We’ve all seen it happen. The hardest worker, the technical genius, the person carrying the team… gets passed over. Meanwhile, the promotion goes to someone who seems half as qualified but knows everyone in the office. It feels unfair. It feels broken. And it makes a lot of people quietly furious.
In this episode of vpod.ai, Mike and Susan dig into why that keeps happening—and why it might not be the injustice it looks like.
They break down the ladder paradox, the idea that the skills that get you hired are not the skills that get you promoted. As you move up, technical output matters less, while influence, trust, and relationship-building matter more. That “coffee machine chatter” isn’t wasted time—it’s practice for leadership.
Along the way, they explore:
- Why the best individual contributor often makes a terrible manager
- How networking is really a signal of management competence, not favoritism
- The true cost of social friction, illustrated by the story of a toxic but talented welder
- Why hiring managers prioritize trust and risk mitigation over raw resumes
- How referrals cut through resume overload like a friend’s recommendation on Netflix
- Why “low-maintenance” employees quietly outperform brilliant divas
- How introverts can systematize networking without being fake, using tools like the dossier strategy
- Why soft skills may be the most future-proof skills as AI automates technical work
This conversation challenges the comforting myth that “the work speaks for itself” and replaces it with a harder truth: visibility, trust, and relationships are part of the job. Not as manipulation—but as leadership.
If you’ve ever felt stuck, overlooked, or tempted to give up because the system feels rigged, this episode reframes the game and shows how to play it with a full deck.
Subscribe to vpod.ai for more honest conversations about work, careers, and the human systems we all operate inside. If this episode resonated, share it with someone who’s been quietly carrying the load.
