Someone I trained just offered to refer me into his company. He's two levels above me now. I can't stop thinking about it.
Three years ago I trained this guy. Genuinely trained him, covered for him when he messed up. Good guy, I liked him.
He messaged me on LinkedIn yesterday. He's a senior manager now at a company I'd kill to work at, and he was completely lovely about it. Said he'd always appreciated me, that they're hiring, that he'd be happy to refer me if I wanted. No ego, no weirdness. And I've been a wreck about it ever since, which I hate, because it says more about me than him.
Here's the part that's actually eating me though. I clicked into his profile and his whole career reads like a story. Clear line, every move makes sense, you can see exactly what he's about. Then i looked at mine and it's just… a list of jobs. I've worked hard for eight years and I could not tell you what the through-line is or what I'm building toward. That's the real difference between us, not talent.
I've started replying to his message four times and deleted it every time. I don't even know what I'd say I want, because I don't know what I'm good at anymore beyond “reliable, works hard."
So how do you get out of this? The heads-down, keep-grinding, suddenly-eight-years-gone thing. For the people who actually turned it around, what did it take to get a handle on what you bring, instead of just working hard and hoping someone notices?