FAILED IT

Episode 1: "I Got Fired on My First Day"

Guest: Sarah Chen, Now VP of Product at a Fortune 500 Company

[INTRO MUSIC: Edgy, honest, slightly chaotic - 10 seconds]

HOST: Welcome to Failed It - the podcast where successful people tell you about the times they absolutely, spectacularly, embarrassingly failed.

I'm your host, [Your Name], and I'm here because I'm tired of the highlight reel. I'm tired of "I failed upward" stories that make failure sound fun and easy.

Real failure sucks. It's humiliating. It's painful. And it's also how we actually learn.

Today's guest is Sarah Chen. She's currently the VP of Product at a Fortune 500 tech company. She's spoken at conferences. She's been featured in Forbes. She's living the dream.

But eight years ago? She got fired on her first day of work.

Not her first week. Not her first month. Her. First. Day.

Sarah, welcome to Failed It.

SARAH: [Laughing] Thanks for having me. God, I haven't told this story publicly in years.

HOST: That's exactly why we're here. So let's go back. Set the scene for us. What job was this?

SARAH: Okay, so it's 2016. I'd just graduated with my Computer Science degree. I'd interned at a couple places, got decent grades, felt pretty confident. And I landed what I thought was my dream job - junior developer at this hot startup in San Francisco.

HOST: What was the startup?

SARAH: I'm not going to name them, but they were in the food delivery space. They'd just raised Series B funding. They were growing fast. Everyone wanted to work there. And somehow, they wanted me.

HOST: How did you feel when you got the offer?

SARAH: Like I'd won the lottery. Like I'd made it. I called my parents. I posted on LinkedIn. I bought new work clothes. I found an apartment I could barely afford because I was so sure this was going to work out.

I was so naive.

ACT 1: THE FIRST DAY

HOST: So walk me through that first day. What time did you get there?

SARAH: [Laughing] Oh god. I got there at 7:45 AM. Start time was 9:00. I wanted to be early, you know? Make a good impression.

HOST: Super keen.

SARAH: So keen. I'm sitting in the lobby in my brand new blazer - by the way, no one wore blazers at this startup, I looked ridiculous - and I'm reviewing my notes about the company, preparing for my first day.

At 9:00, my manager comes down. His name was Jake. He's probably 28, wearing a hoodie and sneakers, and he looks... tired.

HOST: Tired how?

SARAH: Like he'd been up all night. Which, it turned out, he had been. There was some major bug in production. Half the team had been there since midnight trying to fix it.

But I didn't know that yet. So he takes me upstairs, gives me a laptop, and says "Just get set up. I'll check in with you in a bit." Then he disappears.

HOST: Okay, that's already not great.

SARAH: Right. So I'm setting up my laptop, and I'm looking around, and everyone is... frantic. People are running between desks. Someone's on the phone yelling. Someone else looks like they're crying.

And I'm just sitting there like a deer in headlight