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WobblyWalrus
WobblyWalrus
Stealth

Confused and exhausted

I have a total of about 7 years of work experience, 2 years before MBA and 5 years after. The chunk of my experience is with an ecommerce startup. I've had at least three different role changes here and 10+ manager changes. I've worked my ass off in every role but with a constant feeling that it wasn't enough. I suspect a part of this is the imposters syndrome and the other part is the hustle culture that the company promotes. You're expected to be always on the go and irrespective of the pace you're at, it's never enough.

I have been with this company for over 4 years and my ESOPs are 100% vested. I have been sitting on this very strong need of wanting to move on from here. The constant uncertainty + the layoffs I've seen is an added motivation. The company is changing its strategy every quarter and no one seems to know what they're doing. At this point people are only working for the optics and because losing a job in this market could mean months of unemployment. I want to move out but feel confused about what my skill set is. In a startup you end up doing just about everything. You become a generalist and that's making me feel like I lack depth. I'm low on confidence, the job market is unforgiving and I feel absolutely stuck right now. I'm unrepaid compared to my peers and that's a constant thought in my head. I'm currently unmarried with no dependents so the money is not an issue from sufficiency pov, it's more about being paid per the market standards.

I'm not sure how to get out of this limbo and it's eating at me every second.

16mo ago
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DizzyWaffle
DizzyWaffle
Stealth16mo

Lets start from what you have done.
What 3 roles have you worked in, in this startup. Which one is your most favourite role?

WobblyWalrus
WobblyWalrus
Stealth16mo

  1. Category Management (2 years) - Set up supply for them, handled the vendors, managed the Pnl, brand launches etc. I felt under constant pressure to meet my targets. I really liked managing specific brands tho, building them from group up, tighting the cvp, pricing etc. I didn't like the grunt work around daily numbers, operational challenges, inventory management etc. It wasn't celebral.

  2. In app marketing and merchandising (1 year) - Handled buyer communication, CRM, the entire sales funnel, product interventions to make the app more intuitive etc. I really enjoyed this stint. My only issue was the work itself wasn't taken too seriously within the org (they don't see much value in marketing) and the reason I moved out was the lack of growth.

  3. Programme management (1.5 years, ongoing) - Led transition of the biz from one business model to another. This required overhauling each and every system and I got to work with just about every stakeholder in the org. I liked problem solving and quite being the one to call the shots. Since then I've been working on piloting good-to-have capabilities and based on the result we'll either launch it as an app feature or not. It's not an area of focus and I often find myself questioning the impact I'm making. I do not feel challenged at all.

While there is a width of experience to show I feel like the depth is lacking. I'm unsure how to put all these pieces together but I'm sure about this :

  1. I do not want a pure target driven role. Some people enjoy the rush, not me.

  2. I enjoyed working with the product team a lot. I enjoyed understanding a buyers motivation, their patterns etc. and translating them into something tangible.

  3. I'm very intuitive and emotionally intelligent. I'd like to apply this to my job.

SleepyBanana
SleepyBanana
Stealth16mo

Meesho is tough on WLB! Can imagine

WobblyWalrus
WobblyWalrus
Stealth16mo

So I've heard, yes.

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