Eleanor Rumsey

How to Fail Successfully

What if the secret to success is learning how to fail? Turn imposter syndrome into your biggest strength and accelerate your growth as a developer.

How to Fail Successfully
#1about 8 minutes

Defining imposter syndrome for software engineering interns

Imposter syndrome is the fear of being discovered as unqualified, but an intern's primary role is simply to learn as quickly as possible.

#2about 6 minutes

How managers can create meaningful intern projects

Managers should assign interns low-urgency, high-importance projects to build confidence and provide real value instead of isolating them with meaningless tasks.

#3about 12 minutes

Overcoming the fear of asking for help

Asking for help is a sign of progress, not weakness, and can be made easier by providing context on what you already know.

#4about 8 minutes

How to learn from mistakes without shame

Since mistakes are inevitable, the goal is to learn from them by fostering a blameless culture and using safety nets like code reviews.

#5about 15 minutes

The importance of saying 'I don't know'

Saying 'I don't know' defines the boundaries of your current knowledge rather than admitting failure, which helps counter imposter syndrome when receiving feedback.

#6about 3 minutes

Imposter syndrome in underrepresented groups

Underrepresented individuals in tech often face an extra layer of imposter syndrome, making diverse representation in management crucial for mentorship and confidence.

#7about 3 minutes

A summary of how to fail successfully

The core practices for overcoming the fear of failure are to ask for help, learn from mistakes, and be transparent about what you don't know.

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