He Aimed for Senior Manager. He Landed Associate Director.
Peter was laid off as a senior manager and only applied for senior manager roles — even though director-level positions were right there. The mechanics of interviewing were rusty after six years, but the real obstacle was the ceiling he had quietly put on himself. Here is how he landed an Associate Director role in a brutal market.
Peter came to me at the end of 2025 after he was laid off as a Senior Software Development Manager. After weeks of struggling in a brutal job market, he managed to land an interview at Amazon.
There was just one problem. He had not interviewed in over six years.
This happens more often than people think with tech leaders. You spend years performing at a high level inside one company. You build teams, ship products, handle escalations, and earn promotions.
And then one day you are on the market, and you realize you have no idea how to talk about any of it to someone who was not there to see it.
Peter had the experience and the track record. But he was stuck in two ways.
The mechanics were rusty
Six years without interviewing means you are essentially starting from scratch.
- How you frame impact, how you answer leadership questions, how you tell your story — all of it needs to be rebuilt.
- The interview process in 2026 looks nothing like it did the last time he went through it.
The mindset was holding him back even more
He was only applying for senior manager roles, even though director-level positions were right there. He had already decided they were out of reach before he even tried.
“The market is too competitive. They will not consider my resume for a director role.”
That was not the market talking. That was fear dressed up as logic.
When we started working together, I told him something he did not want to hear. “You are filtering yourself out of your best opportunities.”
We worked on both tracks at the same time
The mechanics of interviewing after a long gap, and the self-limiting beliefs that were quietly shrinking his search before it even started.
- He stopped underselling his scope and started leading with the decisions he made and the outcomes they created.
- He started going after Associate Director and Director roles instead of playing it safe.
- He sent me weekly updates on his pipeline so we could catch any drift before it cost him momentum.
- There was one week when his update told me everything I needed to know. I called him immediately, and we corrected course before it became a problem.
Peter landed an Associate Director of Engineering role. Even in a market this brutal.
Because he stopped underestimating the leader he already was.
Ask yourself honestly
If you are a senior leader in tech and your search has stalled: Are you going after the roles you actually deserve, or are you playing it safe because the market has convinced you to shrink?
I have spent 17 years making hiring decisions, and I can tell you the biggest obstacle most leaders face right now is not the competition. It is the ceiling they have put on themselves.
Do not let another quarter go by telling yourself you will figure it out alone. Contact me or book a discovery call.
