The hard truth: It is the most seductive trap of all because it feels like success, while it’s actually strangling your future.

The Definition

Let’s define the trap. The Competence Trap occurs when your competence, persistence, and high reliability become a liability. You are so good at “fixing” that you become the “catch-all” for every task that needs to be done right. You take on a little extra, then a little more, until your actual job description is buried under everyone else’s mistakes and incompetence. You think you’re becoming indispensable. In reality, you’re becoming a prisoner of your own competence.

Joe’s Story

Joe was known as “the fixer.” If a critical project was failing, Joe was the one who fixed it. Because he was fast and accurate, he began taking on all the failing projects. He felt indispensable and proud of his work ethic. However, when a director-level role opened up, Joe wasn’t even considered for the shortlist.

The management team’s feedback was a wake-up call: “Joe is too valuable where he is. If we move him, the department’s daily operations will fall apart.” Joe had worked himself into a corner where his competence made him unpromotable. He was so busy handling the tactical work of many people that he had no time to demonstrate the strategic vision required for the next level.

One year later, the weight of being “indispensable” crushed Joe’s growth. He is exhausted, working 12-hour days to fix issues others created and to save projects. He watches as an outside hire is brought in to lead the department—someone with the “bandwidth” to lead because they never let themselves get bogged down in the minutiae.

My Take

I’ve spent decades in the executive suite, and I’m going to tell you something your manager might not: Being the most “useful” person in the room is a career-killer. If you are the last stop for solving all issues, you are a risk to your career. If you are a “single point of failure,” you pose a risk to the organization and are not a candidate for higher-level roles. People in higher-level roles are expected to scale systems, not be the systems. You must learn the hard distinction between being “helpful” and being “impactful.”

If you don’t create strategic space on your calendar by letting go of tactical work, you will never have the room to grow. You have to be willing to let some things fail—or, at the very least, be done “well enough” by someone else—so you can focus on what only you can do.

Action Steps

How do you break the cycle? You need a Strategic Divorce from the busywork. Here are two actions you can take.

1. Identify “Low-Leverage” Tasks: Right now, list three things you do every week that someone two levels junior to you could handle. Not “could do as well as you,” but “could do.” Create a plan to hand them off this month. If it doesn’t hurt a little to let go, you aren’t doing it right.

2. The “Strategic Refusal”: The next time someone asks you for a “quick favor” that falls outside your core goals, ask yourself: “Does this help me reach my eminence, or am I just being the office fixer again?” If the answer is “fixer,” the answer to them is “no.”

For more on this, read Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less by Greg McKeown. And if you really want to understand how you’ve been sabotaging yourself, find the classic HBR article, “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?”

Before I sign off today, please rate yourself on this trap. On a scale of 1 to 5—where 1 is “I mostly do high-leverage work” and 5 is “I am doing everyone else’s job”— How trapped are you?

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts

The hard truth: In a high-growth environment, constant touting of perceived realism without a solution is just a roadblock. And leaders don’t promote roadblocks; they remove them.

The Definition

Let’s define the trap. The Negativity Trap is the habit of becoming the “Chief Skeptic” in the room. You likely see this as being a realist, a protector of resources, or the person brave enough to point out the “emperor has no clothes.”

Alex’s Story

To understand how this plays out in the real world, let’s look at the story of Alex. Alex was the most senior engineer on the team, possessing a deep understanding of the system architecture that had powered the company for a decade. When leadership proposed an aggressive pivot to a new AI-integrated infrastructure, Alex was the first to speak up. “The latency will be too high for our current SLA,” he argued. “The cost-to-serve doesn’t scale with these token prices, and we don’t have the internal talent to manage the vector databases.”

In every meeting, Alex pointed out the technical flaws. He wasn’t wrong—his data concerns were valid. However, six months later, Alex noticed a shift. He was no longer invited to the strategy off-sites. When he asked why, his VP was blunt: “Alex, we already know what won’t work. We need people who can figure out what will work. Right now, your feedback is a roadblock, not a bridge to where we need to go.”

Fast forward one year, and Alex’s “realism” has become his professional cage. While his peers are now leading the high-profile AI initiatives they once struggled to define, Alex is still maintaining the legacy systems. He is technically correct, but professionally stagnant, and probably on his way out if it were not for his value of knowing the legacy systems.

My Take

Move from skeptic to a pathfinder. In my decades of scaling businesses, I’ve seen that a negative mindset quickly neutralizes technical brilliance. To perform at senior technical or business levels, you must shift from being a Debbie Downer to finding solutions to the challenges you identify. Your job isn’t just to find the hole in the boat; it’s to help me patch it while staying on course. When I am leading a team, I am not looking for a list of reasons to tread water; I am looking for an executable solution that gets me to the destination I want to reach. If you aren’t providing a path for me to reach my destination, I will find someone who can replace you.

Action Steps

So, how do you get out of this trap? Here are two immediate actions you can take:

1. The “Yes, And” Pivot: For the next seven days, do not allow yourself to shut down an idea in a meeting. Not one. Instead, acknowledge the risk “Yes, the latency is a concern” and immediately follow it with “And to solve that, we could explore a tiered caching strategy.”

2. Offer Solution Parity: Commit to a new rule for your professional life - for every “red flag” you raise, you must come prepared with at least one potential path forward. If you can’t find a solution, you haven’t thought about the problem long enough to bring it to the table. In fast-paced technical environments, you will want to flag major issues before proposing a solution. That’s okay. Call out the issue, but also say you are going to work on a proposal to address it.

If you want to dig deeper, I recommend reading The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday.

Before I sign off today, I want you to rate your negativity. On a scale of 1 to 5 (1 = I find paths around issues; 5 = I am the designated skeptic), how negative are you?

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on Spotify | Listen on Apple Podcasts

When I introduced the importance of behaviors as part of the Behaviors, Outcomes, and Skills (BOS) Framework and the Behaviors Blueprint, I focused on which behaviors to prioritize to advance your career. However, there is another aspect to consider about behaviors – Career Traps that result from behaviors. These are the behaviors to avoid.

Over the next 10 weeks, we will explore the top 10 career-derailing behaviors and how to address them.

1. The Negativity Trap: Where you become the “Chief Skeptic,” killing every idea and thought.

2. The Competence Trap: Where competence in a particular function or task keeps you in the same role forever.

3. The Low-Maintenance Trap: Where your silence makes you invisible to decision-makers.

4. The Firefighter Trap: Where addiction to urgency prevents you from building scalable systems.

5. The “No-Image” Trap: Where you let others define your brand.

6. The Specialist Trap: Where you hog information for job security and do not share your knowledge with others.

7. The Perfectionist Trap: Where the pursuit of the “flawless” prevents outcome delivery.

8. The Scrambling Trap: Where you believe that a systematic approach is not necessary to deliver outcomes. This usually results in a lot of rework.

