectations than men of their ability to perform successfully on specific tasks.

New social, academic, or professional environments 

People often compare their success with that of their peers by paying a lot of attention to others’ accomplishments and disregarding their own.

What about the tech industry? 

Let’s identify some of the common scenarios that might lead us to suffer from impostor syndrome:

Starting a new job in a company 

The new work environment, new rules, and procedures can be intimidating, leading you to think that you will not make it.

Receiving a promotion 

When you are entirely new in a role, you have doubts about fulfilling the new position, like the first months when you are new to a project, and you have to learn new techniques and acquire new skills. For example, when you are, a backend developer in Java and the team needs you to switch to a frontend, Javascript position. 

Challenges 

Taking or receiving an assignment more significant than you are used to could feel like it’s automatically setting you up for failure, questioning their experience and skillsets.

A growing pressure to meet increasing expectations

Expectations could be self-imposed, triggered by a recent promotion, or the taking on of additional responsibilities.

How does the Impostor Syndrome affect your professional life?

There are several ways in which Impostor Syndrome can affect professional development, for example:

Self-doubt freezes performance, stopping the pro-active approach of taking new challenges or being more proactive due to fear of failing or not being enough.

A lack of confidence limits communication that becomes evident in minimizing expressions:

“I think, but I could be wrong.” 

“I am not sure, but it can work.” 

Low self-esteem can cause someone to have more faith in the capabilities of others than their own. With such self-doubt, someone may ask for a colleague to share their ideas for fear of rejection. It is frequently the case that people in this mindset are unlikely to ask for career advancement opportunities or promotions. 

People that suffer from the Syndrome are unlikely to work to their full potential, having difficulty concentrating and meeting deadlines. Their elevated anxiety level and stress affecting their productivity as well as their mental health.

How to overcome the Impostor Syndrome

The principal problem with Impostor Syndrome is that people get immersed in highly unrealistic thoughts about their abilities or capabilities. To put your ideas into perspective, you can talk about your feelings. Expressing what is on your mind is the most powerful thing you can do against Impostor Syndrome. You can speak with colleagues, friends, or if you feel more comfortable, you can talk with a professional therapist. 

The main idea is that you realize that you let go of perfectionism and understand how to feel worthy of your successes. When you talk about things, you may find more people who, like you, are struggling, and you can see nobody has their life resolved, and it is perfectly fine to make mistakes. 

If you have found yourself suffering from Syndrome, you may have been making unfair comparisons with yourself to other people you think are more skilled than you. This mistake increases your self-doubt and lowers your self-esteem. It isn’t wrong to want to become a highly skilled person. The bad thing is being hard with yourself and only focusing on the things you are lacking. 

Instead, start to recognize that there are many things that you do better than others. Of course, don’t forget that everyone is on their path, but take this as an exercise to identify your own qualities.

Thoughts are the driver of Impostor Syndrome, so be aware of them. When you get caught by anxiety, stop whatever you are doing for a moment, and analyze what is going through your mind. What exactly is making you anxious? Is it rational? 

Write down those triggers. When you try to give your issues a form, you can find some clarity to baseless thoughts, and you can start to slow or stop the train of anxiety. 

Another way to fight negativity is to think about the positives. Celebrate actual achievements, recalling past successes, and keeping a record of positive feedback from others.

Following these exercises will help someone become aware of their strengths and weaknesses. When best qualities come to light, put them in a list. This record will relieve worries about qualifications and provide a fresh perspective of achievement. 

     Make this your mantra:

“Being wrong does not make you a fraud.” 

Repeat it whenever necessary, and remember: making a mistake isn’t the end of the world. We often get overly attached to our accomplishments, and we think that if we aren’t perfect, we lose value. But it’s okay if you’re wrong, you can learn from it and improve your knowledge.

Calls to Action

It is possible that a coworker, or even yourself, is suffering from Impostor Syndrome. Here are a few actions you can do to create a work environment friendlier for you and all who suffer from this Syndrome.

