This story is entirely fictional. Any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. Please do not assume it is about you. My name is Fu Xian. I’m forty-six, a senior engineer. And I really am senior: there isn’t a technical problem in my field I can’t solve. Structural calculations, project evaluations, on-site incident management: I can handle them all. The year I applied for a higher professional title, the review panel finished going through my record, and one old expert said, “If this man had been born twenty years earlier, he’d have had no trouble becoming chief engineer at a design institute.” I smiled for three days after hearing that. But I also know that being good at your job doesn’t mean you’ll get ahead. People at my company who are less skilled than I am sit above me, and I don’t resent them. They know how to play the game.