9. The Lower-Level Trap: Where you, as a senior-level employee, perform junior-level tasks.

10. The Dunning-Kruger Trap: Where a total lack of awareness leads to an inflated sense of competence. This is also the land of the know-it-alls.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

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I know what some of you are thinking. At the pace AI is taking over tasks, my job will be obsolete soon. You are feeling FOBO, the fear of becoming obsolete. If you’re in your 40s or 50s, you feel intimidated. You feel like the clock is running out on you. But I want you to pause, breathe, and stop going into a desperation spiral.

In my decades in the tech industry, I’ve learned one thing: Reinvention isn’t about being young. It’s about timing and judgment. Many people reinvent themselves later in their lives. We simply haven’t been focusing on these transitions because we did not have to. It may also be the case that we do not see humble-brag social media posts that broadcast, “I am humbled to have received the world’s best career reinventor award by my family for pivoting from Electrical Engineer to a Master Electrician.”

Here are a couple of famous reinventions that achieved celebrity status to put your mind at ease. Think of Enzo Ferrari. He didn’t start Scuderia Ferrari until he was 49. Julia Child didn’t publish her first cookbook until she was 50. They based their pivots on their foundation. They started with their personal value proposition and built on it.

You don’t need to achieve celebrity status like Enzo or Julia. My point is simply that you can reinvent yourselves, and that experience doesn’t close doors; it helps you identify the ones worth walking through.

A pivot isn’t a desperate leap into the unknown. It’s a strategic shift. If you’re considering a pivot, treat your experience as leverage, not baggage.

The Pivot Framework: Partnering with the Machine

So, how do you actually do a pivot? In the past, pivots took a long time because of the amount of research we had to do. However, today, you are in luck. Start using AI as a thinking partner to accelerate your research.

Please try the following steps this week.

Step One: Classify your work — Look at your calendar and list every task you completed last week. Now, ask AI to help you categorize this list into three buckets:

1. What is automatable?

2. What tasks can be accelerated using AI?

3. What tasks still require a human in the loop?

Your goal is to move your career toward the third bucket.

Step Two: Find your Personal Value Proposition — Upload your resume to AI and ask it: “What are the five human elements in my roles that a machine cannot replicate?” The resulting list is the starting point of your personal value proposition.

Step Three: Identify Skill Gaps — Don’t guess what you need to learn. Ask AI to identify the specific skills you need to bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to go.

Step Four: Create an Actional Learning Plan — Use AI to create a personalized four-week syllabus. Don’t just read. Do something. By the end of the month, you should have a “proof of concept”—a tangible demonstration that you’ve reached a new level of skill.

Now, go out there and build something intentional.

You may need a hard pivot

Now, I want to spend a minute talking about Hard Pivots. Sometimes, the “Digital World” gets too crowded. If you feel your desk job is becoming a race to the bottom, look around. The Physical and Human-in-the-Loop worlds are wide open. Have a conversation with someone in a different field. It might be the most important conversation of your career.

Finally, there is no shame in hard pivots. They are not a sign of failure. Hard pivots are the ultimate sign of an intentional career. You are choosing to secure your and your family’s future by taking on a role only a human can perform.

If you’re hesitating, ask yourself: “Am I protecting my income or my identity?”

If you decide you need to make a Hard Pivot, the steps I mentioned still apply.

Questions to reflect on this week

1. What is one “manual” task you can outsource to AI today to free up time to develop skills?

2. If you removed the “status” of your current title as a selection criterion for your pivot, what is the smallest step you could take to explore a role in one of the four archetypes?

3. What is the smallest step you can take this week to explore a Hard Pivot?

Thanks for joining me for this series.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

The Caregivers: The physical presence roles

Let’s take a look at the second archetype, the Caregivers. These roles require empathy, trust, and a physical presence. I am talking about high-touch work that AI cannot meaningfully address at this time.

• Traditional Roles: Nurses, Therapists, Plumbers, Electricians, Waiters.

• The AI-Enhanced Path: Tele-Health AI Coordinators or Ethics Compliance Officers who ensure the safety of AI-driven diagnostics.

Consider a possible Hard Pivot here: Take an Executive Admin. Their day used to be about managing calendars and coordinating logistics—tasks AI is now eating for breakfast. If that Admin pivots to become a Physical Therapist or a Patient Experience Coordinator, they are shifting from “Managing Calendars” to “Managing Human Recovery.” That is a stable and service-oriented future that a chatbot can’t touch.

The Custodians: Stewards of the Machine

The third archetype is the Custodian. These are the technical experts who operate the “engines” of our new economy. It’s about serving as the human “guarantor” of the machine’s accuracy. These are high-leverage roles, so there may be relatively few such positions as AI capabilities mature. Instead of a team of twenty doing the work, you have one Custodian—one expert—managing the automated platforms.

• Traditional Roles: Database Admins, IT Managers, Site Reliability Engineers.

• The AI-Enhanced Path: AI Ops Engineers, LLM Fine-Tuning Specialists, and Cyber Security Leads.

You can imagine a Soft Pivot here, where a Paralegal or a Junior Accountant stops “doing” raw research and becomes an AI Compliance Auditor. They aren’t the information processor anymore; they are the steward who ensures that the AI is correct.

The Curators: Those who choose the problems to address

Finally, we have the Curators. These are arguably the fastest-rising roles by value. However, these are also high-leverage jobs, so there may not be many such positions available. In a world of infinite, cheap execution, the scarcest skill on the planet is Judgment. Curators don’t compete on speed; they compete on knowing what matters. They ask the right questions.

• Traditional Roles: Creative Directors, Strategic Consultants, Founders.

• The AI-Enhanced Path: Prompt Architects and Context Engineers who provide the high-level “Why” that directs the machine’s “How/What.”

A Curator role could be a Soft Pivot for a Middle Manager. Instead of deciding what their human team members work on, the Middle Manager can pivot to deciding what AI agents should do. They stop focusing on how a task gets done and start focusing on the why.

Join me next week, in the fifth and final part of this series, where I explore a step-by-step framework for finding your bridge to one of these four archetypes.

Reflection questions

1. What is your personal value proposition? Based on your career history, which archetype currently holds the greatest value you offer?

2. Which of these archetypes offers a role that leverages your personal value proposition and requires your physical or emotional presence?

