Simple question up front:

What does Imposter Syndrome feel and look like to you?

I had a(nother) recent experience with that psychological pattern of doubting my skills and accomplishments. That feeling of being a fraud and the fear of being exposed for the incompetent fool that my brain tells me I am. The irony is, I don’t instinctively align with some of those symptoms, specifically perfectionism and a fear of failure. Yet, the insecurity of self-doubt and anxiety is always there.

I mentioned in March 2025 that I was taking a break from blogging. This came specifically out of the necessities for life priorities. Even though I have many ideas and projects that I’ve either catalogued or started for this website, I don’t currently possess the energy or time to even create a schedule to complete them. With that said, I still have that drive to learn, accomplish, and stay current within data analytics. Is this especially true as I’ve been able to complete some tasks within the field over 2025, but not as much as I’d like to be doing.

“The algorithm” was doing its thing one morning and I noticed that Datacamp was having a 50% Boxing Day sale. I decided to pick it up and started the learning trip on 27th December. I understand that this certification isn’t as valid or revered as something from the AWS, Microsoft, or Google pathways, but I felt like I was wasting time by not participating in some currency and learning. Especially as you can earn said certificates on the platform.

Even though I’d been considering upskilling throughout 2025, I had the stumble over the whole ‘lack of energy’ thing, but also decision fatigue regarding who to get certified by. Throughout that research, I came across this Practice SQL site, which was fantastic, but it only took me so far.

I started the journey by discovering how I can best spend my time on one track and not get interested in the various different areas that I know I would be. I definitely don’t have the time for that. I found the Career tracks and triaged my approach:

1. Associate Data Analyst in SQL
2. Associate Data Engineer in SQL
3. Associate Data Analyst in Python
4. Associate Data Analyst in R
5. Data Analyst in Tableau
6. Associate Data Analyst in Databricks

I smashed through the SQL tracks because I find it to be fun, enjoyable, and a very logical way to process data. It just clicks to me. Because I got onto that flow with the concepts and exercises, I found myself beginning to chase streaks and the leaderboards. Even though I knew the whole psychology behind this leaderboard feature, the messaging was still going through my head as ‘accomplish as many as possible to stay ahead’. ‘New leaderboards open on a weekly basis. Gain 250XP to automatically join one and start competing. When the leaderboard ends, you’ll see your result and if you are promoted to the next league!’:

I found myself wanting to blitz through exercises for two reasons:

1. Get the certificate as fast as possible because I really don’t have that much spare time, and
2. Stay ahead of everyone around me.

This is neither efficient nor effective as I wasn’t sitting with the content as long as I needed to be to help digest it. I’m a proponent of sitting in the weeds with something for a while and applying it elsewhere at the same time to grasp how it works on multiple levels. With this conflict in my head, I attempted to break out of this track and see if I could actually validate my learning to date. But, here is when that voice in the back of my head crept in.

I noticed that you can assess your learning by taking a Skill Assessment based on a particular area. Thinking that this is a great opportunity to see how I’m stacking up against the impending Certificate assessment, I took all 4 of the SQL Skills Assessments: Data Management in SQL (PostgreSQL), Data Analysis in SQL (PostgreSQL), Exploratory Analysis Theory, and Statistical Experimentation Theory.

Data Management in SQL (PostgreSQL)

Data Analysis in SQL (PostgreSQL)

Exploratory Analysis Theory

Statistical Experimentation Theory

Of course, when I saw these results, the first thing I thought of was — well, that was lucky to get the string of questions that I did. Neurotically choosing to disregard the evidence in the contrary to this, with the following message being displayed prior to the commencement of these skill assessments: ‘The assessments will automatically adapt to your skill level.’

Even now, with this knowledge above, I can’t bring myself to go for the Data Analyst certification over the Associate one. I guess it is the forever battle:

Is this psychological challenge something that you battle with from time to time? Weekly? Daily? More frequent than that? I would love to hear the last time you came up against this and what your outcome was.