The Space Between

Four redundancies in a row. All for structural reasons. None for performance.

I’ve been in the startup space for a bit now, and not all succeed. I’ve delivered in every role, but restructures, market timing, and funding issues got the best of the ventures themselves.

The redundancy event is often the easy part. What’s harder is the space that follows, no deadlines, no validation, just a lot of unscheduled time.

I’ve always enjoyed working. I like the purpose of it. I like trying to master a skill, learn a new domain, break a problem down, build someone up. Even in the most challenging roles or times, I still like getting stuck in and don’t shy away from it.

My style of leadership means I like to build connections with those in my charge, and I care greatly about them. I care about their personal and professional health and happiness…. And then the gnawing quiet.

As a technologist, I love the application of technology to solve a problem or deliver value. Again, I think deeply about the problems and deliverables; balancing compliance, delivery velocity, tech debt, cost, innovation, and then empty space…

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The In-Between

It is this space, this gnawing quiet, that it gets tough.

And in that space, people don’t quite know what to say. They’re not sure what the script is. You get the inevitable “oh, you’re fun-employed”…. Internally, you respond “yep… also f-un paid”. You can do the redundancy equivalent of admin work; cleaning the house, decluttering the room you’ve been piling metaphorical trash into. However, it’s just temporary noise against the silence.

You create real noise by applying for that next role. You pour hours into shaping each application, tailoring language, pulling out achievements, aligning with mission and tone. You hit submit and silence….

And here is where your confidence starts to wane… it doesn’t dive off a cliff, it slowly seeps into the ether. Without feedback, every silence becomes a maybe. Was it the phrasing? The experience mix? The tone? You’re left guessing, which slowly chips at your footing.

The lack of signal is clearest in the absence of data: I’m used to a world of it, burn rate, delivery velocity, risk ratings and so on. In the job search? Nothing. There’s no dashboard. No trend line. No feedback loop. The closest is the automated response for an application submitted, I’ve got 100% success in receiving them.

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Reframing the Silence

As I embark on another gap in my CV, I’ve realised that this isn’t just dead space. It demands the same qualities we celebrate inside the job; resilience, composure, focus. Only without the structure or reward.

In this space, I’ve been sharpening my writing through this series, refreshing my technical skills, and exploring how AI is shifting the balance of trust, speed, and oversight in product delivery. When machines can generate designs, write code, or propose solutions, it changes how we structure teams, review work, and make decisions. The technical development doesn’t stop, it just changes shape.

In my previous life as a hiring manager, I’ve often looked at CVs and resumes with gaps and wondered what went wrong. But now, I approach them differently. We all talk about valuing resilience, adaptability, and self-awareness, but we don’t always recognise these qualities when they’re happening in the background, like when someone’s between roles without a title, team, or clear next step.

The space between roles isn’t dead space; it’s where a lot of the work actually happens. Recalibration, reflection, and decision-making — not as a pause, but as preparation.

So if you’re hiring and wondering whether the gap matters, yeah, it does. Just not in the way you think. It’s not regression. It’s growth under different conditions.

This isn’t navel-gazing. It’s a reframing. I’m not waiting out the gap, I’m using it.