By Sunder Ramachandran and Vivek Gambhir
Tapan is 30. Few years out of B-school. Sharp, ambitious, and eager to prove himself.
He had joined a top insurance firm in Mumbai and was navigating the classic “early career hustle.” His projects were meaty, the pace was fast, and he was soaking it all in.
Then came the curveballs.
In just 15 months, Tapan had three different managers. The company went through a merger. His role shifted. Projects got reassigned. One boss left. Another barely onboarded. He kept moving, kept delivering but without a single manager or mentor to connect the dots
When appraisal season rolled around, his heart sank.
The manager tasked with evaluating him had only seen him for the last quarter. The rest? A blur of scattered updates and lost context.
Tapan’s final rating? Below expectations.
He was crushed.
We’ve Seen This Story Before
Tapan’s story isn’t unique. We’ve seen it play out with different job titles and timelines. But the pattern remains stubbornly consistent.
Multiple transitions? No documented achievements? New manager with little context? Frustration and self-doubt?
What followed was also predictable. Tapan began to disengage. He stopped contributing to meetings. Stopped asking questions.
All because of one rating, based on one manager’s limited view, in one meeting.
So What Can We Learn From Tapan’s Story?
This isn’t a blame piece. Not on Tapan. Not on his manager. This is about how we can show up better especially in systems that weren’t designed to remember our contributions. Here’s what we wish Tapan had done:
Documented His Wins Throughout the Year: Emails, client feedback, completed deliverables, even screenshots of appreciation messages. All of this could’ve formed a “Year in Review” deck that gave his new manager visibility beyond the last 90 days.
If you didn’t document it, it didn’t happen. Harsh, perhaps, but corporate memory is surprisingly short.
Summarised His Own Journey: A simple one-pager listing the key projects, achievements, challenges and transitions. This would’ve been gold in a 30-minute appraisal conversation. When roles and reporting lines keep changing, you are your only consistent narrator. No one else is keeping score quite as carefully.
Asked for Feedback Proactively: Tapan was waiting for the appraisal form. But feedback isn’t seasonal. It’s an ongoing loop. A quick check-in every time he changed managers around “How am I doing? Anything I can improve?” would’ve built a better story for appraisal time.
Stayed Engaged After the Rating: Disappointment is real. But disconnection is risky. We’ve seen countless high-potential professionals get marked down in one cycle, only to bounce back stronger, more visible, more deliberate the next year.
Your career is a marathon. Not a ratings sprint. Bad quarters happen to good people.
The Bigger Point: Don’t Outsource Your Story
If you don’t tell your story, someone else will. And they may not know the whole plot. Tapan’s mistake wasn’t underperforming. It was assuming the system would remember.
Build your case before you need it. Keep receipts of praise, progress, and pain points. And when things go off track (they will), stay curious, not cynical.
Because the one person who should never forget your worth, is you.
Sunder Ramachandran and Vivek Gambhir are senior industry leaders. They are co-authors of HeadStart: Unlock the Secrets to Career Success (Penguin Random House), a practical playbook for young professionals navigating the early to mid-stages of their careers.
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