3. If you want to move into a “Curator” or “Custodian” role tomorrow, what is the single biggest technical or strategic gap you would need to close?

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

The new career landscape.

I’ve always found the triad of Creators, Caregivers, and Custodians useful—not as a rigid classification or hierarchy, but as a lens for seeing which jobs remain essential as technology reshapes everything around us. As AI accelerates across every industry, the triad feels like the actual structure of the emerging labor market. But to make sense of the world we’re entering, we need to reinterpret those roles for the AI economy unfolding before us. When you look closely, a fourth role emerges—one that sits even further upstream—the role of Curators.

As AI drives down labor costs, you need to define your personal value proposition. It’s the blend of lived experience and intuition that a machine can’t replicate. That proposition allows you to pivot without having to start from scratch, even if you’re changing your career path. But here’s the reality: to leverage your personal value proposition in the AI economy, you might have to step away from your screen.

Let’s walk through the first of the four archetypes of this new economy. For each archetype, I will include traditional roles, AI-augmented roles, and, finally, some thoughts on Soft or Hard Pivots.

The Creatives: Moving to the “physical.”

First up, we have the Creatives. I’m not just talking about painters or poets. I’m talking about anyone who builds.

Value is shifting from the “Digital”—typing on a keyboard—to the “Physical”—building something with your hands. AI can generate a perfect blueprint in seconds, but it can’t pick up a tool and implement that design in a messy, unpredictable physical world.

• Traditional Roles: Machinists, Construction Workers, Chefs, Writers, and Artists.

• The AI-Enhanced Paths: Digital Twin Fabricators who sync virtual models with physical builds, or Robotics Orchestrators who manage automated fleets on a factory floor.

This is where I see the Hard Pivots. Imagine an Electrical Engineer who’s spent years behind a desk designing logic circuits. Tomorrow, they may have to pivot and become a Master Electrician. Why? While AI can definitely design logic circuits, wiring a complex datacenter or a high-tech smart home requires a human who can navigate physical realities that AI can only simulate. Such a pivot, trading the cubicle for being on-site with a toolkit, can give that person a new, resilient career, without starting from scratch.

A physical pivot will be hard

For many, the ‘personal value proposition’ isn’t built with physical tools and blueprints but with specific professional training, oversight of work, or making calls based on personal judgment. Therefore, a pivot to the physical world will be a Hard Pivot.

Remember that Hard Pivots may lead to an Identity or Status Crisis. This week, I want you to identify someone in your network who has made a “Hard Pivot.” Reach out to them and ask how they handled the social transition. You’ll likely find that the “status” they lost was nothing compared to the security they gained.

But you are in luck, a physical pivot is not the only way to reclaim your value. In the next post, we will look at the remaining three archetypes: the Caregivers, the Custodians, and the Curators.

Questions to reflect on

1. Would you trade a “digital” identity for a “physical” or “high-touch” one if it guarantees 20 more years of career growth?

2. Is your pride in your title worth more than your career resilience?

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

But what does pivoting look like in practice? To understand how to navigate a pivot, we need to look at a few pivots already in flight.

Four pivot stories

First, there’s Sarah. She was a Content Marketing Manager. When she saw that AI was commoditizing writing, she stopped being the writer and became the “editor” for AI-generated content. She took ownership of the AI content and will be safe for a few years until AI capabilities improve. At least she bought herself some time for her next pivot.

Then there’s James, a Software Engineer. He saw basic coding devolve into a race to the bottom, so he pivoted to Systems Reliability and Security. He moved to a field where human accountability and high-stakes judgment still matter. As AI capabilities improve in Systems Reliability and Security, he will need to make his next pivot. James also bought himself some more time before he needs to make his next pivot.

Then we have Mark. He’s our cautionary tale. He’s an experienced Project Manager who’s been out of work for two years. He’s still trying to find the same coordination roles he held five years ago—roles now handled by an automated Jira integration. He’s clinging to a specific “white-collar” identity that no longer exists. He’s looking backward when he should be looking at physical or “Human-Essential” roles.

Finally, there’s Elena. Elena was a Junior Coder. She saw the writing on the wall and made what I call a Hard Pivot. She retrained as a high-end Robotics Technician and traded her screen for a physical workshop. Her social status shifted, sure—but her career resilience? It’s improved at least until Physical AI catches up. Of all these pivots, Elena probably bought herself the longest time before her next pivot.

The real barrier to pivots: Your identity

But here’s what I’ve realized: The hardest part of a pivot isn’t the technology or the new skills that must be learned. It’s the Identity Crisis, which is a major barrier, especially in a Hard Pivot. We get so wrapped up in our titles that we confuse what we do with who we are. When someone sees their work automated away, whether an Engineer or a Paralegal, they are not just losing a job; they feel they’re losing their identity and status in society.

In our next episode, we’ll dive into the Four Archetypes of the New Economy—the Creatives, Caregivers, Custodians, and Curators—to help you figure out where to pivot to.

A few questions to reflect on

• Is your workday mostly about executing tasks or making judgments?

• Are you waiting for the world to return to “normal,” or are you building for the new reality?

• And honestly, is your identity tied to a job title or to your ability to solve problems?

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

We aren’t just talking about robots in factories anymore. We’re talking about AI entering the rooms we thought were safe—coding, program management, legal research, and administrative roles.

A recent survey of 5,000 people found that 71% are worried AI will make their skills permanently obsolete. And the employers? 40% are already planning to reduce their workforce as they automate. These numbers are staggering.

This level of potential disruption brings us to a concept I think about a lot: The Innovator’s Dilemma. Clayton Christensen wrote about this concept, in which cheaper, good-enough products disrupt established players who are innovating on their current products, driven by their most demanding customers.

Your Dilemma: Your personal business model disruption

Think about The Innovator’s Dilemma in your career for a second. You’re doing everything possible to survive and thrive in your current role, driven by your current employer. Meanwhile, a rapidly improving, good-enough technology is about to disrupt your value proposition and personal business model. You’re better off getting ahead of the disruption and dealing with it on your terms.

In my decades in tech, I’ve seen automation before, but AI is different. Old automation replaced muscle; AI replaces “knowledge work.” According to Anthropic’s 2026 Economic Index, AI is taking over large swaths of knowledge work. AI is rapidly swallowing tasks that involve processing and synthesizing information. Companies are successfully using AI to handle complex functions and tasks, and machines are increasingly handling routine tasks like coding and writing.

So the question is: Is it time to pivot to new opportunities?

