u/Suspicious-Effort139

I'm a 40-year-old VP at an S&P 500 company in the U.S., feeling increasingly stuck in my career.

I started my career with five years at McKinsey and before this interned at Meta. Now I've been 10 years at the company, where I did some high-profile strategy and finance work very successfully, and spent the last five years in the same VP role in a low-cost region that I moved to for the role. In this role, I have significantly less exposure and struggle to see what's next. The role will probably dissolve within the next half-year as my work is done.

I am still considered a high potential by the company and have performed very well over the last five years, as shown in evaluations and bonuses. My total comp is around 300k USD.

My biggest weakness is compelling storytelling, and the company uses an interview process that relies purely on situational questions where I struggle to perform well. I tried to work on this, but remain below average both objectively and for my level. There are enough people in the company who know that I can do great work, but it seems I cannot make it through the interview process. I have not gotten the job in three interviews over the last year, even though an SVP was very keen to have me and credibly told me I'm his favorite candidate. After the interviews, he said I still was his favorite candidate, but he couldn't get me through the panel process with HR and other stakeholders given my interview performance.

I know that I need to work on my weakness, but still perform very well in my job and know I have a lot of potential being 40 years old and with my trajectory. It feels like the process in my company overindexes my biggest weakness, and therefore I'm not sure what to do. I doubt the company will fire me in half a year, but I also do not see a clear way forward.

I would also consider switching companies after my 10-year mark, but in my current low cost-of-living area where I probably have to move anyway, there are not many comparable companies. I feel like my interview weakness and the current economic situation make jumping ship fairly hard.

I just needed to get this off my chest as I feel stuck. Financially, I'm comfortable enough to bridge a year or two or potentially do something more entrepreneurial, but I'm not yet done with my career or financially able to retire early. About 2m usd net worth, family with 2 young kids

Dear Stereo Advice,

What’s a great speaker for mainly electronic music?

Budget max 20k€ but I also don’t mind staying significantly below. Buying used is ok.

Room is currently very large with listening distance of 3m. I will however move in the next year but expect room size to be 25-35 sqm.

I would like a ideally a basic or vintage look to them, eg with non high gloss wood and a classic shape. I also have two little kids, so protection is a must.

Favorite electronic artists are Gigi dagostino, moonbootica, daft punk, Benni Benassi, trentemoller, royksopp, Billie Eilish. Other artists I like are Alicia keys, Lana del Rey, bad bunny, Iron Maiden, Jimi Hendrix, Adam Green, Kendrick Lamar.

I want to significantly improve sound quality coming from tidal, WiiM Ultra, cyan holo 2, McIntosh ma352, klipsch heresy 3, rel classic 98

I recently listened to B&W 802d2 with a large autoformer McIntosh amp and was very impressed. Probably best speaker I’ve heard so far. That‘s my reference sound. Massive scale, no audible distortion, extremely powerful oomph, physical punch, crystal clear without any sharpness for any song I heard. I spent 2 hours with my playlist and could not find any weakness and was very impressed by most songs.

The look and size is however not compatible with my living room and wife.

Other speakers I auditioned:

B&W 803d4 and did not like it eg with Alicia keys - Empire State of Mind it was ear grating with massive sharpness.

Harbeth shl 5 was very nice but lacked the wow factor

Sonus Faber Sonetto g2 VIII was underwhelming with bass a bit wobbly, mids not clear and detailed.

Dali Rubikore 8 were a bit boring. Nothing wrong but not enough right

Dali Epikore 3 had really amazing sound stage and nice tune. Bass was impressive for size but one could hear it lacked the oomph and precision

Wilson Sasha DAW - very I impressive, especially sound stage and scale. extremely realistic. yet over budget and visually a no go. unfortunately I only heard it with some audiophile demo stuff and not my music

Monitor Audio Platinum 300 with great emotion especially for Alicia Keys and Jimi Hendrix. Excels with voices and guitars, very intense. I liked it but they felt a bit overpriced and like a one trick pony. maybe too much intensity for everyday and the rest was just average.

My goal is club sound just better.

located In Europe