The problem is that people do change. I was an outright terrible employee for years and mediocre in engineering skills and am now fine as an employee but despit

The problem is that people do change. I was an outright terrible employee for years and mediocre in engineering skills and am now fine as an employee but despite knowing the general means to not be a bad engineer am probably just middling or below for various reasons not related to capability as much as personal circumstances. The job market changes over time as well.