The Great Corporate Pretense: Are We All Just Winging It?
Reading through online discussions about corporate life lately has triggered some deep reflection about my own twenty-plus years in the tech industry. The recurring theme? We might all be faking it to some degree.
The tech world is particularly prone to this phenomenon. Job descriptions read like someone threw a technical dictionary at a wall and listed whatever stuck. Must have expertise in seventeen programming languages, four cloud platforms, quantum computing, and the ability to time travel? Sure, why not. These wishlists have become so detached from reality that they’re almost comical.
Working in DevOps, I regularly encounter situations where I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing. Just yesterday, I spent two hours debugging a Docker container issue, and my solution came from piecing together three different Stack Overflow posts. Did I really solve it, or did I just get lucky? The container works now, so I suppose that counts for something.
The truth is, being good at our jobs isn’t about knowing everything – it’s about knowing how to find answers and solve problems. That person who seems to have it all figured out? They’re probably Googling solutions just like the rest of us. The difference is they’ve gotten better at asking the right questions.
Corporate culture has created this bizarre theatre where we all pretend to be supremely confident while simultaneously doubting ourselves. It’s particularly evident in meetings where everyone nods along to buzzwords and acronyms, afraid to be the one who asks, “Sorry, what does that actually mean?”
But here’s the thing – this isn’t necessarily bad. The tech industry moves so rapidly that being comfortable with not knowing everything is actually a crucial skill. The developer who claims they know everything is probably the most dangerous person in the room. Give me someone who admits their uncertainties and knows how to learn over a know-it-all any day.
What’s genuinely concerning is how this culture of pretense affects our mental health. The constant pressure to appear competent while battling imposter syndrome is exhausting. During my last contract role, I spent the first month convinced they’d discover I was a fraud, despite having done similar work for over a decade.
Looking at the broader picture, perhaps we need to shift our perspective on what constitutes “faking it.” If you’re successfully solving problems, delivering results, and helping your team, does it matter that you had to Google how to do it? The real imposters are those who refuse to admit their limitations or learn from others.
The corporate world could benefit from more honesty about our limitations and uncertainties. It might help create environments where asking questions isn’t seen as weakness, and where learning is valued over pretending to know everything.
For now, though, I’ll keep doing what works – solving problems one Google search at a time, while trying to remember that everyone else is probably doing the same thing. Maybe that’s not really faking it after all. Maybe that’s just how modern work actually gets done.