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Missed a promotion because I didn't catch a typo in my report | Career Advice - Vivisector

Missed a promotion because I didn't catch a typo in my report

I was sitting in my boss's office last Thursday in Chicago when she told me I wasn't getting the senior analyst role. Turns out a single number in a quarterly forecast was off by $12,000 because I mixed up two columns in Excel. Has anyone else lost out on a job or opportunity over a dumb mistake that felt small?

3 comments

3 Comments

simon_jackson812mo ago

A friend of mine from grad school actually wrote about this on LinkedIn last month. He had a similar situation where a misplaced decimal in a budget proposal cost him a director role at a consulting firm in Boston. The number was off by less than a percent of the total budget, but the hiring manager said it showed a lack of attention to detail. It's funny how one small slip can make people question your whole ability, even when everything else in the report was solid. I bet a lot of managers would miss that typo themselves if they were in your shoes. Still, it's a tough lesson and I'm sorry it happened to you.

hannahcraig2mo ago

That reminds me of a time I was working on a group project in college and my partner accidentally swapped two digits in the mailing address for our final presentation handout. We sent 200 copies to the wrong building on campus. The professor literally watched us run across the quad with boxes of papers at the last minute. @simon_jackson81 I can totally see how someone would hold that against you, even if it was just one slip. It's like people think one mistake means you'll mess up everything forever. But isn't it wild how many little errors we let slide in other parts of life and nobody bats an eye?

sammartinez2mo ago

I read an interview with a NASA engineer once who said they nearly lost a Mars rover because of a unit conversion error. That really stuck with me - shows how even the best people can mess up something basic when they're under pressure. It's not fair that one little slip like that can define you, but I guess in some jobs they just can't afford to take the chance.