u/DBarryS

You spent 25 years being the person people called when things went wrong.

Now your phone doesn't ring.

Nobody tells you that's the hardest part of losing a senior role. Not the money, not the title, not even the ego hit. It's the silence. The sudden realisation that a lot of those calls were about the chair, not the person sitting in it.

I've sat across from hundreds of executives going through exactly this. Brilliant people. People who built things, led teams, turned companies around. And almost all of them were making the same mistake in their job search. The same one. Every single time.

They were making it about themselves.

I'll tell you what that looks like in practice. Their CV opened with "results-driven executive with 20 years of experience seeking a senior leadership role." Their cover letter started with "I am writing to express my strong interest." Their LinkedIn summary read like a eulogy they'd written for themselves.

Every single document was written from the inside looking out. What they'd done. What they wanted. What they were proud of.

And every hiring manager on the other side of the desk was thinking one thing: can this person solve my problem?

Those are two completely different conversations. And most senior candidates never realise they're having the wrong one.

Here's the shift. Before you write a single word of your CV, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile, or your interview prep, ask one question first. What is this organisation actually trying to fix right now? Not what do they do. What problem are they sitting with at 2am?

Then write everything to that.

After nearly 20 years of doing this, that's the single shift I come back to every time. Everything else is mechanics.

You spent 25 years being the person people called when things went wrong.

Now your phone doesn't ring.

Nobody tells you that's the hardest part of losing a senior role. Not the money, not the title, not even the ego hit. It's the silence. The sudden realisation that a lot of those calls were about the chair, not the person sitting in it.

I've sat across from hundreds of executives going through exactly this. Brilliant people. People who built things, led teams, turned companies around. And almost all of them were making the same mistake in their job search. The same one. Every single time.

They were making it about themselves.

I'll tell you what that looks like in practice. Their CV opened with "results-driven executive with 20 years of experience seeking a senior leadership role." Their cover letter started with "I am writing to express my strong interest." Their LinkedIn summary read like a eulogy they'd written for themselves.

Every single document was written from the inside looking out. What they'd done. What they wanted. What they were proud of.

And every hiring manager on the other side of the desk was thinking one thing: can this person solve my problem?

Those are two completely different conversations. And most senior candidates never realise they're having the wrong one.

Here's the shift. Before you write a single word of your CV, your cover letter, your LinkedIn profile, or your interview prep, ask one question first. What is this organisation actually trying to fix right now? Not what do they do. What problem are they sitting with at 2am?

Then write everything to that.

After nearly 20 years of doing this, that's the single shift I come back to every time. Everything else is mechanics.