AI apocalypse proponents forecast scenarios in which AI causes widespread societal collapse and massive job losses. At the same time, AI optimists cite Jevons’ Paradox and promise a world in which humans will migrate from jobs eliminated by AI to new jobs created when AI becomes a commodity. If we believe the AI optimists, most of us will have to figure out the new opportunities and start pivoting toward them.

All of us sit somewhere along what I call the Comfort Curve. On one end is stagnation—doing the same thing until the world passes you by. On the other end is chaos. Real pivoting happens somewhere in the middle, where you choose to disrupt your own “business model” before the market does it for you.

Choosing to pivot and disrupt yourself is easier said than done. It requires a fundamental shift in how we view our professional value. In the next part of this 5-part series, I’m going to share four stories of people who saw the writing on the wall—some who pivoted successfully and one who stayed behind—to illustrate the real barrier we all face: our own identity.

Some homework until we meet next week

1. Take a look at the chart on labor market changes in a16z partner David George’s blog. I do not agree with the projection that the labor market will be rosy for the services sector, since AI will automate much of the entry-level knowledge work in the services industry as well. However, I do believe that services that are human-essential will offer opportunities in the future, at least until Physical AI becomes good enough to replace simple physical activities.

2. Review the massive Physical AI plays put together by two savvy operators – Jeff Bezos and Masayoshi Son.

3. Check out how factory workers are wearing cameras to capture their movements for training robots.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Eminence helps you get noticed and get recognized for the value you provide. Eminence is the reputation you build through consistent and visible contributions. It’s the signal you send internally to your company and to the industry.

Eminence is the true measure of your visibility: whether people recognize you and the value you bring. Do people in your company and your industry know:

• What you do and what you’re skilled at.

• What you care about and what you stand for.

• How you contribute and what you are building.

If nobody recognizes your strengths or the impact you’re making, it becomes very hard to take your next career step. You risk becoming a “best-kept secret,” and in a rapidly changing economy, being a “best-kept secret” rarely leads to promotions or new opportunities. To build a resilient career, you need visibility in two places: within your organization and in the broader market.

Internal Eminence: Navigating the Organization

Within your company, your eminence is your currency. It determines whether you’re invited to high-stakes projects or just assigned routine tasks. People in your organization should have a clear understanding of the problems you solve and the value you bring.

When you establish internal eminence, you’re not just a name on an org chart; you become a recognized entity. Being a recognized entity leads to sponsorship, where leaders advocate for you in rooms you are not in. It also results in promotions and opportunities that you don’t have to chase because your eminence attracts them.

External Eminence: Building Industry Resilience

While internal eminence helps you grow today, external eminence protects your future. In your industry, people should recognize your perspective and your unique expertise. External eminence is about building a platform beyond the boundaries of your current employer.

External eminence opens doors to advisory roles, speaking engagements, and long-term career stability. When the market shifts, those with external eminence are the first to be called upon because their value is validated by the broader community. It’s the difference between actively searching for a job and having opportunities that naturally come your way.

The Eminence Building Formula: Clarity, Contribution, Consistency

I have seen many people hesitate to pursue eminence because they confuse it with self-promotion. It’s not. Eminence is a service to your future self—built through clarity, contribution, and consistency.

Building eminence requires deliberate effort. Start small, share your progress and learnings, make your wins visible, and express your values. Keep doing this, and over time, you will develop eminence.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

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Based on my experience, career growth rarely results from cold outreach or last-minute scrambling. Instead, it comes from people who already believe in you—those you’ve invested in long before you needed a favor. This is the “C” in the ACE Framework, serving as the bridge between your self-awareness and your eminence.

What A Genuine Connection Looks Like

Genuine professional relationships feel real. They are based on first providing value without expecting anything in return. You stay connected without hidden motives. You understand what matters to them, and they know what drives you.

When you reach out to your genuine connections, it doesn’t feel awkward because the relationship has never cooled off. These are the allies who help boost your career — not because they owe you, but because the relationship has been consistently maintained.

The Two-Tier Network

If you audit your network today, it likely falls into two distinct tiers:

• Tier 1: Active Connections. These are your trusted contacts. You share advice, introductions, and honest feedback. There’s momentum here. There’s trust here. When you ask, they respond because the relationship is “live.”

• Tier 2: Dormant Connections. These are people you haven’t talked to in years. If you suddenly reach out after a long silence to ask, “Do you know of any jobs?” the response is almost always a polite “no.” Not because they don’t like you, but because you aren’t top of mind. Some of these folks may not even appreciate you reaching out only when you need something.

The true cost of allowing relationships to fade is that when you truly need help, no one will respond.

Your Goal: Keep Your Network Warm

A warm network is one where people feel comfortable reaching out to you. This warmth pays off by uncovering hidden opportunities, fostering collaborations, and opening doors you didn’t even know about. A cold network, on the other hand, leads to awkward conversations and missed chances. Warmth doesn’t demand intensity; it calls for consistency. You don’t need weekly calls or a tiring schedule of coffee chats.

Simple Ways to Sustain the Spark

Small, meaningful gestures go a long way in preventing dormant connections from cooling off. These acts take just minutes but can sustain a relationship for years. Here are some examples.

• The Quarterly Pulse: Send a short email once a quarter.

• Celebrate Wins: Congratulate them on a promotion or a project milestone.

• Share Curated Content: Send an article or report specifically relevant to their current challenges.

• Do a “No-Agenda” Check-in: Reach out just to say hello and check how their journey is going.

Become a Connector, Not Just a Collector

The best way to add value to your connections is to help them support each other. Introduce people who should meet and share opportunities that aren’t a fit for you but would be perfect for someone else. When you become the person who connects the dots, you’re not just a name in a contact list; you’re a source of value. People naturally want to help those who lift them up.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Your career won’t advance just because you’re the most talented person in the room; it will move forward more effectively if you understand the landscape better than anyone else.

In the ACE Framework, this signifies the second level of Awareness. While self-awareness acts as your internal guide, Situational Awareness functions as your radar. It is the ability to accurately assess the room, the people, the politics, and the situation.

Why Situational Awareness is Your Greatest Leverage

Many factors shape your career. Some are beyond your control, but two are within your control.

1. Competence – What you can do

2. How well you can navigate the environment you’re in

Most professionals focus on competence and overlook how effectively they navigate their environment. However, the second is where your advantage lies. Situational awareness enhances your ability to understand and respond to your surroundings. It helps you:

• Pick the right moment to speak.

• Find the true decision-makers (who aren’t always the ones with titles).

• Sense when a room is receptive or resistant to an idea.

• Position yourself for opportunities before they are officially announced.

Situational Awareness helps you play the game intentionally instead of blindly. Let me walk you through some ideas to boost your situational awareness.

