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How I’m feeling today..
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Who's got the most fishbowl points?
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A) no one knows the right answer
B) get curious and Google what you don’t know to have base concepts down and then ask your manager for specifics when you need to.
C) ask to shadow people’s meetings.
Be overly proactive. Use your free time to dig in on your clients’ categories, audiences, and brands. Ask for examples of different types of work. ask for the logins to agency research tools so you can get smart on those. Set up meet and greets with creatives to start to get to know each other and build rapport.
If you feel like you can’t contribute, it’s probably because 1. Your manager hasn’t given you enough to do or 2. You haven’t spent enough time intentionally and proactively getting smart.
This is incredibly helpful. Thank you!
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Two things: 1) We’re all just faking it and 2) nobody expects much from entry level people, we know you’re learning! So as long as you’re getting by, you’re probably fine! Take comfort in knowing the bar is very low, so don’t stress!
I am in this exact position right now. I set up half and hour one on ones with people on my team and different department members and it helped me SO much! They gave me advice about the agency and I learned that so many other strategists have been in our position. It also made it much easier in new meetings/when I go into the office because I have many people to say hi to :). Also, ask other strategists at the agency to send you examples of decks you have worked on in the past.
This is great thanks! So nice to hear from someone who’s experiencing this right now as well
Imposter syndrome is persistent and never goes away. So get comfortable with the feeling and remind yourself you are valuable and competent. It’s like a phantom pain of an imaginary injury. It keeps coming back. 25 years now I still have that feeling at times. We all do. Just know it will go away, like a cold, and treat yourself with grace while you’re feeling it.
20+ years. Still dealing with imposter syndrome. Just keep moving forward and tell the little voice in the back of your head to put a lid on it.
I’m fresh out of college and I didn’t feel like a productive team member until like 4ish months in. It takes time to figure out what’s going on and to learn what is truly expected. You’ll get it. Don’t worry!
Don't think of it as "you're an imposter" and think that "you're a beginner" and remind yourself that everyone had to start somewhere. See: https://bit.ly/3Md5O5K. If you don't know how to do something, use Google, YouTube, and/or your boss to get your answers. My rule for my team is to never ask me a question that they haven't at least Googled first because it shows me that they're not taking initiative. I don't expect them to have all of the answers (or any of the answers since they're beginners after all), though I do expect them to know how to go about finding them even it comes down to them asking me eventually.