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Right now, a lot of senior people who want a new role by Q1 are planning to start looking in January. January is the worst time to start. ​ This is what actually happens at the end of the year: hiring slows for about four weeks. New-year budgets aren't released, decision-makers are out, and processes that were moving in November stall until mid-January. Then everyone who told themselves "I'll start fresh in the new year" floods in at once. You end up running the hardest versi

"I think I'm done here" has two completely different meanings, and they come out of your mouth sounding exactly the same. One version means this quarter is wrong. The other means the work is wrong for you. Same sentence, opposite problems — and they need opposite things from you. The first is annoyance. A stakeholder who won't move. A reorg that turned a good job into a slog. A manager who manages you like it's your first month. Real, draining — and situational. The second is

You sit down to write about yourself, and the first thing out is "I deliver results." Which is true. It's also what everyone at your level says, right before they reach for "cross-functional leadership" and "driving impact." Don't fight it. The generic version always comes out first. It's the reflex — the shape your work takes after years of being measured on outcomes and never once asked to explain how you actually got them. But your story lives one level down from that sent

You've stopped caring about the work. Not all work — this work, the problem in front of you right now. And you've started to wonder if that's a you problem. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this anymore. It usually isn't that. You know the direction you want to head — a different kind of work, a domain you're drawn to — and your current role can't take you there. The scope doesn't reach. So you keep grinding on a problem you've checked out of, and that's exhausting in a way ove

Most people start a senior search by protecting a number. The comp they're on, the level they've reached — those become the floor, and the search turns into a hunt for roles that clear it. Reasonable. Also backwards. When the level is the target, you aim at the label. You filter for the title, screen for the band, and end up interviewing for roles you can technically do at a company you'll technically tolerate. You clear the bar. And six months in, you're running the same sea

"I think I could go the Director route at another big company. But there's a VP role at a startup that's got my attention. And honestly, part of me just wants something smaller where I'm building again." Same person. One breath. Three directions. I hear a version of this almost every week right now, and it never sounds like confusion. It sounds like someone with too many good answers. Every option is real. Every one is genuinely them. So they keep all three alive — a little n