Current

I need to vent about something that's been eating at me after losing out on two director-level positions to massively overqualified candidates. Here's what I'm dealing with: The first role they went with someone with 1.4 years as a VP and 2 years as an SVP. The second position? They hired a candidate with 3 years of senior director experience at a similarly-sized company. Both job postings asked for 7 years of experience, yet people with literally twice that experience—and much higher titles—are taking these roles. Remember when career progression actually meant moving up? When you'd apply for positions above your current level because that's how you advanced? Those days seem to be over. Now I'm watching the complete opposite happen: seasoned executives are stepping backward 3-5 years in their career progression just to land any job. It's creating this impossible situation where those of us at the appropriate experience level for these roles are getting squeezed out entirely. If VPs and SVPs are taking director positions, and senior directors are competing for regular director roles, where does that leave the rest of us? Are we supposed to start applying for coordinator and analyst positions just to get our foot in the door somewhere? This isn't just frustrating—it's fundamentally broken. The job market has become so brutal that career advancement has essentially reversed itself. How are any of us supposed to build our careers when people are willing to take massive steps backward just to stay employed?