Every day, the market evaluates you.
It evaluates your skills.
Your relevance.
Your replaceability.
Your timing.
And it does this silently.
No notification.
No dashboard.
No warning.
The market already has an opinion about your value.
You just don’t have access to it.
Value Is Not Self-Declared
You can describe your skills.
You can list your achievements.
You can feel confident in your abilities.
None of that defines your value.
Value is not what you believe about yourself.
It is what the market is willing to reward right now.
The difference between those two is where most careers drift off course.
The Market Sees Patterns You Don’t
Behind every hiring decision, salary range, or rejection lies a pattern:
- Supply vs demand
- Skill saturation
- Automation risk
- Emerging substitutes
- Shifting priorities
Individually, these signals are invisible.
Collectively, they shape your perceived value.
You don’t see these patterns in real time.
But the market reacts to them instantly.
Why Feedback Comes Too Late
Most professionals rely on delayed signals:
- Fewer interview calls
- Slower responses
- Salary stagnation
- Unexpected layoffs
By the time these signals appear, the market has already moved.
Your value didn’t drop overnight.
It drifted gradually quietly without visibility.
That’s the danger.
Confidence Can Be Misleading
Confidence often comes from effort.
You studied.
You practiced.
You built experience.
But effort is not a market metric.
The market measures:
- Scarcity
- Relevance
- Urgency
- Substitutability
You might be highly skilled in something the market no longer prioritizes.
And without visibility, you won’t know until outcomes change.
The Illusion of Control
Resumes give a sense of control.
Profiles create a feeling of exposure.
Learning provides momentum.
But none of these show how the market currently ranks your skills.
They are reflections of the past.
The market operates in the present.
This gap creates false certainty.
Silent Repositioning
The market continuously repositions people:
- Some skills rise quietly
- Some plateau
- Some decline without announcement
Those who adapt early appear strategic.
Those who adapt late appear unlucky.
The difference is rarely talent.
It’s awareness.
You Are Being Evaluated Anyway
Even if you don’t track it.
Even if you don’t measure it.
Even if you assume stability.
The market has already assigned weight to your skill set.
It has already compared you to alternatives.
It already knows how easily you can be replaced.
The only question is whether you know.
The Risk of Operating Blind
When you don’t see how the market sees you:
- You invest in the wrong skills
- You overestimate stability
- You underestimate competition
- You misjudge timing
Every decision becomes a bet.
And in fast-moving environments, blind bets compound quickly.
This Isn’t About Fear. It’s About Visibility.
The market knowing your value isn’t the problem.
The problem is asymmetry.
It sees you clearly.
You don’t see it.
Until that imbalance is addressed, your career strategy is built on partial information.
And partial information feels like certainty until it doesn’t.
The market already knows your value.
The question is whether you’re comfortable not knowing it.
Source : Medium.com
