The Happy Path No One Mapped

The Startup Hired Me. Then They Fired Me. Here’s What I Wish I’d Known.

I’ve spent the last two weeks quietly unraveling in a role I thought I could handle.

I was hired as a Front-end Engineer to build the UI for a customer-facing portal at an AI startup. I thought I was doing what they wanted—stepping back, asking design questions, thinking through user flows. I sketched wireframes. I prototyped ideas. I pushed back on UX patterns that didn’t make sense.

But by the end of my second Friday, it became clear: what they wanted wasn’t thoughtful design. What they wanted was a fake-it-til-you-demo-it “happy path,” no questions asked.

I was let go that Monday.

These are some thoughts.