Veerle Verhagen
Software Tester
Dutch Railways
More about Veerle Verhagen...

Veerle Verhagen is a software tester from the Netherlands, currently working for Dutch Railways. She is particularly interested in agile testing, the human beings behind the software, core skills for IT professionals, and ethics in tech. When she’s not testing, she likes to put her background in education to use by creating and facilitating workshops. Ask her about: early medieval combat sports, her motorbike, her hopes to one day sail to the Channel Islands in a 6.5m sailboat.

Veerle Verhagen is talking about  
Winning with imposter syndrome: a community effort
Imposter syndrome isn’t our failing as individuals. There are many cultural and business systems that sap our confidence and make us feel excluded or insufficient. Let’s find ways to fight that. SPEAKERS believe that we, as a community, can think of ways to prevent people from feeling victimized by imposter syndrome. In this workshop, we will look at various factors that may be feeding our “inner critics”. Then, participants - whether or not they suffer from imposter syndrome themselves - will collaborate to come up with new ideas to push back on the drivers of imposter syndrome. SPEAKERS will guide participants through small group brainstorming sessions to better understand imposter syndrome and generate ideas to overcome it. The outcomes of the workshop will be shared with the larger community via a blog post after the conference. (Note: personal experiences shared will not be included in the blog post, or if the participant wants it included, will be anonymized as desired).
Key takeaways…
- A deeper understanding of what imposter syndrome is, and why it is not a personal failing - Ideas to help us not fall victim to imposter syndrome, even if we can’t avoid feeling it sometimes - How we, as a community, can combat imposter syndrome - Three brainstorming techniques that can be used in other contexts as well