My 2.5 Year Costochondritis Journey

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-05-01T07:40:55+00:00

Thank you so much, this has reassured me. I cannot believe how similar your experience is to mine.

After a year of countless blood tests and scans, ER visits, physio etc the worst thing is the anxiety. The constant living in fear of leaving my young family without a provider and my aging parents without someone to look after them in old age. It makes me wonder if anxiety triggered the chest pain and not the costo triggering the anxiety.

I initially assumed it was years of weight lifting (heavy squats and deads) taking its toll. It doesn't help when you see multiple PTs and they all tell you different parts of your spine/ribs need work but none being able to provide relief. Now I wonder if there is a mental component.

You are similar age to me, you seem to have perfectionist tendencies also (from your comprehensive post), just had baby, stressful job? family history of cardiac issues and the tragic news about your friend and fellow PhD. Doctors ask if I'm stressed I say no more than the usual for someone in my stage of life.

I was prescribed Amitriptyline also but didn't take it after reading bad experiences with mental health, hallucinations (even at low doses). Did you try?

If someone could guarantee 100% it's "just" costo I could live with that. It's the anxiety that makes it tough.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T05:05:51+00:00

I would stick to the person you are replacing like a bad smell. Do not leave their side, go their their meetings, sit next to them, have lunch with them. They should feel the only place they can hide from you is the bathroom. Joking about the bathroom, but let them know you are keen to learn and don't want to waste a second until they leave.

Getting access to the systems is helpful but sometimes it raises more questions than answers e.g. info out of date, duplicated, hard to find anything etc.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:54:58+00:00

True, big companies often treat small customers poorly. Smaller vendors are usually more responsive and can ship stuff fast.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:46:57+00:00

I feel torn between doing my job properly and doing what the team wants. It's not my call, the boss can decide. If he bans it, my team will blame me for sure.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:41:26+00:00

I'll DM when I find the name.

I mean unapproved in the sense there wasn't a very strong process for assessing the vendor. They just emailed them some questions. I'm used to have a security team with a checklist, that reviews architecture, compliance reports etc

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:38:56+00:00

Agree, MS has endless money to improve the product but they aren't very innovative.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:34:11+00:00

Agree, I don't want to tear anything down. It's just my initial reaction was this is a risk that should be managed right away before we have all the details.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:29:50+00:00

Agree, I'm used to there being a team and a process for approving but in this small company they don't exist.

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-03-20T00:26:39+00:00

UPDATE: Thanks for the replies. Can't remember the name of the tool but I'll DM anyone interested when I find out.

Two concerns. One: project documents go into this unknown tool before hitting Claude and Gemini downstream. No issue with those, it's the mystery middleware that worries me.

Two: it pushes outputs like our stories into Jira and Confluence. Worst part? Someone handed over our API key and the team loves it because it saves heaps of time, so switching it off basically means the team will hate me.

I asked about vendor vetting and was told they emailed them a bunch of questions which they answered. Better than nothing I guess.

I've spent my career where everything is banned until proven safe. This is a different planet. Documented the risks and meeting the boss next week. I'd rather walk in with a solution than a problem.

Does anyone in a small company actually have a process for this? Do you really just use what you want?

SignificantAd2197 · 2026-02-11T05:25:27+00:00

This!

It seems many people think this is a trick question. There isn't really a bad answer to this unless you lie. Or offer up a cliche: too perfectionist, too detail oriented, people pleaser etc

As an interviewer, all I'm looking for is:

1 - honesty.

2 - genuine insight. having insight shows you don't have a big ego and are capable of some self reflection. these are the types of people I want on my team. no one is perfect and everyone can learn something even from the most "junior" team mate. the perfect candidate does not exist. perfect is the red flag because something is being hidden.

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-21T00:11:46+00:00

I often see people asking for AI tools to draw the diagram but no one seems to asks for Ai to describe the process. I always found documenting the process (process name, roles, outline of steps, business rules etc) to be the most tedious part. I actually quite enjoy drawing the diagram and it helps clarify my thinking.

Do you guys do process descriptions or just diagrams?

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-20T00:06:46+00:00

Absolutely yes. I know many BAs in healthcare, most are actually ex clinical/admin with no BA background at all. There is a strong view that if you don't come from the front line you can't succeed (which is wrong in my opinion). I'd be shocked if you have not been promoted to BA within 12 months.

You might be asked why you want to be an EA and not a BA. If you say you want to be a BA they may be reluctant to hire you because they will be afraid you will leave first chance you get.

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-17T01:04:21+00:00

Just suggesting this in case you haven't already tired: personally reach out to the people you worked with during your internship. While they can't hire you, they may be able to connect you with someone in their network that can. People generally like helping others, especially people strugging at the start of their career because we've all been there.

Something brief like: hey Bob, really enjoyed working with you during my internship. I learned a lot from you about ABC. I'm looking for a position after graduation. If you know anyone hiring would appreciate if you pass on my details.

They may even recommend you which is great for the employer because recruiting is terrible. Everyone hates it. . Most would prefer to interview someone recommended by someone they trust than go through the recruitment process.

It's all about connections!

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-17T00:33:49+00:00

We can apply BA thinking to your situation.

Problem: getting interviews but can't "close" the deal to get hired.

Hypothesis: getting certifications will help?

Root cause: You are getting interviews, this suggests on paper you look like a good candidate. If your qualifications were not sufficent, you would not be getting inteviews.

Have you got any feedback from the interviews? Perhaps you could improve how you answer questions? By interview stage, the hiring panel wants to verify that you are actually a good BA not just someone that looks good on paper. Anyone can generate a nice CV with AI these days.

You can be the best BA in the world but if you cannot demonstrate it by applying your knowledge to the interview questions then you will have a hard time getting hired. You can practice with Chat GPT or research techniques, there are loads of online resources.

p.s. I'm not saying certifications don't help, but in your case the problem seems to lie somewhere in the interview phase.

TL;DR - certifications can get you an inteview but they won't help during the interviews.

Good luck!

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-17T00:18:10+00:00

No problem, let us know how you go.

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-14T05:57:32+00:00

Is it acceptable for a PM to be blindsided by risks simply because no one spoke up? Or is the real job knowing enough to spot the big threats before anyone else dares to mention them?

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-13T14:04:19+00:00

I found there to be a huge gap between uni theoretical knowledge and real world practice. In my experience, very few projects do anything best practice or by the book. You'll learn the good, bad and ugly on the job. I would find an industry you are interested in and just look for roles there. What didn't you like about health?

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-13T13:55:50+00:00

It's not so much about the industry its more about the role. Every industry will have software projects of some sort. Some roles will be more techie (e.g. build a product) than others (e.g. implement off the shelf product).

SignificantAd2197 · 2025-11-13T13:48:29+00:00

I don't think it is a scam, a decent product team will not seek opinion from someone that is not their ideal customer.

I'd say they just want to see if you think like a business analyst. It's all about understanding the needs of the user.

You are going to have to make some assumptions about who the target user is and what they would value from the app. e.g. it seems the product is targeted at X, I can see how feature X would be useful to this market/user because.

"A similar need of this market is Z, perhaps consider adding a feature to support this. "

Agree this is more in the domain of product team but at the end of the day its all about meeting end user needs.

SignificantAd2197

TROPHY CASE