About a week and a half into my new job, I came into the office for the very first time. I was eating catered burrito bowls, grabbing endless snacks, and of course - trying the highly-customizable latte machine. I was living the life of tech luxury, getting to know my new coworkers, and excited to grow at a company where I believed in the mission and the product I was working on. Approximately 18 hours later, I was laid off.

Yes, getting canned sucks! While this could very well be a complaint post, I want to offer a different outlook on layoffs. With the recent market volatility, it seems like there’s a new major layoff every other day - from Shopify, to Robinhood, and of course the company I had a brief tenure at, Wealthsimple. As someone who has recently been in the same position, my hope in writing this article is to help others going through layoffs to not only find their next gig, but take advantage of a time like this to better align themselves with their goals.

A note before diving in: of course it isn’t great to lay off your team and we can speculate that better planning could’ve prevented a decision like this. Unfortunately, the layoffs were a business decision that reflected external and internal business realities. Trying to start a company briefly myself (at a scale not even comparable to something like Wealthsimple), I fully understood why the decision was made and probably would’ve made the same call if I was in that position. It may be an immediate thought to “why aren’t I chosen to stay onboard”, but it is usually not personal since these decisions are made on numbers, not individual contribution. My advice to you is to re-frame the layoff as a call outside of the control of any one person. Once again, it’s not great, but you have to roll with the punches.

It’s an understatement to say that going through a layoff is an emotional and tiring journey. Here are some things that I learned along the way that I wish I knew beforehand, that would have made things easier:

While this process is different for every person, it’s important that you take the time you need to take a step back and reassess your next steps. You will no doubt be in shock, stressed, and blindsided. Please take some time to breathe, decompress, and reassess. This could be a day, week, or a few months before getting ready to jump back into the job search.

For me, I jumped right back into the job search because I just started to get in the working mentality and was well-rested from my quick summer break. This was a privilege in itself, not having to worry about major expenses. My resume was already prepped, and I went through a lot of recruiting calls just a few months prior (annoying but useful to have the interview practice). It allowed me to not skip a beat and hop right back into calls with new companies and sharing with my network.

For others, this looks completely different. Jobs are typically viewed as a secure piece of your life and it can empower you to make large life decisions. Once that changes, you may now be staring down the dark abyss of not knowing what comes next - and that is okay!

While taking your time to regain composure after the news, reflect on your experience and determine what you enjoyed and see what you weren’t as happy with. This will help set your goals as you progress towards your next chapter.

After I started to look at new opportunities, I was immediately torn between wanting to land something as soon as possible (especially with the looming recession), or holding out for the ideal opportunity that checked all the boxes.

Different circumstances will call for different judgment calls, but a good place to start is by looking at your situation as a whole. Take a minute to evaluate your own risk tolerance (how long can you afford to be unemployed based on: recurring expenses, severance packages, emergency fund, etc.)

Next, you want to determine your career goals and how this time can be a launch point towards those goals. Spend some time thinking about where you see yourself in 10 years, and what needs to be true in order for you to achieve that vision (these can be as broad as industry, salary, or as specific as having personal life goals or the dream job title). Now, bring it back to 5 years, and then 1-2 years from now. What will need to be true at each point in time for you to achieve that 10 year goal?

Looking 10 years down the road can be daunting, but remember this is not at all set in stone. In fact, it will likely change as you go through your next role and life milestones. Even a broad goal for the future can help you make decisions today and by breaking it down into smaller, digestible pieces, you can confidently take your next steps.

As an example, I have always wanted to move into Product Management since I learned about it. I understand many of the technical concepts, but also enjoy the business piece of how the products we develop fit into users’ lives and can solve real problems. My 10-year goal is to create and manage a product that is making an impact at the scale of millions (if not larger), whether that is part of an innovative company or trying to build another start-up myself. Going through the steps above, I realized to achieve my 10-year goal, I have to continuously grow my product sense and gain experience in a scaling product. To do that, my one/two year goals should focus on transitioning to a product management role with a team that can both grow my abilities, but also make an impact quickly. As mentioned above, I had the privilege of taking some time to focus on the ideal role due to my current savings, minimal bills to pay, and being early in my career.

One of the most impactful things I did was post to my LinkedIn network as soon as I was laid off. I saw how powerful it was when people were laid off from Coinbase a couple weeks earlier, and how many opportunities surfaced as a result. As one of the first people to post the news to LinkedIn, and from shares in my network (many of which I haven’t had the pleasure of even meeting), I somehow became the top post in LinkedIn News on the topic, leading to greater interaction.

Especially in this volatile landscape of hyper-growth companies, it’s very difficult to judge which companies are doing well or which are about to do another round of layoffs. By posting to your network, you can attract recruiting teams that are aggressively (in a good way) hiring, that hopefully have a long runway (NOTE: runway is how long a company can survive based on funding in the bank before another round of fundraising - a big reason why companies laid off employees was to extend their runway and not raise funding in a down-round like in the impending recession). That being said, do your due diligence once you are in the later stages to determine if you are confident that the company will continue to grow/can survive the next couple years without layoffs. This could be looking at metrics evaluating current team size or recent fundraising events on LinkedIn and Crunchbase. Even in early conversations, a great question is asking about how management views the growth and the runway of the company! This can help you determine if you’re joining a winning team and if the risk is right for you.

