Explain
Imposter syndrome in terms of the first day at a new school
Imposter syndrome is just turning up for your first day at a new school, only to realise you have accidentally wandered into the Sixth Form common room while still wearing your oversized Year 7 blazer.
You have been hired because of your credentials, which is effectively being placed in the top set for Maths based on a predicted grade from a teacher who retired in 2004. You are sitting at your desk, clutching a biro that does not work, convinced that the headmaster is about to burst through the door and announce that your presence here was a clerical error involving a similarly named student from a village three counties over. Every email you send is a scribbled note passed under the table, terrified that the popular kids will notice you are just a collection of nervous tics and borrowed jargon held together by a cheap tie and the desperate hope that nobody asks you a direct question about the curriculum.
Your colleagues are the other students, most of whom seem to have mastered the art of looking busy while doing absolutely nothing, much like the lad in the back row who has been staring at his textbook for forty minutes despite it being upside down. You wait for the bell to ring so you can finally escape to the toilets and cry, but the bell never rings, and you are expected to navigate the canteen without a lunch card. You are waiting for someone to shout that you are a fraud, but they are all too busy trying to remember which classroom they are supposed to be in to notice that you have no idea what you are doing.
Where the analogy breaks downIn a school, you eventually graduate or get expelled, whereas in a workplace you just keep getting invited to more meetings.