So, Mark Carnivale. Yeah, that name takes me back. I worked with a guy, well, technically for a guy named Mark Carnivale ages ago. Must’ve been my second job out of college, at this place trying way too hard to be the next big thing.
The Project That Wasn’t
We kicked off this project, codename ‘Phoenix’ – typical startup naming, right? Had the specs, the team was jazzed. We spent a good month laying the groundwork, getting the core components sorted. Then Mark steps in. He wasn’t a tech guy, more sales turned ‘visionary’. He’d just come back from some conference, all fired up.
“Scrap it,” he said. Just like that. Apparently, some guru at the conference talked about a ‘blue ocean strategy’ or whatever, and our ‘Phoenix’ wasn’t blue enough. So, we had to pivot. That was Mark’s favorite word. Pivot.
- We ditched weeks of work. Just threw it out.
- Started brainstorming this new ‘blue ocean’ thing. Took days. No clear direction.
- Mark kept changing his mind based on who he talked to last. One day it was an enterprise tool, the next a consumer app.
- We were coding in circles, basically. Build something, show Mark, he’d say “No, no, like this,” wave his hands around, and we’d start over.
It was frustrating as hell. You’d put in long hours, trying to make sense of his vague ideas, only to have it junked the next morning. The team got real quiet. People stopped offering ideas because they knew it wouldn’t matter.
The Fallout
We never shipped anything close to ‘Phoenix’ or the ‘blue ocean’ thing. We ended up patching together some Frankenstein demo for investors that barely worked. It felt dishonest, really. Just smoke and mirrors.
This whole experience under Mark, it taught me something. Not about tech, but about people and management. It showed me how easily a project, even a whole company, can get derailed by someone chasing trends instead of focusing on solid execution. It’s like those companies always adopting the newest framework just because it’s new, not because it solves a real problem better. Shiny object syndrome, driven from the top.
Why did I stay? Honestly, the money was decent for a junior role, and I was learning a lot technically, even if the projects were a mess. But watching good engineers get burned out, seeing potentially good ideas die because of indecisive leadership… it grinds you down.
I left after about 18 months. Couldn’t take the constant pivoting anymore. Heard Mark got ‘promoted’ sideways not long after, then the company got quietly acquired for its talent pool, which had shrunk considerably by then. I landed at a place that was slower, maybe less ‘exciting’, but we actually built and shipped things people used. Way more satisfying. That whole Mark Carnivale episode was a tough lesson, but a valuable one. Showed me exactly the kind of place I didn’t want to work at again.
