Got terminated on 9/15.
I work in adtech. Was working for a DSP since 2023. Started in sales and then got into an Enablement & Partnerships role. Found a niche running retail media campaigns and quickly made a name for myself as the subject matter in-house. I carved out a revenue stream that wasn't being taken advantage of but was the fastest growing sector at our company.
This was the first time I have been able to really pave my own lane at a company and I got really good at it. It had never been done before at the job so I created my own processes around it to make it scalable. At one point I was getting bonuses and commissions for hitting certain targets and creating internal and external processes.
Around July I got pulled into a random meeting from a leadership new hire who told me that she would be altering my role (without my consent) and that effective the 2nd half of the year they would be taking away my bonuses and commissions. Naturally, I got annoyed and tried to stay quiet and keep shyt moving but I let them know that I thought that was a weird way to reward the work I'd been putting in. This new leader was basically coming in and asking me about my process and asking me to meet with her and put the process into her own spreadsheet. This pissed me off because it felt like they were just using me to understand my process and pass it off as their own. Not only that but I was managing the workload effectively. When the new leadership came in they tried to take my process and outsource it to a managed services team in India which slowed shyt down so much and pretty much ruined the whole flow. All of a sudden, media plans that I was strategizing with clients and running without needing to go through all this red tape now required approval from people who didn't even understand how to do this at the level I do.
I got a little possessive over my process and made the mistake of calling it my "proprietary" work. They used that as grounds to terminate me after spying on me by listening in on a call I was having with my coworker.
In the middle of a divorce too. So I was navigating unemployment, divorce, the healthcare open marketplace, and single parenting at this point. Was planning on using the 401k accrued at my latest job to keep me afloat through all this mess until I landed my next gig.
I was already looking for a job prior to getting canned and did 5 interviews at a company that would have been perfect to continue doing what I was doing there somewhere else. After the 5th interview they told me that their whole team thought I was a really strong candidate but "based on their conversations with me, it seemed like had higher aspirations and was seeking a higher role". I was like
I saw a job description, thought it was a great fit, and you tell me that I didn't get it because you're basically saying I'm overqualified and passing it off like I was saying that in the interviews??
Long story short, I was able to secure a job offer last Thursday for a client of my previous company doing the same thing I'm doing, but on the agency side instead of the tech side making $12,000 more.
This shyt feels like failing up sometimes it's crazy. Hoping I'm able to make a big impact in this new role and glad to be employed again before insurance premiums go sky high in November.
Thankful to have found a new job so quickly in this job market. Now I don't have to burn that 401k money and can roll it over into my other IRAs.
Also, finally having a solid resume with solid experience and a pretty defined idea of a career path has helped with landing interviews easily. Once I get into an interview, it seems that people are consistently impressed and move me onto future rounds pretty reliably (thank god).
Edit:
just realized I'm now finally at long last a 6 figure coli breh.
!!!
time.com
www.forbes.com