Reading the Room: The Hidden Conversation

Every meeting involves two conversations: the visible one (the agenda) and the hidden one (the underlying current of what is actually happening). To improve your situational awareness, start paying attention to the energy behind the words instead of just the words themselves. Observe the:

• Power Map: Who is actually making the decision? Who is influencing them?

• Emotional Investment: Who is leaning in? Who is withdrawing? Who is quietly blocking progress?

During your next meeting, ignore the words for the first five minutes. Observe people’s postures. Who waits to speak? Who interrupts?

You’ll learn more from the energy in the room than from the slide deck.

Reading People: Listening to the Unsaid

People seldom say exactly what they mean in a corporate setting. Instead, they hint at it. You need to become skilled at interpreting these hints.

• Is someone feeling threatened by your proposal?

• Is a peer performing for the boss rather than contributing to the solution?

• What was left unsaid in that 1:1?

After your next 1:1, notice what the person didn’t bring up. That’s often where the real truth—and your next step—are found.

Navigating Company Politics

Politics is often considered a dirty word in the corporate world, but I see it differently: Politics is simply the mapping of incentives.

Every company has a public image and an internal reality. Every decision creates winners and losers. Each leader faces unique anxieties and priorities. To succeed, you must understand the unspoken rules of your environment.

• What does this team actually reward (not just what they say they reward)?

• What is leadership pretending not to worry about?

Before pitching your next big idea, understand the incentives. If your proposal doesn’t align with what the decision-maker is being evaluated on, it won’t succeed—no matter how “right” it is.

The Art of the Pivot

A large part of situational awareness is knowing when to stop.

• Don’t Sell Past the Sale: When someone says, “This makes sense,” stop talking and move to the next step. Silence is your ally; don’t turn a “yes” into a “maybe.”

• Recognize the “Subtle No”: Most corporate rejections are polite. “Let’s keep this in mind” usually means “Not now.” Your job is to spot the timing issue and adjust your approach instead of pushing forward.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

You can’t build a meaningful career by simply going on autopilot. Real career progress comes from genuinely understanding who you are and what you want. That understanding begins with self-awareness. This involves gaining internal clarity through the quiet practice of honest reflection. It’s about understanding your own truth.

Self-awareness helps you understand who you are before deciding where to go. It acts as the foundation for clarity. Without self-awareness, your career is just a series of guesses—some lucky, some not. With self-awareness, your career becomes a sequence of intentional steps, each aligned with your strengths, values, and the impact you want to make.

First, Take an Honest Inventory

This is the time to pause and reflect. Stop putting on a show for others and start being honest with yourself—the honesty you share only when no one is watching. To build this inventory, you need to consider four things.

1. Strengths & Skills: Identify not just what you can do, but what you excel at—activities that come easily to you but seem difficult to others.

2. Values & Motivators: What truly makes work meaningful? Is it creative freedom, the size of the problem, or the opportunity to mentor others?

3. Triggers & Reactions: Identify the environments that support your growth and the situations that lead to burnout.

4. Blind Spots: Identify recurring behaviors that might be preventing you from achieving your next level of success.

Self-awareness isn’t about self-criticism. It’s about self-alignment. It’s the most underrated skill for building a career that truly feels like yours.

Why You Should Reflect

Let me take a moment to talk about the importance of self-reflection. Your career is shaped by the choices you make, and the quality of those choices relies entirely on how well you reflect.

Regular reflection helps you stop drifting and start noticing patterns. It shifts your mindset from “Should I do this?” to “I should be doing this.”

Four Reflection Exercises to Get You Started

These aren’t just abstract exercises. They are designed to make you slow down enough to listen to your own voice again.

Exercise 1. The Energy Audit: Reflect on the past two weeks. When did you feel completely engaged and in flow? Conversely, which tasks made you feel tired or disconnected? Pay attention to where your energy flows and where it drains.

Exercise 2. The Pattern Scan: Reflect on your recent projects. What types of problems do you tend to focus on naturally? What do people often come to you for help with? Your patterns usually reveal your strengths before you’re even aware of them.

Exercise 3. The Truth Test: Set aside the “performance” version of yourself. What are you truly proud of, and what are you pretending to enjoy just because it looks good on LinkedIn?

Exercise 4. The Future Peek: If you release everyone else’s expectations, what would “progress” look like a year from now? Your future relies on your current courage to define success on your own terms.

Your Personal SWOT Analysis

Once you’ve finished your reflection, it’s time to take action. Remember, you’re not preparing for an interview; you’re focusing on your personal growth. Forget the typical interview scripts. Instead, use the SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) framework.

• Strengths: What comes easily to you but adds significant value to others? These are your strengths, and they indicate where to focus your growth.

• Weaknesses: Are you putting too much effort into things that yield only average results? These are your weaknesses, and they point out what you should stop doing.

• Opportunities: What are you uniquely positioned to do that no one else in the room can? These are your opportunities, and they reveal what your next step could be.

• Threats: What recurring feedback or patterns keep appearing as your blind spots? Your blind spots are your threats, so you need to pay attention to them.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Careers that develop intentionally—rather than by chance—depend on three key influences: Awareness, Connections, and Eminence. Collectively, these make up what I call the ACE Framework.

This framework helps you gain clarity about yourself, build meaningful relationships, and showcase the unique value you bring. When you leverage these three sources of influence, your career will transition from a series of random choices to a deliberate journey.

Awareness: The Silent Foundation

Awareness, the first source of influence in the ACE Framework, functions as your internal compass and radar. It gives you the ability to see yourself, your environment, and your path. clearly. You need to build three levels of awareness:

Level 1—Self-Awareness: This involves gaining internal clarity through the quiet practice of honest reflection. It’s about understanding your own truth.

• What work truly energizes you, and what drains your battery?

• Which problems do you solve naturally and exceptionally well?

• What do you want to learn next—and more importantly, what do you want to stop doing?

Level 2—Situational Awareness: This is your short-range radar, helping you read the room and understand the hidden dynamics within an organization. This skill enables you to navigate your environment effectively. It involves noticing subtle “no’s,” understanding the incentives of decision-makers, and sensing the right moment to push an idea—or to pause.

Level 3—Career Context Awareness: This is your long-range radar. It’s about identifying wider industry trends and environmental factors shaping your career. It helps you avoid misreading the market and makes sure your long-term decisions are based on reality rather than wishful thinking.

Connections: Relationships That Actually Matter

In the ACE Framework, “Connections” are the second source of influence. These are the people who know you, trust you, and would take your call without hesitation. To advance your career, you need genuine relationships, not transactional ones.

