Grad School Confidential

"Who Am I to Talk About Impostor Syndrome?"

Episode Summary

Impostor syndrome is one of the most common, and least talked-about, struggles in graduate student life. In our inaugural episode, we ask why grad students are so vulnerable to these feelings and share some strategies for addressing them.

Episode Notes

Does it sometimes feel like other grad students have it all together in the classroom and in the lab...while you don't have a clue what you're doing? 

You're not alone. 

Many grad students grapple with impostor syndrome, hard as it is to talk about. In this episode, we look closely at those feelings to figure out where they come from and how to overcome them. Along the way, we talk with Dylan, a student who learned a lot about himself after an epic bout with impostor syndrome.

For more on this and other episodes of Grad School Confidential, visit our website: uab.ca/gsc.

Music credits:

Licensed from soundstripe.com: "Shaken and Stirred" by Dreamland (theme song); "Forbidden Wing" by Cody Martin (opening); "Home Life" by Avocado Junkie (GSA message).

Licensed from storyblocks.com (for Dylan's story): "On Tiptoe" (audio); "Bizet's Habanera" by Keith Anthony Holden; "Seminar People Talking" (audio); "102518-wib-1m8"; "Sneak a Peek" by Bruce Zimmerman; "Turning Cogs" by Keith Anthony Holden.

Other musical excerpts include hikmet_minor2, performed by Hikmet Altunbaşlıer and created by emirdemirel, available from freesound.org under a CC BY 3.0 license; trumpetsolo0_hikmet.aiff, performed by Hikmet Altunbaşlıer and created by emirdemirel, available from freesound.org under a CC0 1.0 license; Performance Warm Up.wav by thatjeffcarter, available from freesound.org under a CC0 1.0 license; and tracks recorded by the Alberta Honour Band (1999).

Grad School Confidential is a production of the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Alberta.