• Recognize the things that your coworkers are doing well and let them know.
•  
• Find a career mentor who can help you identify gaps in your knowledge and create a clear path to achieve your career goals. Above all, a mentor will help you become more confident at work by talking through your anxieties and career concerns. If you can, be a mentor too.
•  
• Don’t be that person who is continuously trying to prove they’re the smartest person in the room by putting other people down. Being humble and ready to learn from other folks helps you grow better and faster. It also makes you a good coworker.
•  
• Be assertive when you are giving feedback to others. 
• If you’re a leader, you have a great power to make a real change to create a more supportive work environment.
•  
• Be vulnerable and admit your shortcomings and mistakes.

When you create an environment where it’s okay not to have all the right answers, a place that encourages the concept of trial and error, this will help those feeling like an impostor realize that no one is perfect, and they need to keep trying.

Business managers and leaders must first recognize and acknowledge that these problems exist and create a safe space where everyone can have open conversations.

Conclusion

I have suffered from Impostor Syndrome without knowing anything about it, and it was a difficult time. For this reason, I decided to write this article. 

Do you remember the first point to overcome Impostor Syndrome? It was to talk about your feelings. Now I am sharing my feelings with you, dear reader, and I want to let you know you are not alone and not afraid of talking about it. 

This Syndrome is pretty common, and with the simple act of expressing your concerns and feelings about it, you can set others free who are feeling like you. I encourage you to be informed about the Syndrome, identify the symptoms, and take action on it. If you are suffering through this, you can overcome it! I hope this article has been helpful for you and I can assure you that you are not an impostor!

What Unosquare Offers…

At Unosquare, we know what successful software development outsourcing requires. We focus on finding the best talent in the world and putting together a delivery management practice that is your eyes and ears within our organization. Let us provide the complementing expertise for your teams in a way that is fast, transparent, and efficient with our distributed agile software development staffing solutions. To find out more about what Unosquare can do for your organization, check out our blog. You’ll find more tips on outsourcing software development and choosing the right partner for your project. 

• Verbal warnings to let one know about specific things that aren’t done in the best way
• Disciplinary processes in which you need to communicate failures that might put a person’s employment in jeopardy
• A conflict between two or more people in the workplace
• Performance evaluations, awkward moments in meetings, and so on. 

The scenarios are vast. As a leader, you have the right and the obligation to address those conversations; you are not allowed to ignore them. Avoiding them is the easiest way to go through it, but it’s not the right thing to do. Why does it matter? Because, as stated by Jeffrey Fredrick and Douglas Squirrel in “Having Difficult Conversations,”  

“Discussing the undiscussable promotes psychological safety and lead to mutual learning and better relationships.”

In this post, I want to share with you five tips and tricks to help you face difficult conversations, which I have learned during my experience as a leader and a manager, reading books, taking courses, and attending talks in the software development industry. Some of these five have helped me personally, but some others, I still have to work to master them.

1. Positive Assumptions

I took this term from the “Coaching Managers & Leaders for Continuous Improvement” by Lawrence M. Miller. This concept means that you should always approach a difficult conversation with a positive attitude and assume that the person didn’t act maliciously with a purpose to hurt a person, a team, or the entire organization. I strongly believe that people always try to do their best at work. If they do something wrong, it might be because of a lack of knowledge or experience, but never assume that it was because they wanted to cause damage. It’s very unlikely that your teammate is Darth Vader or Thanos. Even if you have some negative history with this person or have a long list of pitfalls to share with them, please reach the conversation free of judgment.

Have you ever been in a meeting in which you immediately felt threatened by the circumstances? Well, you are not crazy, it’s just how your brain works. In her book Conversational Intelligence, Judith Glaser explains that our primitive brain evaluates if a person is “a friend or a foe” when we are starting a conversation, and that judgment process takes only 0.07 seconds. If our brain determines that we are facing a foe, we produce higher cortisol levels, which “shuts down the thinking center and activates conflict aversion and protection behavior.”

