A client told me that her company finally said yes. After years of asking for support, actual headcount instead of one more contractor, they started moving on it. She felt seen and heard, and almost fell into the trap of feeling like she could stay.
But the yes came too late.
She’s been in the same seat for a decade. Doing her own job plus that of a team she doesn’t have. Making the case, again and again, for the resources the work obviously needed. The recognition landed around the same time she’d internally decided to leave.
The cost of staying too long
When a company finally gives you what you’ve been asking for, it lands like relief. It’s proof you mattered all along. Sometimes it is, but timing is information too. The late yes tells you what your ask was worth to them when it was inconvenient.
Compensation works the same way. Money is recognition, and it’s also the thing that pays for the life you’re building outside the job. A raise that shows up a decade into being undervalued doesn’t erase the decade. It just clarifies the math.
My client knows she should have left years ago. She stayed because it was comfortable, and comfort is a powerful drug when the alternative is uncertainty. She likes the focus of the work and the people she works with.
But who’s driving the direction of her career? By staying, she let the company direct her growth, and the role drained the energy she needed to explore anything else or enjoy her life after 5pm.
How old do we have to be before we believe we’re the ones in the driver’s seat of our own lives?
She’s in the messy middle. Imposter syndrome gets loud right when she needs to act, telling her the ten years of wins only worked because she knows the company, and the next one will find her out. We’re naming what she’s saying goodbye to so she can make room for what’s next. And the practical core: running her Power Position, mapping where her skills and experience meet market demand, so the next move is chosen instead of defaulted into.
That last part is critical. A move made from clarity about your market fit is different from a move made from burnout. One sets the terms, while the other just runs.
How to plan for what’s next
She’s been too overworked to put time into a job search. She’s also run the numbers, and she can’t afford to stay. And she has a feeling she doesn’t have what it takes to compete in this market.
“I wouldn’t hire me.”
I asked her," What evidence do you have for that?” She paused. There wasn’t a clear answer. The imposter story is real work, but the pause is the starting point. I gave her some starting points to focus on, and if you recognize yourself in any of it, it’s yours too.
Build a brag book. Capture wins, positive emails, and feedback, impact supported by data. It breaks the confidence spiral when you see the evidence on paper, and it feeds your resume.
Track your energy for a week. Note what fuels you and what drains you. That becomes the case for what to delegate or hire for, including drafting the job description for the staff you don’t have yet, and showing what it costs the company when your time goes to lower-level tasks.
Translate the “missing” experience. Map what you already do onto the skill set you think you lack. Example: If you don’t have a set budget, look at requests, approvals, vendor quotes, etc. That’s budget-adjacent experience with real numbers behind it.
Reality-check the feeling. Ask a few trusted people (e.g., work contacts, peers) to test the “I wouldn’t hire me” story against feedback and data.
My client left that session saying, “I have nothing to lose by trying.” We’ll keep working from there, while honoring the need for stability.
If you’ve been in a holding pattern, look hard at why. That waiting is the thing I work on with clients first, before a single resume or job posting. My discovery call link is in my profile.
So here’s my question for you. How old do you have to be before you take the wheel?