She said, specifically, that she knew Owen Reed at Pinnacle Logistics, who was building out their operations side and had been looking for someone with exactly the profile I described.
She asked if I was comfortable with her making a referral.
I said I’d appreciate that and that I’d put together relevant work history she could pass along.
She said she’d need to see something general rather than account-specific, and that she was mindful of any professional obligations I had.
I said I’d keep it general and industry-framed.
She said that was exactly right.
We spent another ten minutes talking, the way we’d talked for seven years when there was a problem to work through: practically, directly, without wasted words. She asked if I had thoughts on what the transition plan for her account should look like, and I said I thought they needed someone in that seat who’d have at least a ninety-day knowledge build before flying solo, and that a shared transition process with a more experienced operations person would help.
She said she intended to communicate that expectation in her next service review.
I said that sounded right.
After I hung up, I sat with the call for a while. Not with triumph, which would have been the wrong thing to feel. With something more complicated: the recognition that the work I’d done over seven years was visible in its absence in a way it hadn’t been visible in its presence, and that this was how institutional knowledge usually worked.