On the other hand, if our head dictates that this is a friend, we produce oxytocin, “a feel-good hormone that elevates our ability to communicate, collaborate and trust others.” Does this sound familiar? I bet it does! So please always approach a conversation with a friendly attitude, not an unfriendly one.

2. Stick to the Facts

Lawrence Miller calls this “Pinpoint Behavior,” and I found other authors referring to this as “focus on the actions, not the person,” even when sometimes it’s difficult to separate a person from their actions. The idea here is not attacking the person, not generalizing, and not being unclear on what we say.

To deliver the right message in a difficult conversation, we must have an assertive communication: it must be clear, direct, respectful, based on measurable facts; it must be something demonstrable, something that two different people can see and agree with. As in the previous point, it must be free of judgment and don’t make any assumption if you don’t have all the information about it. We must point exactly the non-desired behavior and actions that the person is doing and even go further and tell them the expectation. It can be just a matter of misalignment. Very important: it must be something under the person’s control, something that can be fixed by them.

For example, it is not fair saying: “You don’t care about your work and your team!”. In that statement, we are making a strong judgment about the caring of the person, for which there is no way in the world for us to know it certainly. Additionally, we are not supporting that statement with any facts.

This particular example would be much better if we communicate something like: “Hey, in the last three sprints, you have failed to deliver 5 PBIs on time and according to the acceptance criteria. Also, you missed three stand-ups without notifying the team. I’m concerned because this might impact the team and the project. Is everything ok? Can I do anything to help you?” 

Can you spot the difference?

3. The 4-to-1 Feedback Ratio

In research conducted by Dr. Ogden Lindsley, the father of precision learning, he studied the interactions between teachers and students. They found that the highest learning rates were achieved when the teacher’s behavior was 3.57 positive feedback (approving, praising, etc.) to 1 negative feedback (wrong answer, correcting behavior, etc.). For practical purposes, this is rounded to a 4-to-1 ratio.

In Harvard Business Review’s The Ideal Praise-to-Criticism Ratio post, Jack Zenger and Joseph Folkman analyze research conducted by Heaphy and Losada to find the best proportion of positive and negative feedback in 60 organizations. They concluded this research in a 5.6-to-1 ratio, very similar to the previous one.

The conclusion here is that we, as leaders, shouldn’t be telling only the good or bad. It is always good to communicate positive feedback accompanied by a few areas of improvement. My recommendation is starting with the accomplishments and strengths and ending with what can be improved.

4. What if I am Wrong?

Have you ever been in a conversation in which you find the other party very stubborn? A conversation in which you are sure that you are right, but you can’t believe how the other party is close-minded and not willing to hear the reasons and the facts? You have the experience and the data that supports you, which makes you think, “Oh my gosh! Why doesn’t this person get it? It’s so obvious!”

If you find yourself in a similar situation in the future and you feel stuck in the conversation, I beg you to stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and ask yourself: 

“What if I am wrong? What if I am missing the point? What if today I am on the single-minded side of the table?” 

Or is it that you have never been wrong in your entire life? Let’s face it: people love being right! It’s human nature. Quoting Judith Glaser and her book: “We can get addicted to being right. When we are right (and others are wrong), our brain produces feel-good hormones. Being right also makes us feel powerful, which can elevate testosterone and adrenaline—together, these chemicals ramp up our ability to feel invincible and smarter than others. An addiction to being right causes many corporate cultures to become toxic.”

5. The Power of Silence

One of the most undervalued and underused tools in conversations is silence. The definition of silence is as simple as “complete absence of sound.” It might even sound contradictory to everything I just stated before. “Are you telling me to stay quiet in the conversation? Not saying a thing and fill the moment with silence?”  Well, yes and no. This approach consists of first delivering difficult feedback and then muting yourself. Thirty seconds would be long enough. It will feel awkward, but that’s exactly the idea. That empty moment should invite reflection and contemplation. You will give the person space to think about what you said, digest it, and find the right feelings and words to talk about it.

