A lot of you are struggling right now.

For grad school admissions. For internships. For jobs. Some of you were laid off and are navigating rejection you didn't ask for and didn't deserve. Others aren't hearing back — just silence — and the uncertainty of where to move, and whenis eating at you.

Some of you are stuck in a role under a tough boss. Wanting out. But your visa requires you to stay. Or the market requires you to stay. Either way, the door feels locked from the outside.

I see you. I see the strife. The hopelessness. The frustration. The quiet kind, where you don't post about it because you're not sure how it'll land — but it's there every morning when you open your laptop.

It's hard to believe there's light at the end of the tunnel when you can't see the tunnel ending.

What Happens When It Gets Bad

This kind of sustained pressure does something specific to people.

It creates desperation. And desperation makes you a bad negotiator — with employers, with programs, with yourself.

You start underselling. You start accepting less than. You start rationalizing choices that six months ago would have been obvious no's. You drift from what you set out to build, incrementally, until one day you look up and don't recognize the trajectory you're on.

I know this because I've been there.

I've Been Through Three of These

Three real seasons of uncertainty. Not discomfort — uncertainty. The kind where you genuinely don't know what's next, and the thing you were counting on doesn't come through.

The first time, I was convinced the right opportunity would surface because I was working hard and doing the right things. It didn't come fast. I took a detour I didn't plan for. And that detour ended up being formative in ways I couldn't see at the time.

The second time, I knew the path I wanted but couldn't unlock it. Doors I knocked on didn't open. People I respected didn't have space. I had to be patient in a way that felt indistinguishable from being stuck.

The third time, I had enough experience to know what I was watching — but not enough distance to feel okay about it in the moment. Even when you've been through it before, it doesn't get easier. It just gets slightly more familiar.

Here's the thing all three had in common: I came out the other side more capable than I went in. Not because the struggle itself was valuable — the struggle was genuinely hard and I don't romanticize it. But because I kept moving, kept building, and kept my standards in place even when the pressure to drop them was enormous.

What I Want You to Hear

This too shall pass. I know that sounds like a bumper sticker. But I mean it as a data point, not a platitude.

Every season of genuine uncertainty in my career eventually resolved — not always the way I planned, but it resolved into something. Something I could work with. Something that moved me forward.

You will be stronger for this. Not in spite of it. Because of what you don't abandon while you're in it.

Don't abandon your standards. Don't accept something so radically misaligned that you spend the next two years digging back out. There's a difference between a strategic lateral move and a desperation move — you know which one it is when you're making it.

Don't stop building relationships. This market rewards the people who stayed visible, stayed generous with their time and thinking, and stayed in the conversation — even when they had nothing to announce.

Don't stop learning. The people who come out of downturns ahead are the ones who used the friction to sharpen something. A skill. A point of view. A manuscript. A side project. Something.

One More Thing

If you're in a genuinely unsustainable situation — toxic role, mental health impact, physical toll — please don't use "the economy is bad" as a reason to stay in something harmful. There are always options. They may not be ideal. But there are always options.

And if you want to talk through yours — that's exactly what Sidebar is for.

Hold the line. Keep the standards. Do the work.

The season changes.

— Sanket

P.S. If this landed for you, forward it to someone who needs to read it today. Sometimes the most useful thing you can do for someone is remind them they're not alone in this.

P.P.S. Hit reply with the question you've never been able to ask anywhere else. I read every one. Sign up for Sidebar With Sanket.