Straight Line

For your first five years in consulting, audit and finance · Online, worldwide

Your next promotion, sooner.

The unwritten rules of the corporate world, from the side of the table that decides. Free to read, no login.

Just passed over? Start here →

From Tilen, a finance director and CFA charterholder who sits in the room where promotions are decided. No promises: how fast you move depends on you, your employer and the market.

Same effort, different route. Each step is a promotion. Illustration.
Sound familiar?

Stuck at work? You're not alone. And it isn't a talent problem.

No development. A manager who doesn't seem to notice. A promotion that went to someone else, and nobody can say why. Most people spend their first five years winging it through a maze nobody gave them a map for.

I sit in the room where those decisions are made. So I drew the map: what to do, what to say, and how the game is actually played. Read it in order, free, no login.

Start with The Map
One of them was handed the map. The other is still finding out where the walls are. Illustration
Free guide · Five pages · Ten minutes

What your manager knows about promotions, and you don't yet.

The Map in five pages, for your inbox: what gets discussed when you're not in the room, written from the side of the table that decides.

  • The five questions to ask your manager
  • An evidence file that makes your case
  • A script for the promotion conversation
What I was toldMove acrossWhat I did.
Who I am

It was never a straight line.

I'm Tilen. Today I'm a finance director at Maersk in Copenhagen and a CFA charterholder, with a team of 13. Twice a year I sit in the meeting that decides who gets promoted.

It didn't start that way. I almost dropped out of high school, my dream school turned me down, and a business partnership fell apart. At 25, I was asked to be a CFO. This site is what I learned along the way, written down so your line has fewer dips than mine.

  • Finance director at Maersk
  • CFA charterholder
  • Asked to be a CFO at 25
  • About half my direct reports have since been promoted

My whole story →

Swipe along the line →

My line so far. Click a dip to read what helped.

Work with me

Want help with your own situation?

A free 20-minute call, one-hour career sparring, or a three-month promotion plan. Online, anywhere, and it stays between us.

See how we can work together
Write to me

Stuck on something? Write to me.

info@straight-line.si
Based in Copenhagen, working with people anywhere
Follow LinkedInInstagram
Book a call →
Sunday Notes

The next note, in your inbox

One email a month with a new idea from the bookshelf. Nothing else, and you can leave with one click.