As a Black millennial working in tech without a STEM degree, sometimes you feel like you just do not belong – no matter how smart you are.
The Black millennials interviewed for the recent Moguldom article, “Young, Black And Working In Tech Without A STEM Degree,” held leadership positions throughout high school and college. They made their parents proud by going to top colleges and working in places some can only dream of, no matter the race. However, feelings of just not being good enough can sometimes creep in for these superstars.
Lauren Nicholson earned a bachelor’s degree in May 2018 at Harvard University, majoring in sociology and government. Nicholson works at Microsoft headquarters as a cloud and mixed reality marketing manager.
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“Often you’re the only one that looks like you,” Nicholson said. “And especially so early in your career as a young Black woman, sometimes you don’t feel that you can stand on your credentials or your expertise. Imposter syndrome is absolutely crazy.”
Dr. Kevin Cokley, the director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis, released a 2017 study on imposter syndrome.”
Dr. Cokley told Moguldom he prefers to call it “imposter phenomenon”. “That it is the sense of being an intellectual fraud,” Cokley said. It occurs amongst individuals who are high achieving and have accomplished quite a bit but who nevertheless feel as though they have pulled the wool over people’s eyes, so to speak.”
An estimated 70 percent of the population can suffer from imposter phenomenon at one time or the other. There is no definitive percentage on how many African Americans can experience imposter phenomenon, said Cokley, who also teaches African and African Diaspora Studies and educational psychology at UT Austin. However, “my research has examined that it has been a pretty pronounced experience when you find yourself, African Americans in particular, in spaces that are predominately white.”
To effectively deal with the imposter phenomenon, Dr. Cokley suggests the following coping tips:
“Often people suffer in silence, but you’d be surprised to find out how many others are feeling the same way,” Cokley said. “And you can support one another.”
Beyond racial issues, do not be afraid to ask questions in general, especially if you are unfamiliar with something at work, said Madoree Pipkins, a Black millennial and head of people and talent at Luma Health, a health tech firm in San Francisco.
“You may not know what your business actually does if it is highly, highly technical,” said Pipkins, who graduated from Benedict College with a bachelor’s degree in mass communications and a master’s degree in mass communications from the University of South Carolina. “You may need someone to explain it to you. And that’s OK. You’ll get to meet other people and network.”
Shantell Williams is a Harvard University economics graduate who interned at Facebook and Tesla before taking a job as a program manager at Amazon’s corporate office in Seattle.
These professionals working in tech without a STEM degree epitomize what it means to be young, gifted, and Black. With big plans, they will undoubtedly “make a huge impact on what is going on in the world,” Williams said.
