The Plot Twist

What happened?

I left a stable role for a much bigger job at a company I admired. Four months in, the team was reorganised, my role was folded into someone else's, and I was moved to a project nobody wanted.

What did you expect to happen?

I expected the first year to be hard in a satisfying way: long hours, visible work, a clear line from effort to recognition. I'd already imagined telling people about it a year in.

When did you realize things were not going according to the story you had imagined?

In the reorganisation meeting, when my name was in the slide deck under a heading I hadn't seen before. Nobody had thought to tell me first. That was the moment I understood I wasn't the main character in anyone's plan but my own.

What makes this twist memorable?

The unwanted project turned out to be the best work I've done. It was small and unwatched, so I could actually build something. I'd gone there for the title and came away with the craft, the opposite trade from the one I'd planned.