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Feb 2025
31m 21s

The feature that ruined my life

jellyfish
About this episode

New year, same chaos. Allison and Jasmine are back with a tech industry tale that has it all:  job-hopping, fake demos, impossible deadlines, and promotions sliding into the void. From conference standing ovations to the reality of shipping a mediocre product, we’re recounting a story about what happens when expectations don’t match the execution. Can a tooltip ruin your life? Let’s find out!  


Got a question you’d like answered on the show? Drop us a line at jellyfish.co/offthevpn. And don’t worry! We promise to keep it Off the VPN.

Highlights:

  • Vibes Are Immaculate… Until They’re Not: When leadership excitement turns into a pressure cooker.
  • Fake Demos & Fast Deadlines: How a half-baked prototype turns into an urgent, must-ship-now nightmare.
  • Burnout & Moving On: What happens when work keeps piling up and the recognition is absent? 

Jump into the conversation:
(00:00) Getting back into the swing of things

(01:19) Aaron’s story of tech highs and lows
(03:03) Dream jobs and the engineering rollercoaster

(04:47) Conference demos: Big wins, big risks

(08:19) Leadership shifts, reorgs, and trouble ahead

(10:48) The White Whale of “Vizzy”

(14:03) Fake demos, big promises, execs want it now

(17:31) Product managers and realistic deadlines

(24:16) Chasing a promotion that never comes

(28:43) Silent rejection, a final push, and an empty win

(32:57) Burnout hits: Knowing when it’s time to go


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