How I Got the Chief of Staff Job in 2025, and How You Can in This Market
A live session on getting, keeping, and growing inside the chief of staff role, from someone who did it in the 2025 market.
Chief of staff is the job that everyone wants and nobody can define. There’s no degree for it, no clear ladder into it, and no two postings describe the same work. Which means when you apply, you’re competing against hundreds of people for a role where the hiring bar lives mostly in someone’s head.
I got one of those jobs. Not because I was the most qualified person in the pile, but because I understood what the role was actually for and made that legible before anyone asked me to.
This is the full walkthrough. What the job really is, what I did to stand apart, and the parts nobody warns you about once you’re in it.
In the room:
What a chief of staff actually does, and how that changes depending on who you work for. If you’re applying to a role you can’t describe, you can’t win it.
How I got mine. The specific moves, the ones that worked, and the one I’d skip if I did it again.
The part after the offer: how to hold influence without authority, and how to keep the role from quietly turning into an admin job.
You’ll walk out with:
A clear picture of whether this role is right for you, language for how to position yourself for it, and an honest read on what the job costs.
Bring your questions. This is a working session, not a talk.
Hosted by Kelsey Worsham, co-founder of The Birdie Brief, who is currently a chief of staff at a venture-backed startup.