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This is not your typical Thanksgiving-week gratitude post.
I’m not going to list off generic “I’m thankful for opportunities and growth” because…no.
This year was brutal. This year stretched me in ways I didn’t ask for. This year forced me to rebuild momentum from scratch in the toughest market I’ve seen.
I came back from maternity leave in March to a job market that felt disrespectful on its best day and downright cruel on its worst. My husband was deployed for seven months, orders that started the day our youngest turned 4 months old. And it was me, three kids under four, and a job market that didn’t care how exhausted I was.
So yeah, I’m grateful. But I’m grateful for very specific things.
What I’m Actually Grateful For
Clients who communicate like adults
If you’ve ever worked with a client who disappears for weeks and then asks “Why is this role still open?” you know this one hits hard.
Clear communication isn’t “nice to have.” It’s oxygen. It’s respect.
I’m grateful for the ones who stay in the loop, even when the update is: “Hey, we’re still aligning internally.”
Candidates who show up with honesty
The ones who tell me the truth about their timeline, their hesitations, what they want. The ones who follow through. Who don’t disappear the second something uncomfortable comes up.
Hiring managers who understand partnership
I’m grateful for the leaders who treat recruiting like a team sport instead of a vending machine.
The ones who:
take the intake call seriously
answer questions
give real feedback
and want to hire well, not just fast
Those people make recruitment work.
HR partners who trust me (and let me move fast)
The ones who don’t see me as competition. The ones who know I’m here to make their lives easier. We get things done faster when we don’t pretend we’re on opposite sides.
Founders who respect talent
Not the ones trying to get senior engineers for junior salaries. Not the ones chasing unicorns no one can afford. I’m grateful for the founders who understand that hiring well is the first step to scaling well.
Messy gratitude
Here’s the stuff I never thought I’d be grateful for. The things that felt awful in the moment but ended up sharpening me in ways I didn't expect:
The market being so slow it forced me to sharpen everything.
Pricing. Processes. Messaging. Boundaries. I was either going to figure it out or get swallowed whole.The days that felt like absolute chaos because they made me build systems I should have built years ago.
When life demands efficiency, you figure out what actually matters really fast. And nothing demanded more efficiency than my constant lack of bandwidth.The rejection: the roles that fell apart, the no’s that stung, the deals that slipped through my fingers.
They were frustrating, and always seemed to hit at once, but they’re also why Rogue’s long game is as strong as it is today.The moments I genuinely didn’t know how I was going to get through the day…and somehow still did.
Those days quietly build a different kind of resilience. The kind nobody can market or manufacture.The support I didn’t ask for but still received.
Friends dropping off groceries. Contacts checking in on me for once. People going out of their way to make introductions when they didn’t have to. A quick “thinking of you” text that landed on the exact day I needed it.
Messy gratitude is the kind that doesn’t look good on a Pinterest quote.
But it’s the kind that actually changes you.
And honestly…so many people showed up for me this year
My network. My clients. My candidates. My friends.
People who listened. Referred. Trusted me. Bet on me.
That matters more than you know.
The Takeaway
This wasn’t a fluffy gratitude year. It was a grit year. A “keep going even when everything feels heavy” year. It wasn’t the year I every hoped for or wanted, but it’s the one I got.
I solo parented three little kids. Ran Rogue through a recession-adjacent and AI flooded market. Came back from maternity leave into an industry that felt different in all the wrong ways. Rebuilt momentum. And, somehow, in a year all about survival, I am ending it with our strongest quarter ever.
Not because the year was easy. But because consistency is louder than chaos.
And for that, I’m grateful.
If this year taught me anything, it’s this:
Gratitude feels different when you’ve earned every inch of it.
See you next Monday,
Robin
#GoRogue
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