Why I write this down.
Everything on this site is what I learned along the way, so your line has fewer dips than mine.
Most of what I know about careers I learned by getting it wrong first. I was written off early and often: not good enough, not ready, too emotional. Some of it was fair. Most of it was a forecast by people who could only see where I was, not what I would do next.
At 25 I was asked to become a CFO, and then a non-compete meant I couldn't take the job. The business partnership I had built fell apart. I started again as a controller at Telia, and worked my way to senior manager, then to a director role at Maersk. Along the way I started sitting on the other side of the table: the side that decides who gets promoted, who gets the difficult project, and who gets told "not yet".
What I saw there surprised me. The decisions were made quickly, by busy people, on impressions. Almost none of the things I had been told mattered actually mattered. And almost everything that did matter was learnable, if someone told you. Nobody had told me. So I started writing it down for the people on my team, and then for anyone who wanted it.
What I believe
Good work that nobody sees is a hobby. A verdict is just a forecast. One good piece of advice at the right time can save you years. And a career is a line with dips in it, where every dip is also the cheapest moment to change direction.
I want this site to be the map I didn't have: honest, practical and free. If it saves one person a year of guessing, it has done its job.
