Job candidate leverages trumped-up title to land executive role at a start-up, begins to panic when the realize they're in over their head: 'If I don't get fired by Friday, I'll be absolutely shocked'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Aug 24, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

They always say that you should fake it till you make it, and it's no secret that a little bravado will get you a long way. Sure, there might be an inverse relationship between confidence and competence—since you need to know enough about something to know how much you don't know, which makes you less confident as a result. But a lack of competence certainly doesn't stop people from getting jobs when there's confidence on display. But what do you do when you fail so epically upward that you find yourself in a corner office raking in an executive's pay, but you have literally no idea what you're doing? See, the only problem is that you're consciously acknowledging that you have no idea what you're doing—that's the only thing that sets you apart from any other C-suite executive in this situation. Everyone is just as confused as you are all the time, and this guy, who is panicking about his new role and can't believe he landed, is just one of us.