For the first time in my life, I was laid off from a job in May of 2024. It hit me hard, I didn't know it was coming, I had some feelings something was wrong but couldn't tell the future.
The subsequent months I did interviews and performed so poorly it was like I had no confidence in my abilities. It didn't make sense. For months I went applying for jobs but hardly got interviews. I questioned everything I was doing and whether it was me or my strategy. Finally in September I made big strides with a company and got an offer. The pay was lower than what I had previously, but I was at the point where I needed something, I needed a confidence booster. Plus, I really liked the company and what they stood for. Halfway through my onboarding process, they announced they were piloting a TAM program. My gut felt punched again, I was worried, in a Team Meeting our Director said our jobs were safe. So, I let it go. On December 6, I got an unexpected message from my Director asking to get on a call. Of course, I said sure, then he added, "HR will be on as well." I knew it was coming. This time I was prepared. I took it better and had the hindsight that the Director is also having a very challenging day. He has to do this to some 20 odd people. I'm sure it was one of his worst days as well.
It sucked, I thought I was going to have a chance to grow with this company, they were a Public company after all and the recruiter said "You won't need to worry about layoffs with our company..." In reality, within 3 months from being hired I was back on the job market. This time I feel better, more confident in my abilities. I was able to get that job through my own application, interviewing, and presentation skills. This layoff happened right before Christmas; gifts had to be skipped last year given our economic situation. Luckily my wife has been supportive of me and Unemployment has helped us keep up with our mortgage payment, but unemployment will run out for me in 2 weeks from now. Luckily the tax return should be coming mid-March which means we can finance ourselves until end of May at least. I could also withdraw from the IRA/401K.
Today my wife and I talked about using a Career Coach service because this job market is so brutal. Likely next week I'll start one of the Career Coaching services which I hope will expedite my ability to secure my next role. I currently have been interviewing with a startup company in the cybersecurity industry and the first interview went really well. Waiting for the invitation for the 2nd interview which should be happening next week.
I've taken a different strategy with my last 2 companies I interviewed with. The first one I sent a 30-60-90 day plan to the Hiring Manager which helped me move to the final round. But they selected someone else. This time, I prepared my plan as well as a slide deck and had the same impact. I have since updated it based on my initial conversation with the Hiring Manager. I will send the updated version to my next interviewer to see if that also has further impact. If there's one thing I've learned in the past year, you need to make yourself standout and you need to connect with the interviewers to get them to like you and want to work with you.
2024 sucked, I really really hope 2025 will be my Year of Resilience where I land a position at a good company with a Manager I can truly trust and who honestly looks out for my best interest. Maybe that's asking for too much, but I can hope right?