During this silence, you will feel tempted to jump in. Please don’t. Remain silent. You would be surprised how this powerful exercise can lead to self-realization and even bring ideas on what can be done to overcome this difficult situation. Plans and ideas created by that person will give them a higher sense of ownership and commitment, which will increase the probabilities of success in the communicated problems.

I hope you liked these points and found them valuable and reasonable. As said before, I don’t consider myself an expert on them, but I’ve been trying to put them in practice. Feel free to leave your opinion, and if you happen to practice any of them, let me know how it works for you. Are there any other tools you usually practice in these scenarios?

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You’re right. You are good, maybe even great (although there are some machines learning to code even faster than you) but those things aren’t what make you a Professional Software Engineer.

Have you ever heard about Robert C. Martin and his famous books? If not, I encourage you to read them. I’ll share some useful tips that could help you in your professional career based on the “The Clean Coder: A Code of Conduct for Professional Programmers”. The book isn’t about code function and design, this is more of day to day conduct that differentiates a good software developer from a Professional Software Developer.

Professionalism

Professionalism is all about taking responsibility.

• Do no harm to the code: don’t create bugs, make sure your code is tested.
• It is unprofessional in the extreme to send code that you know to be faulty to QA.
• Your career is your responsibility – it’s not your employer’s responsibility to train you, or to send you to conferences, or to buy you books.
• Know your field – if you want to be a professional, learn design patterns and principles, methods and disciplines.
• Practice, practice, and more practice – true professionals work hard to keep their skills sharp and ready.

Saying No and Saying Yes

Professionals have the courage to say No to their managers and they work hard to find creative ways to make Yes possible.

• Your manager is counting on you to defend your objectives as aggressively as they defend theirs. Both you and your manager need to get to the best possible outcome through negotiation.
• Professionals pursue and defend their objectives as aggressively as they can.
• Recognize lack of commitment words and phrases like “hope” and “Let’s see if we can get this done…”. A sincere commitment sounds like “I will do something… by this certain date…”
• Bring up blockers or red flags as soon as they come up — actively communicate.

Coding

Coding is an intellectually challenging and exhausting activity.

• If you are tired, worried, or distracted, do not code. Your code will have bugs or a bad structure.
• Spend personal time before work trying to resolve or mitigate personal issues or demands so you can focus your mental energy on being a productive problem solver at work.
• Be prepared to be interrupted and help someone — it’s the professional thing to do.
• Ask for help and ask to give help – be a mentor.

Test-Driven Development

Writing your tests first:

• Good tests function like good documentation.
• TDD is a discipline that enhances certainty, courage, defect reduction, documentation, and design.

Practice, Practice, Practice

When performance matters, professionals practice.

• All professionals practice their art by engaging in skill-sharpening exercises.
• Doing anything quickly requires practice. It’s not always wise to go fast, but sometimes it is better to do it as fast as possible and is highly productive.
• Practice coding outside of work by doing kata.
• Open source: Take on some pro-bono work by contributing to an open-source project.

Testing Strategies

Every professional development team needs a good testing strategy, and we can start by following the “Test Pyramid”:

Time Management

What strategies can you use to ensure that you don’t waste time?

• Meetings are both necessary and huge time wasters. You do not have to attend every meeting — be careful about which ones you decline and those you choose to attend.
• Use tools like the Pomodoro Technique.
• Evaluate the priority of each task, disregarding personal fears and desires, and execute those tasks in priority order.

Estimation

Estimation is one of the simplest, yet most frightening activities that software professionals face.

• Know the difference between estimates and commitments.
• A commitment is something you must achieve. An estimate is a guess.
• Learn methods to get better estimates like PERT, Fingers in the Air and Planning Poker
• Always include error bars with your estimates so that the business understands the uncertainty.
• Don’t make commitments unless you know you can achieve them.

