I’ll be honest, the first thing I did was stare at the wall for about ten minutes…
I could have sat around and been upset about the situation, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t upset. I had committed myself to the company and was in it for the long run, but unfortunately things didn’t pan out that way. However the fact of the matter is this: I have a wife and three kids to feed, and no source of income as the sole earner of the household.
So it was time to get to work.
Walk it off
The first thing I did after telling my wife is get outside and go for a walk to try and clear my mind and get some perspective. I currently live on over 15 acres of land so it gives me a decent space to walk without going to far. While walking on the little path that I keep maintained for myself. I had my phone with me and was simply writing my thoughts down as they came to me as a guide.
I’m also a man of faith, so I was praying that God would come through with this quickly. And if you’ve been following me over the past few days, you know it happened VERY quickly.
Announce my status and ask for help
Again, 5 mouths to feed including my own. I didn't waste any time posting on social media to say that I was looking for something. This was primarily on Twitter and LinkedIn, but I texted or DM’d some of my closer friends to let them know what was going on.
On top of a text post, I also recorded a video because I KNEW it would stick out more. Adding captions was another thing I knew would help since some people like to watch videos without audio.
The response was incredible. Between the text and video posts, I got nearly 100k views, over 300 likes, and over 150 retweets/quotes. My inbox blew up with folks offering referrals, asking to speak with me directly, and generally just giving me best wishes.
Update my resume
I quickly updated my resume and added some more detail to the section with my latest role. I always keep my resume updated regardless, so luckily this didn't take me too long. I have a “link in bio” style mini site setup at brianmm.dev which has a link to get my resume as well, so after quickly updating that I was able to send it to all of the people who were asking me.
Get organized in Notion
I use @NotionHQ for everything, so I set up a small database to track the various opportunities that came my way, who referred me, and who I should be in contact with. Using this helped keep myself organized and allowed me to have a central place to take notes about who I talked to and what those conversations were about.
While I was blessed enough to not get this far, I would have also used this database to track companies I applied to and include details like when I applied, the cover letter I sent, job link, etc.
Keep in touch with others who were impacted
I was not the only one laid off. I don't know exactly how many, but there were a key few that I quickly connected with after the event. Many of them are more or less doing the same thing I am and leveraging their networks. It allowed us also share opportunities amongst each other in case there was a better fit. This helped us expand our own networks exponentially. I’ll also say that when you experience a layoff with folks who you’ve worked closely with (or even only briefly) it feels like a special bond is formed and you all just want to help each other land as quickly as possible. In fact, the database I built in Notion was shared with them as well after I filtered out anyone who wasn't serious about hiring.
Step 0: Go back in time 5 years and start creating content
I started making content and networking a priority in 2019, and have always referred to it as “building a war chest” for when I needed a job. I knew that in time, it would help me tremendously, and this was exactly the moment that it came in for me. The friendships I’ve built along the way due to my content, meeting and talking about life, or helping with projects were now coming in to help ME.
Even writing this kind of has me tearing up. If you are someone who did help, know that you are amazing and I’ll never forget this.
The past few days have been a whirlwind, and thankfully I was blessed to have befriended the right people to land at @ClerkDev doing exactly what I was doing in my previous role, which I absolutely love and am so excited to get back to. This is my first time going through a layoff and it is stressful as all hell. It’s business, and on some level I get it, but it doesn’t make it any easier when you have a family to provide for.
So my advice to you: create content, network, build in public, etc. Do what you can to create that safety net so when things like this do happen, you have a clear path forward to get out of what could otherwise be a detrimental situation.
Love you all. And if there is any way I can help, my DMs are open.
And let me know if I should do a series on how I got started creating content, and how anyone can do it.
Header image stable diffusion prompt:
"a person in a suite in the middle of a city, sad, 16 bit pixel art,
blue and purple, <lora:xl_more_art-full_v1:1>"