Most professional networks typically split into two tiers:

Tier 1 (Your Active Connections): These are people you regularly engage with. There is momentum and trust in these relationships. When you ask for advice or an introduction, they respond because the relationship is “live.”

Tier 2 (Your Dormant Connections): These are people you know but haven’t talked to in years. If you only contact them when you need a job, the reception will be cold and awkward.

Your goal is to keep Tier-2 engaged. This doesn’t mean you need to call everyone every week. Small, consistent gestures like sharing an article, a quick “congratulations,” or a no-agenda check-in help ensure that you’re already top of mind when an opportunity comes up.

Eminence: Becoming Known for the Value You Create

Eminence is the third source of influence in the ACE Framework. It connects delivering excellent work with gaining recognition for it. You build eminence by staying transparent about your values and the value you offer, and by making consistent, visible contributions both within your organization and in your industry.

You might be the most talented person in the room, but if your strengths, interests, and impact stay hidden, your next career move will be difficult. Eminence makes sure your value is recognized both within your company and across your industry. It’s about going from being a “best kept secret” to a “recognized expert.”

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

His question showed the sense of urgency: “You talked about using the current paycheck to prepare an exit plan, but how do I actually prepare one? I’ve been in my current job for ten years, and I don’t even have an updated résumé.”

It’s easy to stay in a comfortable role for many years and forget how to find a new job. We discussed a framework I’ve been developing to provide a comprehensive approach to boosting market value and preparing for career transitions.

After the call, I realized our discussion could be immediately useful to many others as well. So, in this edition, I’ll use the conversation I had with my friend as a starting point for the more comprehensive approach I’ll share.

If you feel stuck or sense that the career context is not in your favor, don’t wait for a crisis to hit before securing your next job.

Here are the steps to prepare a strategic exit plan.

Step 1. Define the Destination (The Awareness Phase)

The most common mistake people make is “flooding the market.” They send their résumé to every available portal and tell their network, “I just need a job.”

If you tell someone, “Any job will do,” they won’t know how to position you. Without a destination, your network can’t help you. You need to start with introspection—becoming clear about what an ideal role looks like.

Ask yourself: What is the destination? Here are some questions to get you started.

• What specific technologies are you interested in? For example: Are you interested in pivoting to AI agents or sustainable energy?

• What scale are you looking for? Are you seeking a nimble startup or a public company?

• What scope are you looking for? Is this about a leadership role, or are you interested in an individual contributor role?

• What locations are of interest to you? Do you prefer to stay in your current location or are you open to relocating?

Don’t worry about your current qualifications at this stage. This stage is about defining an “ideal.” Once you have identified an initial destination, you can say, “I am looking for X,” which makes it much easier for others to say, “I know exactly who you should talk to.”

Step 2. Activate your Network (Leverage your Connections)

Networking isn’t just about the number of LinkedIn connections; it’s about meaningful connections that matter. Divide your network into two tiers:

• The Active Tier: These are people you communicate with regularly. Reach out immediately. Share your “Destination” and request help getting there.

• The Dormant Tier: These are people you haven’t spoken to in many years. Don’t start by asking for a job. You need to “warm up” these connections first. Share an interesting article, a podcast, or a copy of this newsletter to rekindle the spark. Develop the relationship over several months before asking for a referral or opportunities.

Step 3. Use AI as Your Research Partner

You don’t need to manually search for every company in your metro area for your next role. Use an AI assistant as your research partner. Provide it with your destination—interests, preferred technologies, and company sizes—and ask it to generate a list of target companies and internal roles at your company that match your criteria. You can refer to my previous blog, Partner with AI on Your Career, for this step and the next.

Step 4. Use AI to Close Skills Gaps

Once you have target job descriptions, the real work begins.

1. Use an AI assistant to craft a version of your résumé that resonates with the language of your new destination.

2. Ask the AI assistant to compare your updated résumé with your target job descriptions. What’s missing?

3. If any skills are missing, ask the AI assistant to provide a list of resources. Use these resources to bridge the gaps.

Now you know how to plan your strategic (and urgent) exit from a “dicey situation.”

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts

Let’s break down why that feeling is lying to you and what you can do to overcome the delusion of feeling behind.

The Comparison Trap

Everyone is comparing themselves. Everyone feels like they’re behind. You might think you’re the only one watching the clock, but the person you’re jealous of is probably looking “up” at someone else with the same knot in their stomach.

• Everyone is pretending the “Ahead” part: We all hide our struggles; we all show our wins.

• You’re comparing your “Inside” to their “Outside.”: You compare your messy, internal monologue—full of doubts, late starts, your 2:00 AM anxieties, and bad hair days—to everyone else’s polished, edited exterior.

Remember: You’re comparing your “behind-the-scenes” footage to their “highlight reel.” Naturally, yours seems less impressive. That’s not a fair fight.

The Myth of the Linear Path

Careers aren’t ladders; they’re jungle gyms. The linear path from School to Job to Promotion to Success has been a myth for the last few decades. In reality, growth rarely happens in sync.

• Timelines are arbitrary: Who decided you had to have it “figured out” by 25? Or 40? These are just random markers that don’t account for the complexity of human life or your specific environment.

• Non-linear growth: Real progress usually happens in a zig-zag pattern. It involves a series of pivots, plateaus, and sudden jumps. If your path isn’t straight, it’s not broken — it’s how most careers look nowadays.

If your path resembles a zigzag rather than a straight line, it doesn’t mean you’re lost. It means you’re exploring or responding to career factors without proactively considering them.

Reclaim Your Pace

When you spend the entire race watching the runner in the next lane, you are not necessarily running as fast as you can. Your pace isn’t “slow” or “fast”; it’s just yours.

Validating your timeline involves asking yourself: What does success mean to me? Finding that answer requires self-reflection, and I recommend you start that reflection today.

While you figure out what success means to you, keep moving, learning, and exploring. It’s okay to build momentum in your current path as you define success for yourself. If you’re unsure whether you’re focused on your lane, follow these steps:

1. Utilize the Behaviors, Outcomes, and Skills (BOS) Audit to enhance your internal value. Apply the audit’s insights to select projects that will help you progress.

2. Use the Career Context Audit to boost your market value and competitiveness. Collaborate with your manager to take on stretch assignments that support your growth.

3. Shift to where the context factors work in your favor.

4. If your goal is to upskill, pursue a promotion, or pivot, let the people who can help you know.

Don’t get overwhelmed by everything you need to accomplish. Take a deep breath and focus on one thing at a time. The only person you need to beat is the version of yourself that stayed in bed yesterday and did not take any action. 😊

The Takeaway

• Stop measuring your progress by someone else’s yardstick.

