Trivago

I invested time and effort thinking I was moving forward, yet it often felt like I was standing still, or even falling behind. I used to be the smartest kid in the room.

Somewhere along the way, I began questioning what happened to that version of me. Was I misled earlier in life about how merit works, or am I only realizing now how complex and discouraging corporate environments can be? Or am I being consistently placed into staying a "low three" (an internal label), no matter how much effort I put in?

In my experience, formal education and degrees didn't seem to carry much weight when it came to recognition or compensation. At times, it felt like mentioning academic achievements was subtly discouraged rather than valued, especially when discussing growth or pay. Leadership has members with no university degree.

Senior leadership frequently highlighted non-traditional career paths and success stories. At the same time, employees with formal academic backgrounds often felt that credentials were not consistently recognized or rewarded.

I also experienced what felt like a shift away from transparent, large-scale organizational changes toward individual "mutual agreement" exits. While this may be standard practice in some contexts, it made it difficult to understand the true scope of workforce changes from the outside.

From an employee perspective, discussions about establishing a works council were contentious and appeared to be met with resistance, which added to uncertainty, lowered morale, and eroded trust in leadership.