The page nobody else in this category will write

The day you can’t open your laptop.

Some mornings the search wins. You've been rejected more times than you can count, the job postings blur together, and there's a cursor blinking in a cover letter you don't have it in you to write. If that's today, read this instead.

The math, said plainly.

A long PMM search usually means the door is narrow and a lot of people are waiting at it, including people with more years than the job even requires. When a senior person takes a downlevel, a junior loses a slot that was never really open. That's how the market is built right now. It says nothing about how good you are at this.

What sixty rejections actually means.

It means you applied sixty times, which most people never do. It usually also means some of those doors were closed before you knocked and nobody told you. An honest timeline isn't meant to discourage you. It's the thing that lets you make a plan.

What to do on the hard day.

Don't try to do the whole plan. Do one small thing. Send one message to one person who's already on the inside. Or don't do that either. Close the laptop and go outside, and let today be a rest day you chose instead of one you collapsed into. This is a stretch of time you're in, and it will end.

You’re not behind. You’re outside, which is a different thing. And outside has a door. It just isn’t the one with the sign on it.

If today is heavy and you want a person instead of a page, book a 20-min coffee chat. No pitch, no catch.