I spent 6 years in nonprofit program management before making a move into tech operations. The whole time I was interviewing I kept unconsciously apologizing for my background. Not literally, but in the framing. "I know this isn't a traditional path but..." "I haven't worked in tech before, however..." "My background is a little different..."
Three people gave me the same piece of feedback before I finally heard it: stop explaining away what you've done. Just describe it.
The shift was small but it changed everything. Instead of "I've mostly worked in nonprofit, but I did manage a $2M budget," I said "I managed a $2M budget across 8 funding streams with quarterly reporting to 4 different grant agencies." Same facts. No apology.
What I realized: the imposter syndrome in industry switching is often baked into the language we use about ourselves. The hedges and qualifiers announce "I don't really belong here" before the content even lands.
The other thing that helped was getting really specific about the actual skills I had vs. the sector I'd worked in. Project management doesn't care what sector it's in. Stakeholder communication doesn't care. Managing to a budget doesn't care. The skills transferred. The badge on the door was different.
I still have moments in my current tech ops role where I feel out of depth, especially in conversations that are very tech-heavy. But I've stopped treating my prior career as a liability to apologize for. It's context. Most people in tech have never had to fight for every dollar of a grant or write impact reports for a skeptical foundation board. That experience is additive.
For anyone else switching sectors: watch your language. The imposter syndrome shows up first in the qualifiers.