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Wednesday, April 09, 2025
By Sharon Arnoldi
I’ve been thinking a lot about how hard it is to tell your story when it doesn’t follow the usual pattern.
I ran a creative business for 10 years. I was the CEO, the project manager, the marketing lead, the technical expert, the customer service rep—every department, every decision, every mistake and every win.
But it’s not the kind of experience that fits neatly into an engineering resume. People see “photography” and think hobby, not grit. Not strategy. Not leadership under pressure.
That’s my biggest regret from when I re-entered engineering: I didn’t push the value of that experience. I didn’t explain how hard it is to run something by yourself. How lonely, how intense, how relentless. I just tried to blend in and move on.
I know better now.
If people have to work harder to understand my story, so be it. But I’m not going to shrink it to make it easier.
Running a business wasn’t a detour. It was a masterclass in ownership. And I’m done pretending it’s anything less.