From the archives: 6 years ago I was laid off from Twitter
Here is how I got out of the downhill spiral
I was only 25 and couldn't rely on a big network to find a new job.
Here's my story and a few of my learnings to find new strength, self confidence and ultimately a job 👇🏼
It's late 2016, Dick Costolo had left a year ago and the company prepared for an acquisition by Google or someone else (which never happened after all but who knew…).
Goal: getting as lean as possible as fast as possible.
What that meant? 90% of the German team (my team) and many other European teams were let go — from one day to the other. It was definitely handled better than it was now (referencing the Elon take over). And still... layoffs are nothing you can do particularly well. No matter how much you try to, it sucks. For all parties involved.
It was a first for me and the hardest moment of my working life until then.
I always dreamt of working at a big tech company. I wanted to change the world through tech and Twitter was always on top of my list.
I had just taken on a new role, and flew to our partners in Istanbul. At the airport, I then heard the news. I was in complete shock and didn't know what to do. 3 hours flying back home, no internet connection, not knowing what's happening.
The only good thing was that I wasn't the only one: My colleagues and I were all sitting in the same boat and that made me feel a bit less alone, a bit less terrified, a bit less miserable.
Finding a new job wasn't the hard part. It was the feeling of being irrelevant and that no one cares about you... that was the hardest. A few weeks later my then-boyfriend broke up with me and so I lost my home, my partner, and my job in the blink of an eye.
The aftermath of a personal crisis.
The aftermath of layoffs.
Finding a new job wasn't the hard part. It was finding something that excited me: Working on a product that I can identify myself with, that has an impact on people's lives, where I feel challenged and inspired, surrounded by smart people I care about.
Here are a few things I have done to get out of my personal roller coaster experience that felt like only going downhill but turned out to be successful after all 👇🏼
1. Buy yourself time: severance package
I needed time. Since we were a bigger group of people, we had negotiated with our lawyers a good severance package to buy us a bit more time to think about what we wanted to do next. The beauty of living in Germany is that we have employee rights :)
2. Buy more time: start freelancing
I didn't want to take on the next best thing which is why I started freelancing to explore new possible paths. I reached out to former colleagues and asked them for intros. My then team lead at Twitter helped me a lot to get a foot in the door.
3. Start journaling
To get through this terrible time it helped me a lot to write down my feelings and reflect on the days: What made me feel good? What made me sad? What good can I see in this current situation? What do I want to do differently tomorrow?
4. Note down your values and requirements
I also wrote down for myself, why I had enjoyed working at Twitter so much: what were the values, the characteristics, which tasks gave me energy, what challenged me, what inspired me & and also what I didn't want in my next job to happen.
5. Talk to friends and ask for help
I let everyone in my surroundings know about my current situation. I know this is hard sometimes, but the more people were aware, the bigger the possibility for new opportunities became. I asked them about cool companies and jobs they heard of.
6. Note down your strengths
It's important to re-learn about how valuable and amazing you are. I noted down my achievements and which character traits of mine brought me there. It helped a lot with re-gaining self-confidence. Also, ask your friends and former colleagues about this.
7. Personalise outreach and try to get intros
What helped me a lot was updating my CV, but then really personalizing my outreach for the specific company I applied. I researched them heavily on social media, especially the person I'd be working for.
The outcome
Roughly 6 months later I started a wonderful new job -- amazing people, vision, and product. It was a bit opportunistic, a step back at first glance, but I grew in responsibility and with the challenges day by day. Btw: this job came through an intro from my Twitter team lead.
3 years later I ended up being part of the executive team.
⏭ 6 years later, if this would happen to me now, I would still be in shock but I know I made it out of this situation once before. I learned how to get out of it, I taught myself to be confident and to believe in myself.
& you can do it, too! 🌟
If you need advice, sparring, intros or just some uplifting words - please reach out to me 💌
FYI: this article is cross-posted from Linkedin and was written in November 22, 2022.