Tag: imposter syndrome

Reflecting before I Assign Reflection: On Vocational Exploration in Business Education

The author reflects on the integration of vocational exploration within business education, highlighting the mismatch between students’ career readiness and the search for purpose. Despite feelings of imposter syndrome, she is driven to empower students to connect professional success with personal values, advocating for a holistic understanding of vocation in business contexts.

I’ve got a confession: When I applied for a NetVUE grant to embed vocational exploration in my organizational communication program, I did it partly because I knew I had what we in business call a “unique selling point.” Ever since being introduced to NetVUE, I’ve been reading its blog posts and listening to its podcast episodes, so I knew that my application would be considered alongside proposals for further integrating calling into English, philosophy, and theology programs. I was confident that NetVUE would be interested in bringing the language of calling into classrooms where it’s rarely, if ever, heard.

But that strategic thinking was not my only motivation. My study of organizational communication majors shows that students struggle with career transitions because they can’t connect professional preparation with individual purpose. My research on mid-career women reveals how a clash of personal and professional values lead to career disruptions—research with such a wide scope that it’s the foundation of my forthcoming book.

I know that underemphasizing vocation has serious consequences across the lifespan of work. But here’s what I didn’t know when I submitted my proposal: a serious case of imposter syndrome would follow. 

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Imposter Syndrome and Vocation

Making imposter syndrome more visible shows our students that they are not alone, and it reminds us, as faculty and staff members, that we are not alone either.  

I am an expert on imposter syndrome, not in the academic sense but rather in the lived experience sense. It is the little voice in the back of my head that says, “You’re not supposed to be here” or “Everyone is going to see you don’t belong.” In fact, when I was asked to contribute to Vocation Matters, it showed up and said, “What could you write that your amazing colleagues haven’t already written?” As I considered that little voice, I realized that imposter syndrome might be precisely the vocation-related topic that I could talk about. I imagine that some (maybe even many) of you share my experience and that even more of you know and work with students who share this experience. I want to reflect on how imposter syndrome might intersect with and influence our and our students’ vocational journeys.

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