I felt like I was in quicksand and sinking fast. I was recently married, living on the Upper East Side while working for the Associated Press in Manhattan. At the time, it felt like I was doing all the right things: working hard, producing millions in revenue for the suits (not for myself), while keeping their costs down. Surely, I thought, this hard work would pay off. I also had a strong internal network and was even accepted into a prestigious mentorship program within the company. And yet the hard work went unnoticed, I had almost nothing to show for it, and my frustrations began to peak.