Stay Cool Under Pressure

The professional developer is calm and decisive under pressure.

• Under pressure? Be sure to manage your commitments, follow disciplines, keep code clean, communicate, and ask for help.
• Don’t succumb to the temptation to create a mess in order to move quickly.

Collaborate

Programming is all about working with people. It’s unprofessional to be a loner or a recluse on a team.

• Often programmers have difficulty working closely with other programmers. That’s no excuse. Being a developer means working with people.
• Meet the needs – collaborate with your managers, business analysts, testers, and other team members in order to deeply understand the business goals.
• Pairing is a great way to share knowledge and the best way to review code.

Get Aligned with Your Teams

Strive to have a “gelled” team.

• A gelled team is one that forms relationships, collaborates, and learns each other’s quirks and strengths.
• Teams are harder to build than projects. It’s better to form persistent teams that move together from one project to the next and can take on more than one project at a time.

Mentoring, Apprenticeship, and Craftsmanship

The software development industry has gotten the idea that programmers are programmers, and that once you graduate you can code.

• Software apprenticeship is a three-step journey: starting from apprentice and moving to journeyman before becoming a master.
• Be a craftsman – someone who works quickly, but without rushing, provides reasonable estimates and meets commitments. Know when to say No but try hard to say Yes.
• If craftsmanship is your way of life, keep in mind that you cannot force other programmers to become craftsmen.

It might be unrealistic to achieve all that Robert C. Martin suggests because in the real world some situations can be beyond your control. Our goal as Professional Software Developers should be to try to follow as much as we can as often as we can and keep striving to do better.

I read this book a couple of years ago and I can honestly say that I’ve improved my skills faster than I thought I could, I’m more confident in my job and my team trusts me by giving me higher responsibilities and challenges. I’m still learning and applying the advice as much as I can and when is possible.

Start with small changes. Remember that becoming a Professional Software Engineer takes years, so enjoy your career and enjoy the journey to becoming a craftsman.

As my own role within Unosquare has evolved over the years, I’ve seen my workday evolve as well. Each stage of my career has had its own learning curve, of course, and I’ve had the good fortune to learn from professionals within Unosquare, as well as beyond. Through these relationships, I’ve come to deeply value the following: showing up with a pen and paper, the art of the follow-up, and the critical importance of using a second set of eyes for all key documents. All are essential and now come naturally, but they didn’t always…

When I was a brand-new Biz Dev rep, my calendar was embarrassingly sparse as I worked to build out a network and a sales pipeline. Nowadays, as a Client Success Executive, my days start early and are filled with conference calls with clients and coworkers from around the world.

The most recent tool I’ve adopted into my own bag of professional tips and tricks is something gleaned from our clients – using my webcam. Our clients are solid folks who treat their teams well, show up to meetings on time, and are never short on smiles. Seeing smiles, or anyone’s actual face in an online meeting is rare. But these folks make it a point to have their webcams on during conference calls. It’s conscious and intentional and it makes a big difference. It shows me they’re engaged, present, and attentive which is something that can often be missing from meetings online.

I’ve tried to emulate this positive addition to my own client and coworker interactions. While I’ve always strived for a high level of engagement, I find that actually showing a responsive and engaged face during calls facilitates increased interaction and holds me accountable to the people who trust me with their time. I’ve started making it a point to keep my webcam on whenever I can, and I intend to keep it that way. It’s an easy habit to create and one that I think can make a big difference in our interactions. Give it a try, I think you’ll agree.

SECRET #1: IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PROBLEMS

You will notice that suddenly you are surrounded by problems of all kinds: problems between your team members, problems with external stakeholders, problems in the project, problems with the company, even problems with you! You might wonder: “Did I just become a problem magnet?” Unless you are really doing it very badly, that’s not the case. The thing is, the problems were not visible to you before because you were not part of the escalation path, but now you are responsible and, in some cases, accountable to get them fixed. You need to learn about emotional intelligence, conflict resolution strategies and develop your mediation abilities, so you can embrace problems in the best possible way. You should be also prepared to have some difficult conversations.

