Career • --- • 1mo • 📖 1 min read

One bad keynote ended my career trajectory

All-hands, fifteen minutes, my biggest project. I froze on the second slide. Stumbled the rest. Nobody said anything directly. But the next quarter my scope shrank. The quarter after that, my manager started copying my skip-level on emails. By year-end I was not staffed on anything that mattered. I left a year later.

Embed this story

<iframe src="https://surbias.com/api/embed/srxx7v6brcmu" width="100%" height="250" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Comments (0)

Passed over for promotion three years in a row

First time, I told myself the timing was off. Second time, the role was not quite right. Third time, my new manager pulled me aside and asked if this was the right ladder for me. I am still here. I do not know if I am st…

Career --- 25d

I quit my stable job for nothing concrete

I left a well-paid role to figure things out. I had savings, a vague plan, and a lot of confidence. Eighteen months later I am interviewing for the same kind of job I left, two levels lower, explaining a gap I cannot mak…

Career --- 26d

Career pivot at 35 did not work out

Engineering for fifteen years, then I burned out and pivoted into UX. Took loans for a bootcamp, did the portfolio, made the case in interviews. Two years and four jobs later, I am back in engineering. The pivot was not …