• Recognize that “late” is a relative term that often means nothing.

• Keep moving forward, even if it’s just an inch today. Use the Behaviors, Outcomes, and Skills Audit and the Career Context Audit to develop your action plan.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on Spotify | Follow on Apple Podcasts

Winning Move #1: Recognize the Signal Instead of Resisting It

Both feeling lost and being confused are internal signals. One signals, “This direction no longer fits.” The other signals, “I don’t yet understand what’s happening.” Either way, the message is the same: something in your career needs attention.

• Lost → Confused: The map breaks, and confusion floods in.

• Confused → Lost: The questions keep piling up, and you no longer know where you stand.

Recognize the signal rather than attempting to silence it.

Winning Move #2: Pause and Observe

Most people try to escape discomfort. They add more tasks, goals, and noise. But clarity doesn’t come from rushing; it comes from slowing down and observing what’s really changing.

This step involves observing, not acting.:

• What exactly feels off?

• What used to feel clear and now feels blurry?

• What expectations—yours or others’—no longer fit?

This is where confusion and a sense of lostness turn from panic into usable information.

Winning Move #3: Keep Emotions Separate from the Real Questions

Lostness is emotional. Confusion is cognitive. They influence each other, but they aren’t the same. When you distinguish them, things begin to open up:

• Emotions: fear, doubt, frustration

• Real questions: direction, fit, capability, values, opportunity

You can’t answer the real questions while drowning in emotional fog. Naming the emotions reduces their influence and allows your thoughts to breathe.

Winning Move #4: Identify the Clarity Gaps

This is the turning point. Lostness and confusion seem universal — “Everything is wrong.” But winning requires you to make them specific — “This part is unclear.”

Examples of clarity gaps:

• “I don’t know if I want to stay in this role.”

• “I’m not sure what success looks like anymore.”

• “I’ve outgrown the work but don’t know what’s next.”

Once you identify the clarity gaps, you can address them.

Winning Move #5: Narrow the Focus to the Next Five Feet

When you’re lost or confused, long-term planning becomes counterproductive. The brain can’t plan effectively while disoriented. Therefore, you need to focus on a smaller scope:

· What’s the next conversation?

· What’s the next question to answer?

· What’s the next assumption to challenge?

Direction comes from taking action, not from overthinking your way to certainty.

Winning Move #6: Test Small Experiments Rather Than Large Moves

Lostness urges you to make reckless moves. Confusion urges you to stay still. The best move is to avoid both extremes. Small experiments provide data without risk.

• Try a new responsibility.

• Shadow someone in a different role.

• Test a skill you’ve been avoiding.

Each experiment either reduces confusion or clears it—both are progress.

Winning Move #7: Rebuild Your Story as You Learn

Feeling lost and confused both distort your internal story. You begin telling yourself:

• “I’m behind.”

• “I’m not capable.”

• “I should know the answer by now.”

Winning involves rewriting that narrative based on evidence, not fear.

• “I’m noticing what no longer fits.”

• “I’m stretching into something bigger.”

• “I’m learning faster than I realize.”

Rebuilding your story provides you with direction.

Winning Move #8: Let Clarity Emerge Instead of Forcing It

Clarity seldom comes as just one insight. It develops gradually through learning.

• A few experiments that feel energizing

• A few conversations that open new doors

• A few insights that keep repeating themselves

Lostness fades. Confusion settles. Direction sharpens.

Winning Move #9: Move When the Pattern Becomes Impossible to Ignore

At some point, the learning becomes clear enough that the next step becomes obvious:

• A role shift

• A new challenge

• A deeper commitment

By the time you reach this point, you’re no longer lost—you’re choosing.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on Spotify | Follow on Apple Podcasts

Both experiences are uncomfortable. Both feel like failure. And both genuinely indicate that something important is occurring.

I’ve experienced these feelings myself, and here’s the truth: whether you feel lost and therefore confused, or confused and therefore lost, you are not failing—you are finally paying attention.

Most people move through their careers on autopilot, following paths they didn’t choose and are too busy to notice they’ve drifted off-course. When you feel lost or confused, you’ve broken that spell. Something within you has woken up. That awareness—no matter how uncomfortable—is the start of clarity.

Awareness Is the First Step Toward Clarity

Feeling lost and confused are often connected, but they have different origins:

• Lost → Confused: You realize the direction no longer fits, and confusion floods in because you don’t yet know what comes next.

• Confused → Lost: You’re struggling with new expectations, new roles, or new questions, and the uncertainty leaves you feeling unanchored.

In both situations, your inner radar is functioning properly. It signals that the current script is no longer effective.

You’re no longer satisfied with autopilot. You’re noticing the gap between where you are and where you want to be. That shift—from unconscious drift to conscious noticing—is the first step toward clarity.

Reframe the story you tell yourself:

• Not “I’m stuck,” but “I’m observing.”

• Not “I’m stagnant,” but “I’m evaluating.”

Awareness is not the end of the journey; it’s the start of an honest one.

Confusion: That is your feeling of the stretch.

Confusion often gets a bad reputation. We see it as a sign of incompetence, but it’s usually a sign of growth. You might think, “If I were better at this, it wouldn’t feel so hard.” However, ease does not indicate skill; it reflects familiarity.

Confusion shows up in two ways:

• When you’re lost: You question your direction, choices, and next steps.

• When you’re stretching: You engage with responsibilities, expectations, or environments that are larger than your previous experience.

Think of it like physical training. When you push a muscle beyond its current limit, it burns. It feels wrong in the moment. But that discomfort is how growth occurs.

In your career, that “burn” is confusion. It means you’re growing.

Rewrite the story you’re telling yourself.

When you’re lost, confused, or both, it’s easy to see the moment as a crisis—your own “black swan event.” But there’s another perspective.

Sometimes your internal system needs to be temporarily taken offline to install upgrades. This isn’t a sign of failure. It’s a transition. And many people around you are going through the same thing—they’re just not saying it out loud.

How to Keep Moving When the Fog Is Thick

Whether your confusion left you feeling lost, or your lostness created confusion, the message is the same: something in you is ready for a new chapter. You’re in the midst of a breakthrough that will only make sense in hindsight.

