The last edition of this newsletter landed on Tuesday 19 May.
Then nothing. For seven weeks.
I want to tell you what actually happened, because it is not the story you would expect, and the lesson in it is the same one I keep teaching mentees about job hunts and certifications.
Burnout would at least be a good story. Here is the embarrassing part: two finished editions sat on my laptop the whole time. Fully written. Quality-checked. Ready to go.
They never went out.
(If you only do one thing today: reply and tell me what has stalled for you. More on that at the end.)
The system kept running. Nobody was watching it.
I had built a proper machine around this newsletter. Planning every Thursday. Quality checks every Saturday. It all kept running the entire seven weeks, week after week, planning editions and flagging deadlines.
But back in March I had switched off one small thing: a Monday reminder that asked me a single question. "Is Tuesday's email scheduled?" It felt redundant at the time. I was on top of things.
So when life got busy in May, nothing tapped me on the shoulder. The machine kept planning newsletters that nobody sent. Every reminder it raised went unread.
One missed Tuesday quietly became seven.
This is exactly how pivots stall.
Across sixty-plus mentoring sessions with career switchers, I have almost never seen someone decide to quit. What happens instead: they miss one week of studying, or applying, or building. Nothing notices. Nobody asks. The silence compounds.
Three things I have now rebuilt for myself, and recommend for whatever you are working towards:
1. One checkpoint, guarded.
A fixed weekly slot where you compare the plan to what actually shipped. Mine is Mondays, 9AM, and I am no longer allowed to switch it off when I feel on top of things. That feeling is precisely when it matters.
2. Make silence loud.
A missed week should be visible somewhere. A log with a hole in it. A person who asks where the thing is. Effort that fails quietly will keep failing, because there is nothing to interrupt it.
One mentee I worked with did mock interviews with me every single weekend for three months, sometimes straight after a night shift.
The fixed slot was the point. Skipping it would have been visible to both of us, so he never did. He is now a senior data engineer.
3. Restart at the floor, not at perfect.
The longer the gap, the more you feel the comeback has to be spectacular. All it has to do is exist. A 20-minute study session after three weeks off beats the perfect plan you will start next Monday.
This edition is that principle in action.
What happens now
Shola's Tech Notes is weekly again, every Tuesday at 6PM UK time. The system that failed has been rebuilt so silence cannot go unnoticed, and you are now part of it: if a Tuesday ever goes missing, reply and ask me where it is. I mean that.
If you are rebuilding your own consistency, the free Roadmap to First Tech Job includes the 90-day plan I use with mentees, from picking your domain through to accepting the role. You are already on the list, so no signup page. This link goes straight to the PDF:
💬 Now you. What has quietly stalled for you: the job search, the cert, the project?
Reply with STUCK and one sentence on where you are. I read every reply, and next week I will share the most common answer and what to do about it.
Know someone whose pivot has gone quiet? Share your referral link. 1 friend subscribes, you get a free LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Checklist.
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Shola
P.S. Seven weeks of new subscribers joined while I was quiet. If that is you: welcome. This is not usually how it goes. Every Tuesday from here.