#42 Gauge where you stand
- Mel Fox Dhar
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
A lot of the people on my calendar right now aren't looking yet. They're "getting ready." The real search starts in September — once summer's done, the holidays are out of the way, and they've had time to sort themselves out.
I get the instinct. September feels like the proper starting line. New quarter, everyone back at their desks, roles opening up.
But here's what usually happens between now and then. "Getting ready" turns into tinkering. A new resume bullet in July. A few saved job posts. A headline you rewrite twice and revert. It feels productive. Then September arrives, you start applying in earnest — and you get the same silence you'd have got in June, because nothing underneath actually moved.
You were busy. You weren't getting clearer. The most useful thing you can do with a quiet summer is get an honest read of where you actually stand — before you change a single word. Here's why that's strangely hard for Amazonians.
Inside, you were fungible — and I mean that as a compliment. A spot opened, you were strong, you got slotted in. A reorg spun up a team and you absorbed it. A lot of times roles found you without a ton of lift.
Outside, that doesn't hold. No spot is sitting there with your name on it. You have to decide what you actually want — which you may not have done in years — and then prove you belong there to people who have no idea what you did before.
Picking the spot, and showing you fit it: two things you never had to do inside, and now they're the whole game.
So this summer, before the resume tinkering, sit with both halves.
What would you actually choose, if the next obvious rung weren't the default?
How clearly does your positioning say you belong there?
The Senior-to-Director Positioning Diagnostic is the fastest way into that second question. Twelve questions, about fifteen minutes, six dimensions — it shows you the spot your experience currently reads for, which tends to sit a level below the one you'd pick for yourself. That gap is what the summer's for.
Chat soon,
Mel
P.S. The people who land in the autumn usually aren't the ones who started applying first. They're the ones who used the summer to get clear — so when September came, they were aiming, not spraying.