  The Impostor Phenomenon (IP) is widely discussed in Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and has been evaluated in Computer Science
students. However, formal research on IP in software engineers has yet to be
conducted, although its impacts may lead to mental disorders such as depression
and burnout. This study describes a survey that investigates the extent of
impostor feelings in software engineers, considering aspects such as gender,
race/ethnicity, and roles. Furthermore, we investigate the influence of IP on
their perceived productivity. The survey instrument was designed using a
theory-driven approach and included demographic questions, an internationally
validated IP scale, and questions for measuring perceived productivity based on
the SPACE framework constructs. The survey was sent to companies operating in
various business sectors. Data analysis used bootstrapping with resampling to
calculate confidence intervals and Mann-Whitney statistical significance
testing for assessing the hypotheses. We received responses from 624 software
engineers from 26 countries. The bootstrapping results reveal that a proportion
of 52.7% of software engineers experience frequent to intense levels of IP and
that women suffer at a significantly higher proportion (60.6%) than men
(48.8%). Regarding race/ethnicity, we observed more frequent impostor feelings
in Asian (67.9%) and Black (65.1%) than in White (50.0%) software engineers. We
also observed that the presence of IP is less common among individuals who are
married and have children. Moreover, the prevalence of IP showed a
statistically significant negative effect on the perceived productivity for all
SPACE framework constructs. The evidence relating IP to software engineers
provides a starting point to help organizations find ways to raise awareness of
the problem and improve the emotional skills of software professionals.