Growth rarely follows a straight path. It loops, pivots, stalls, accelerates, and often feels disorienting before it becomes meaningful. When you can’t see the full path, don’t stress about creating a five-year career plan. Instead, value that you’re noticing the dissonance and acknowledge that you’re in stretch mode. Focus on the next five days and start working on the 9 Winning Moves I will discuss in the next post.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

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1. Your Market Value

2. Your Internal Value

3. Market & Economic Cycles

4. Company Direction & Budgets

5. Leadership Changes

Understanding these helps you start positioning yourself where these factors are favorable. This audit is designed to help you identify these factors so you can pivot rather than panic.

1. The Market Value Audit

• The Mobility Test: If you were let go today, are your skills “portable,” or only valuable within your current company’s proprietary systems? Ask yourself, how much of your expertise is useless elsewhere?

• The 5 Forces Test: Are any of the broader competitive forces currently at play in your specific situation?

2. The Internal Value Audit

• The Replacement Cost Test: How hard and costly would it be for the company to replace you at 80% capacity? If you quit today, how many weeks would it take to find someone “good enough”?

• The Specialist Trap Test: High-growth careers depend on portable skills. If 90% of your time is spent managing internal “red tape” or niche proprietary processes, your Internal Value is disconnected from your Market Value. Your internal value disappears the moment you leave.

3. The Market & Economic Cycle Audit

• The Industry Health Test: Is your sector in a growth or “correction” phase? Are there large-scale layoffs happening in your industry?

• The Interest Rate Impact Test: Does your company depend heavily on borrowing or VC funding? If so, your role is vulnerable to global economic shifts.

• The Supply vs. Demand Test: Are there more people with your skillset than available roles? Are large layoffs occurring in your job type? These factors determine your leverage.

4. The Company Direction & Budget Audit

• The Revenue Source Test: Is your department a Profit Center (generating revenue) or a Cost Center (an expense)? Cost centers are the first to feel the impact of budget cuts.

• Strategic Alignment Test: Does your daily work directly support the top three goals mentioned by the CEO in the last All-Hands meeting?

• Business Profitability Test: Is your specific unit generating cash? If not, your unit may be the next target for cost reduction.

• Resource Trends Test: Have there been recent cuts to travel, software, or contractors? These are early signs of a shift.

5. The Leadership Change Audit

• The Sponsor Test: List leaders two levels above you. How many know your name and your specific value?

• The “New Guard” Test: If your manager or department head has changed in the last six months, you are in a “re-auditioning” phase regardless of your length of service.

• Political Stability Check: Is there obvious tension between your department head and the C-suite?

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

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I'm sure you've seen talented, hardworking people get laid off while mediocre talent is kept on. This is because talent and effort are just two pieces of a complex puzzle. To truly control your career path, you need to understand the Career Context factors that quietly influence your career.

Career Context Factor #1: Your Market Value

Your market value depends on portable skills that are useful to your current employer and competitors. Adapting and applying Porter’s Five Forces analysis to careers is an insightful exercise. It reveals that you aren’t competing only with your peers. You are also competing with global low-cost labor and with automation technologies such as AI. These external forces affect the structural integrity of your role and your market value.

Career Context Factor #2: Your Internal Value

Companies assess your replacement cost to gauge your internal value. If losing you means forfeiting institutional knowledge or rare technical skills, your internal value is high. But if your role can be easily outsourced or automated, it becomes vulnerable during budget cuts, regardless of your talent. You can be essential in your current position while being unemployable elsewhere. Therefore, you need to balance your “internal value” and “market value.”

Career Context Factor #3: Market & Economic Cycles

You might be the world’s best strategist, but during a high-interest-rate environment or a venture capital drought, you can still get laid off. Market cycles and the economy determine staffing levels. In booms, companies hire based on potential; in downturns, they hire for immediate ROI. Often, the “star” of a company isn’t the smartest person—they are simply the individual whose skills match the current market or economic cycle.

Career Context Factor #4: Company Direction & Budget Shifts

Capital allocation constantly fluctuates. One year, a company might prioritize aggressive growth; the next, operational efficiency. When budgets shift, departments can quickly change from the “future of the company” to a “cost center.” You can't outwork a limited budget. Your team size shrinking often reflects leadership’s investment strategy rather than your performance.

Career Context Factor #5: Leadership Changes

We often underestimate how much career momentum depends on sponsorship from your company's leaders. A new VP or CEO acts as a “reset” button, often sparking reorganizations. Additionally, roles are redefined based on a new vision rather than individual merit.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on Spotify | Follow on Apple Podcasts

Finding the right mentors is not easy. So let us walk through some considerations in selecting mentors. Your mentorship needs evolve as you progress in your career. So consider both your immediate needs and long-term aspirations when seeking mentors.

Mentors For Early-Stage Acceleration

• Seek mentors who are a few steps ahead in your desired field in your company.

• Early-stage mentors play a special role. They can help navigate entry-level challenges, understand company culture, and identify essential skills.

• Consider senior colleagues, alumni from your university, working in your company. Look for people who are approachable and willing to share their time and insights.

Talk to your manager if you are unsuccessful in finding mentors. Your manager can provide mentorship or assign a senior colleague to be your mentor. This is not ideal, but having a mentor is better than having no mentor. Talking to people and getting their help is a very important skill to progress in your career path. So, don’t stop trying to find mentors on your own.

Mentors For Mid-Career Acceleration

The types of mentors you seek will vary depending on your needs.

Career-navigation mentors

• Someone successful in leadership roles, their own businesses, or significant career changes. These folks can guide career planning and leadership development.

Industry-specific mentors

• An expert in your chosen market (e.g., cloud services, Agentic AI) to shore up industry-specific knowledge.

Skill-specific mentors

• An expert in a particular skill you want to develop (e.g., public speaking, negotiation).

Join a mentoring program or use an executive coach if you are not successful in finding mentors on your own. Use online advice if you cannot overcome the fear of reaching out to potential mentors.

Find Mentors Before You Are In Trouble

Building a robust in-person network of mentors takes time and effort. And this is usually a challenge for introverts. It is very easy to default to only using online “mentors.” You may think, “I can get words of wisdom without ever having to meet or talk to the mentor.” But a couple of in-person mentors will make the journey less lonely and more navigable. Build your in-person mentor network before you desperately need someone to help you.

Fear of asking for help is something that you must overcome. So take baby steps to continue your quest for a human mentor. Getting a bunch of rejections from very busy people is normal. Consider reaching out to a few retired folks who may have the time to guide you.

Remember, mentors don’t have to guide you, but you need their help. When you reach out to potential mentors, tell them what you hope to gain. Be sure to always respect their time and express gratitude.

The road ahead is yours to shape!

Suresh 😊

Join me on: Instagram | Twitter | LinkedIn

Listen on Spotify | Follow on Apple Podcasts