Your current work is fine. How about your future options?

You’re delivering well, and everything looks fine on the surface.

But if you lost your job in the next 60 days, how fast would you land a new role? Could you adapt to a new one?

Even when nothing is obviously wrong, you’re making a decision, whether you realize it or not.

This issue is a collaboration with Shreyans Mehta, Sr. Data Scientist at Meta, who’s worked across startups and big tech, bringing perspective on keeping your career options open.

Plateau or patience

Progress stays flat, then jumps. The challenge: is this a plateau or patience?

• Patience: your capability is still increasing.
• Plateau: your capability is no longer expanding in ways that transfer.

Your manager’s praise, team success, or pay raises won’t reveal it. As you grow more senior, promotions slow down and pay moves in big steps. That’s where people get stuck waiting for a win that may never arrive.

What to watch for

Are you getting better at new problems, or faster at familiar ones?

The risky quadrant is top-left: You’re doing well but your capability is not expanding in ways that hold outside this environment.

Most people notice these patterns only in hindsight. The harder part is acting while things still look fine.

When growth stops transferring

I spent 6 years at Amazon. By the end, I could do most of my work on autopilot.
It felt efficient, but it raised a harder question:

"What am I improving that would matter somewhere else?"

The answer was: not much.

My decision wasn't about dissatisfaction, but loss of optionality.

If your growth doesn’t transfer, it’s not growth you can rely on.

When you’re not given scope

Earlier in my career, I wasn’t always given the scope I wanted.

So I started treating it as negotiable. I looked at what my manager and senior engineers needed, and where I could make their lives easier.

That’s how I ended up leading a project that was initially meant for a senior engineer, with support as needed.

It changed how I was seen much faster than waiting to be asked.

A lot more is negotiable than it looks, if you make it a win for both sides.

When the plateau is a choice

Shreyans hit a version of this where nothing was obviously wrong, but he avoided bigger moves: switching domains, moving geographies.
The constraint was simple:

"What if it doesn’t work out?"

That’s when the decision became clearer:

• staying has a cost
• moving has a cost

Which one are you underestimating?

He moved into a domain he had no prior experience in. The first phase was slower. Then progress accelerated.

Not all plateaus come from lack of opportunity. Some come from how you respond to it.

How to read your own situation

Which of these is true right now?

• I’m learning, but it’s not visible yet → growth
• I’m stable, but not improving in ways that transfer → plateau
• I’m avoiding a move I probably should try out → plateau

What to do next

Keep this small. Pick one leading signal for the next 30 days. Track things like:

• How you structure ambiguity
• Where you influence decisions
• What new problems you can take on

Run one contained experiment, for example:

• Join a cross-team effort
• Take on a problem no one owns
• Ask for something slightly above your current level

Have one direct conversation with your manager: “What specific capabilities am I missing for the next level?” A vague answer is useful data too.

The point to leave with

Plateaus are not just about growth. They are signals of how fragile your position is if things change.

Next I’ll write about…

How to level up when just doing tickets isn’t enough. I’ll share the mindset shifts, small experiments, and ways to own bigger projects that make your growth visible.