[throwaway48323]

I had a PIP at a startup when six months in and several years later I'm the lead now.

I saved my job by working during my ~two day vacation (and weekend) and building a bunch of things that I had talked with the non-eng cofounder about that weren't on the official roadmap but that had high value.

Turned out the way engineering was organized wasn't very compatible with me (didn't take advantage of my product sense and generally was focusing too much on reviewing things in code that really didn't matter.)

One of the people above me on the org chart (VP Engineering) lost his job instead. The lead at the time is now CTO and around that time adjusted the org to better match how I like to work.

[macintux]

I suspect that kind of story is more common at small companies still trying to define a path forward (or with inconsistent management philosophies).

Still, impressive turnaround.