From Geek to Star #35 - It's a wrap (for now)!

If you missed the previous episodes, you can access them online here.

🗓️ This Week – Episode 35: paving a way forward in spite of challenges

Inevitably, as we wrap up 2025, it is this time of the year when it's interesting to reflect on how things went. 

In January 2025, I was starting my fifth year in a well-known worldwide hospitality company as Group Chief Technology Architect. I was both very happy with my job as it was an industry and a company I enjoyed working at a lot, but also somewhat unsettled as there had been a few months back some significant re-organisation - as it often happens in large organisations. 

In that last re-organisation, I could sense that the center of gravity in terms of tech leadership was getting more and more centralized in Europe while I was living in Singapore. I started therefore to think on what paths I could possibly take if I should exit at some point this company - even though if I was thinking I could count on 1-2 years of stable job as I had had so far very positive annual performance reviews.  

I was wrong: in April 2025, I was told that my role was shifting out of Singapore to Europe and I was asked to make a choice on whether to move or not there. But from a family perspective, moving to France was really not the best timing for my daughters’ perspective. I did not hesitate - personally, I've always prioritised family over job opportunities if I had to make such a choice - and my job in Singapore was made redundant. 

What this year reminded me about tech careers

Beyond the personal shock, this moment forced me to reflect more broadly on tech careers in large organisations.

One thing became very clear: performance does not necessarily equal protection in large systems.

You can deliver, be recognised, receive strong performance reviews and still be impacted by decisions that have very little to do with your individual contribution. Something that we should not take personally or consider it unfair, but rather understand the overall dynamics to see how to best evolve alongside. 

Senior tech roles, in particular, are increasingly shaped by geography, organisational politics, and operating models, not just by skills or experience. Where the centre of gravity sits, how leadership wants to centralise or decentralise, how close you are (physically or symbolically) to decision-makers: all of this matters, sometimes more than we would like to admit.

More generally, 2025 reinforced something uncomfortable but important: tech careers are highly exposed to structural shifts. AI acceleration, cost pressures, global re-organisations: they reshape roles faster than individual careers can adapt if we are not intentional.

From “just tech” to system thinking (again)

This experience also echoed many of the themes I explored throughout From Geek to Star this year. Being seen as “just tech”  even at senior levels remains a real risk. Not because technology is less important, but because execution alone is no longer enough.

As I wrote in previous newsletters on speaking CXO languages, industry knowledge, or leadership facilitation, influence increasingly comes from the ability to:

• Understand the whole system
  

• Connect technology to business outcomes
  

• Facilitate alignment across functions
  

• Make sense of complexity for others
  

Influence and facilitation matter as much as execution. And tech leaders who cultivate these muscles give themselves more room to manoeuvre when structures shift.

This is also why I keep coming back to the idea that tech leaders need optional paths, not single-track careers. Optionality is not about having a plan B ready at all times, it’s about not being trapped in a single definition of your value.

Choosing alignment over comfort

When the decision came, I had a choice. I could have followed the role to Europe, preserving continuity and title. Or I could accept uncertainty, prioritise my family, and acknowledge that the path no longer felt aligned. I chose uncertainty over misalignment.

And with it, the decision to rebuild on my own terms. It was a values-based move, making it easier to decide even though the path to follow was hard. And like many such decisions, it came with both relief and doubt.

But it also opened space: space to reflect, to experiment, to reconnect with what energises me, and to put into practice many of the ideas I had been thinking about. It actually accelerated my decision to launch “From Geek to Star", just a few weeks after I learned my position would be made redundant. I took the opportunity to launch my first newsletter on May the 4th, being a huge fan of Star Wars - and also thinking about “Star Wars episode IV, a new Hope” as a good motivation for me to rebounce. 

🙏 I’d Love to Hear From You

2025 reminded me both professionally and personally that tech careers are less and less linear, even when they look stable from the outside. That influence matters as much as execution. That optionality is not a luxury, but a form of resilience. And that alignment with values, with the kind of impact we want to have is worth choosing, even when it comes with uncertainty.

From Geek to Star was born from these reflections. Thank you for reading, replying, sharing, and engaging throughout the year. This journey is as much yours as it is mine.

For now, I’ll leave you with one final question to close the year: looking back at 2025, what did it reveal to you about your own tech career and what are you consciously choosing to take (or leave) as you move into 2026?

Reply to this email, I read every note.

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From Geek to Star by Khang | The Way Forward