SECRET #2: YOU ARE NOT PART OF “THE GANG” ANYMORE

You’re also going to feel that people in your team are not talking to you in the same way they used to. You will realize that you are not part of some conversations and events you previously were. You might even feel that you were pushed out of the “friendship circle” at work. That is absolutely fine. You must understand that you are the boss now and you represent some kind of authority to the people in the team, so people are not going to tell you everything anymore. It’s ok feeling bad about it, but it’s your new reality. You shouldn’t try to force things to be the old way, you must adapt to the new way. You must keep communication channels open for your team, for anything they need. If something comes your way, it might mean they already tried with someone else. You must be there for them.

SECRET #3: YOU OWN THE VICTORIES, BUT EVEN MORE, THE FAILURES

By this point, there’s no need to tell you that, as the leader of your team, you will be the visible head of it for the good things and for the bad things. What’s the bad news here? Well, victories should be shared across the team. Appreciations and recognitions must be granted to all the team members. They committed to it, they pushed hard, and they did it. Well done, team! But in failures, you have to take the blame. You must be humble; you are the lead and you failed. You weren’t good enough to deliver the expected result. You missed the target this time. You must protect the team. Learn the lesson and move on, my friend! Do you get my point here? It isn’t fair, huh?

This is my take on these matters. You might think I’m wrong, which would be very valid. I’m just talking from my own experience. As the saying goes: “plan for the best, prepare for the worst.”

I hope this post was helpful. If you have any other suggestions for new leaders please add them in the comments!

The Soldier of Misfortune

I named this first type of team member the “Conflict Rambo.” Some people might consider this a variant of the Maverick, but I call this one Rambo because, as the movie character made famous by Sylvester Stallone. A “one-person army” of sorts. This person was a committed top performer with high technical skills. Like Rambo, I’d assign a complicated task to them, and it would be finished, no matter what. What was the problem with this person? They loved conflict. It was their modus vivendi. They truly believed they had the absolute truth and he would fiercely defend it. They were rude in conversations trying to prove their point. When this team member was isolated in a project working by themselves, everything was cool. Clients always provided positive feedback about them. However, the fuse would ignite when we had to increase the headcount in the team, and the bomb would explode when they realized that a different person would be leading the team. Although the new leader wasn’t as good technically, they had better leadership skills. In comparison, the team lead was also more emotionally stable. Beginning with the project kick-off, Rambo was enemy #1 on the team. Everything was a problem from both work and non-work-related sides. Rambo started to boycott the team and the project. They escalated every little situation to ridiculous levels. Long story short, due to some unfortunate events with legal implications, we had to remove all the people on this project at the client’s request. I take this as a personal failure because I lacked the experience to handle this difficult personality at work.

The Energy Void

The second case is a peculiar one, in which I ended up giving someone the nickname “The Whining Vampire.” This person was one whom you have to handle very carefully like you would a fragile-labeled box. They thrive in highly formal relationships, which was a problem because we were in a project full of young engineers in their 20s — a lot of sarcasm and jokes filled our days. At the end of their first month on the team, this person had already been at my desk seriously whining twice about minor issues. Being so sensitive kept them from adapting to the team’s culture. The Vampire part is because I felt they were born in the wrong time. Maybe this person could’ve been happier living centuries ago in a formal household working with someone medieval, like Vlad the Impaler, the folklore’s first vampire. The name also fits because this person sucked all of the life out of the team. In the end, I also consider this as a failure on my part, because we had to offboard this person from the project giving his problems with other team members and his average performance. It just didn’t work.

