27/07/2026
Women are never the right age (or the right anything)
First you're too junior. Nobody trusts you with the big stuff yet, so you wait your turn because otherwise you might come across as pretentious.
Then you're mid career and suddenly you're too senior to be a beginner at anything, and you 'should' know what you're doing by now but the promotions keep eluding you.
(also, somewhere in there you're supposedly too "fertile" to be taken seriously, cue inappropriate questions about your family plans in interviews. Like there was a two week window where you were exactly the right amount of woman and nobody thought to tell you when it closed!?)
Fast forward, you're at a senior level and you're amazing at what you do. But it's been 20 years and you want to try something new, except you've niched down so far you're not sure you could get hired doing anything else.
All this to say, there's never a "right time." There's always a reason it's not quite the moment to put yourself out there or take a risk.
I used to think the window would eventually open on its own. Like one day, after collecting enough experience points, the right people would just notice me. Because I deserved it, ofc.
Sadly, that's not how it works. The window is actually a decision - you have to push it open yourself.
Looking back, one of the best jobs I ever had, I got because I strategically made myself the obvious choice for the role. Not because I genuinely thought I'd get it (I figured the person in the role wasn't going anywhere) but because I thought, this is what someone who truly wanted it would do.
So I acted like her. And then I became her.
If you're sitting there telling yourself you're too early or too late, I'd love to know, too early or too late for what exactly?