A senior CS leader recently came in convinced his last 3 years at a Series B startup were a "step backward" because the company had laid off staff and his scope had shrunk. He was apologizing for that period in every cover letter and interview.
Looking at the actual work: he'd grown net retention by 22 points in a market where peers saw it decline. He'd built playbooks that the company still uses. He'd kept his team intact through three rounds of cuts. The "step backward" narrative was wrong, the data showed a leader who had stabilized a struggling company.
The reframe took 30 minutes. The next 8 cover letters opened completely differently. Three first-round interviews followed within 2 weeks.
The work I do is mostly operational, sourcing, tailoring, tracking. But sometimes the highest-leverage hour is the one where we look at what the candidate has actually done and find the version of the story that's both true and compelling.
If you're in a long search and finding yourself apologizing for your most recent role: that's worth a closer look. Often the data shows a different story than the one you've been telling.
— Dr. Hosney Adel