These are just two examples of individual contributors that weren’t good team members when analyzing both technical and soft skills. However, the fault wasn’t only on them, and strong leadership depends on the engagement of all the team members, understanding that we all are different in personalities, learning, and performing. At least from my side, I can say I’m learning that lesson, and I hope I can do it much better if I face any similar situations again.

Have you been in any situations like this? How did it go for you?

Stick with Scrum. Short development cycles and the ability to iterate within the process allows development teams to react and adapt better to time constraints. Retrospectives and Sprint Reviews are good times to discuss issues around delivery and scheduling. Use that time to be proactive in identifying risks and sharing best practices to keep the development on track.

2. CHANGING PRIORITIES

When priorities change quickly, it affects development and can affect morale as well. Even worse, when these priorities shift in the middle of the sprint, it can throw the timeline out the window. Flexibility is the core of an Agile development methodology and building it into your planning and development process can help a team adapt and mitigate the damage of a last-minute change.

3. TESTING ENVIRONMENT NOT MATCHING PRODUCTION

“But, it works on my machine.” Sound familiar? Different settings, dependency versions, data volume, network latency, time differences, traffic, or even the input language can create chaos. The closer you can get to the configuration and data of your production environment while testing a problem, the less you have to worry about with the fringiest of cases such as “the memory of the VM was exhausted as the hard-drive is full while updating the TPS report with a Cyrillic character in the subject.”

4. WORKING WITH OLD TECHNOLOGY

Engineers usually want to work with the latest and the greatest but sometimes working with older technology is a necessity due to project needs. At Unosquare, we find talent to augment our clients’ in-house engineering teams, and the newest technologies get our developers the most excited and engaged. Although dialing back the clock is not as much fun as looking into the future it’s a necessary part of the job.

5. UNREASONABLE DEADLINES

Candid and consistent communication is vital to maintaining a healthy project. If the development team is not involved in planning, if the team’s feedback does not when setting the timeline for deliverables, there will be feature creep, scope creep, all kinds of creeps. It is important for team members to raise their hands early and often to keep delivery timelines reasonable. Maintaining Scrum ceremonies will support reasonable timelines as well.

6. LAST MINUTE PIZZA FROM PROJECT MANAGERS

This one is easy. It’s an announcement that you are working late in the form of food. It doesn’t cushion the blow, especially if it was unexpected. Maybe it was expected, and you were holding out hope that it wouldn’t happen, and now that delicious pizza tastes like you won’t be out of the office any time soon. And, there better not be pineapple on that pizza.

7. NON-TECHNICAL TECHNICAL TEAM MEMBERS

Speaking from experience as a former Product Owner, I needed to be put in my place a few times by Team Leads. Once I had my ears open and my mouth shut for a while, I learned a lot and was able to speak more to the technical side of things concerning planning and grooming. Development teams should have a Tech Lead, and a good relationship and candid communication with talented professionals like this will only serve to improve performance. If you are non-technical, try and learn as much as possible from your technical team members and develop mutual respect.

8. WHEN EVERYTHING IS URGENT

Simply stated, when everything is urgent, nothing is urgent. We already mentioned the problems with “changing” priorities, but how about when everything is a priority and is needed right now or yesterday? “Crying wolf” will only water down the impact of a real priority when it comes along. Working with the development team to prioritize effort by the complexity and along a roadmap is an effective remedy.

9. MEETINGS THAT COULD HAVE BEEN AN EMAIL

Use communication platforms to communicate ideas, changes, needs, etc. If the team can’t get the gist from there, escalate to email. If there is still confusion, call a meeting. Don’t start with the meeting and work backward. Meetings and co-location are valuable tools and should happen regularly. However, if they are happening too frequently, and with little action items from resulting, it’s best to communicate through other channels to avoid disruption of the team’s schedules.

10. TABS vs. SPACES

I interviewed a few engineers, and it started a fight. So…

– thanks to Luis Gonazalez (Sales Enablement, Unosquare) & Cesar Hernandez (Delivery Services, Unosquare) for their contributions to this post