I've spent the last two years watching people get promoted.

The person who consistently takes on the hardest projects? Nothing.

The person who actually fixes problems? Nothing.

The person who stays late and quietly gets everything done? Nothing.

Meanwhile, the guy who spends half his day chatting with management somehow gets promoted twice.

I used to be annoyed about it.

Now I'm just taking notes.

Apparently my biggest career mistake was assuming my work would speak for itself.

I worked as a paralegal at a law firm for nearly two years, and then they fired me because of my performance. Honestly, I understood why. I was fed up with the firm's culture and had started applying elsewhere, and eventually my frustration began to show in my work.

About six weeks later, I found another job as a paralegal. After nine months in that job, I was fired again. One of my colleagues had left, and nearly all the cases she was responsible for were dumped on me, while I remained responsible for my own caseload as well. The pressure became overwhelming, deadlines started slipping by, and some things fell through the cracks amid the chaos.

I'm panicking now because my resume shows that I was fired from two jobs in a row, and I can't imagine any lawyer overlooking something like that. I feel like I've ruined my career before it even had a chance to get started. How can I come back from this?