The qualities that made her indispensable are the same ones that make her unemployable.
She spoke up. Built things nobody asked for. Generated revenue. Had opinions about the mission statement.
Those things made her “unfireable” for twelve years. Now she’s applied to thirty jobs. A handful of callbacks. No offers.
The market doesn’t want expensive voices. It wants affordable compliance. The person who built a department from nothing can’t get an interview because the algorithm filtered her resume for salary expectations and the number was too high.
She went from “we can’t lose her” to “we can’t find her” in one quarter. Not because she changed. Because the market only values disruption when it’s pointed at someone else’s institution.