[QuercusMax]

I totally agree. We just finished our perf cycle here at the Goog, and in my self evaluation I rated my impact as "medium" on the various projects I worked on. (I started back in June, so I haven't been around very long, and I'm very much still ramping up.)

The peer evaluations I got all rated my impact as "important" to "critical". I don't feel like I did anything too outstanding; just doing what anybody would do, and I feel like I still have a tremendous amount to learn, and the senior personnel are still way ahead of me.

I definitely feel like a touch of impostor syndrome can be a help toward excelling, as long as it doesn't cripple you.

[bkjelden]

A little imposter syndrome keeps you hungry. A lot of imposter syndrome is paralyzing.

I had a very similar experience to you during my first performance review at Microsoft. Thought I was just scraping by, ended up getting a promotion.

[agumonkey]

The 'lack of confidence' led me to mentally enjoy competitions because I then don't have to query people to know my place.

[illumen]

A very interesting humble brag thread. I'm not sure it's imposter syndrome if you think you're doing well when presented with evidence and then believe it. Not by definition anyway.

The performance reviews remind me of this little joke (actually a common real experience) -- "I got rated Above Average!" 'What was the average rating?' "Let me check... Oh. It's Exceptional".