Challenging Imposter Syndrome: How the JDF mentorship scheme helped build my self-confidence

It is quite common for people from a ‘disadvantaged’ background to suffer with Imposter Syndrome, when an opportunity that felt near impossible to achieve, becomes a reality.

This is because, the idea that we deserve ‘it,’ feels like a lie- you are an imposter.

Imposter Syndrome is a behavioural health issue that is described as a ‘feeling of inadequacy that persists despite evidence of success.’

The voice in your head mocks you, it tells you that you are useless, incapable, and you stole an opportunity from someone else, and you cannot argue back, because you believe that voice.

So, when I was awarded the NCTJ Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF), I believed that they clearly made a mistake.

As part of the JDF award is a mentorship scheme- connecting you with a working journalist that matches with your career aspirations.

For me, my mentor was Emma Agyemang, Global tax correspondent for the Financial Times.

We worked towards several goals to help refine my skills, but the most important goal for me was to overcome some of this feeling of being a fraudster.

Even though, this is an almost impossible task, Emma has helped me overcome many of my self-doubts.

Throughout the NCTJ, she encouraged me to trust in my skills and journalist instincts, which I was able to apply during the course.

This helped me in pursuing the interviews I needed to complete the stories for my e-portfolio and coursework.

One of which was published by the National, titled, Scotland’s ‘super sponsor scheme’ invaluable for thousands of Ukrainians, about the Ukrainian diaspora’s response to peace talks between Putin and Trump.

By pushing me to break out of my comfort zone to network and reach out to other journalists, she helped break the mystique I created around the world of journalism; they are professionals, and I am just me.

Thanks to her support I now don’t see it that way; the anxiety will never go away, but I am more confident with networking.

I now feel I have begun to find my voice as a journalist, one that values what my experience brings, rather than seeing it as proof I don’t belong.

This is why initiatives like the JDF matter; beyond the opportunity to study the NCTJ, the JDF team, the mentors and those who support the scheme, work hard to reassure you this isn’t just tokenism; you deserve this.

The self-doubt never truly goes away, but the conversation with it is less one-sided; the voice is just one point of view, and I am capable, and I do deserve this opportunity.

I have completed my NCTJ and now anxiously waiting for the result, but I feel more prepared to deal with the ups and downs of the industry thanks to the JDF and my mentor.

So, the more confident journalists there are from disadvantaged backgrounds, in the industry, the more aspiring journalists from these communities will grow up, believing that journalism is a career for them.