I was blown away by the amount of support that I received on my post, in my personal messages, and in-person - especially from Wealthsimplers that I just met a week earlier. A byproduct of that is the vast amount of information that I had to sift through for opportunities that I wanted to follow up on. While trying to churn through my inbox, more messages would pour in, making it hard to keep track of each opportunity. I ended up dedicating the following weekend to making a list of each opportunity and important details to stay organized.

On that point - a HUGE thank you to every single person that reached out with support, referrals or opportunities. I am sorry that I haven’t had the opportunity to respond to or loop back to every single person yet, but I truly appreciate the support and generosity. It is in times like these that you see the kindness in the people you surround yourself with - I am beyond grateful.

All that being said, take your time to go through the messages and emails. It’s easy to feel like you need to get through every message immediately to secure a role and not miss out on an opportunity, but I promise you it’s more effective (and healthy) if you take your time to set your goals and follow-up accordingly.

I know it’s difficult and daunting to restart the recruiting process, but take this as an opportunity to make a change for yourself. This may be taking a well-needed break to travel or even some time with family, or for others like myself - use it to reposition your career.

It may be cliché, but this is truly your story to write. When you look back at this time, it could very well be one of the best things to happen for the purposes of your growth and career. As Booker T Washington said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome”.

So you may be thinking, what's next for me? After having at least one interview a day for 30 work days straight, and sometimes having 7 interviews in one day, I was on the brink of burn-out and exhaustion. But, because I persisted, I received multiple offers and I signed with a role that aligns with my goals and offers opportunities to experience substantial growth, just one month after being laid off.

At the end of this month, I will be joining an exciting Series B start-up as a Product Manager. While I plan to expand more on my decision in a later post, this fast-growing company presents an exciting opportunity to help build products at scale and have an impact solving problems that I’m passionate about.

For friends going through this tough time of layoffs, take your time and use this as an opportunity to choose your next adventure. You will likely be at your next role for a pretty long period of time, so choose wisely and don’t settle!

About a week and a half into my new job, I came into the office for the very first time. I was eating catered burrito bowls, grabbing endless snacks, and of course - trying the highly-customizable latte machine. I was living the life of tech luxury, getting to know my new coworkers, and excited to grow at a company where I believed in the mission and the product I was working on. Approximately 18 hours later, I was laid off.

Yes, getting canned sucks! While this could very well be a complaint post, I want to offer a different outlook on layoffs. With the recent market volatility, it seems like there’s a new major layoff every other day - from Shopify, to Robinhood, and of course the company I had a brief tenure at, Wealthsimple. As someone who has recently been in the same position, my hope in writing this article is to help others going through layoffs to not only find their next gig, but take advantage of a time like this to better align themselves with their goals.

A note before diving in: of course it isn’t great to lay off your team and we can speculate that better planning could’ve prevented a decision like this. Unfortunately, the layoffs were a business decision that reflected external and internal business realities. Trying to start a company briefly myself (at a scale not even comparable to something like Wealthsimple), I fully understood why the decision was made and probably would’ve made the same call if I was in that position. It may be an immediate thought to “why aren’t I chosen to stay onboard”, but it is usually not personal since these decisions are made on numbers, not individual contribution. My advice to you is to re-frame the layoff as a call outside of the control of any one person. Once again, it’s not great, but you have to roll with the punches.

It’s an understatement to say that going through a layoff is an emotional and tiring journey. Here are some things that I learned along the way that I wish I knew beforehand, that would have made things easier:

While this process is different for every person, it’s important that you take the time you need to take a step back and reassess your next steps. You will no doubt be in shock, stressed, and blindsided. Please take some time to breathe, decompress, and reassess. This could be a day, week, or a few months before getting ready to jump back into the job search.

For me, I jumped right back into the job search because I just started to get in the working mentality and was well-rested from my quick summer break. This was a privilege in itself, not having to worry about major expenses. My resume was already prepped, and I went through a lot of recruiting calls just a few months prior (annoying but useful to have the interview practice). It allowed me to not skip a beat and hop right back into calls with new companies and sharing with my network.

For others, this looks completely different. Jobs are typically viewed as a secure piece of your life and it can empower you to make large life decisions. Once that changes, you may now be staring down the dark abyss of not knowing what comes next - and that is okay!

While taking your time to regain composure after the news, reflect on your experience and determine what you enjoyed and see what you weren’t as happy with. This will help set your goals as you progress towards your next chapter.

After I started to look at new opportunities, I was immediately torn between wanting to land something as soon as possible (especially with the looming recession), or holding out for the ideal opportunity that checked all the boxes.

Different circumstances will call for different judgment calls, but a good place to start is by looking at your situation as a whole. Take a minute to evaluate your own risk tolerance (how long can you afford to be unemployed based on: recurring expenses, severance packages, emergency fund, etc.)

Next, you want to determine your career goals and how this time can be a launch point towards those goals. Spend some time thinking about where you see yourself in 10 years, and what needs to be true in order for you to achieve that vision (these can be as broad as industry, salary, or as specific as having personal life goals or the dream job title). Now, bring it back to 5 years, and then 1-2 years from now. What will need to be true at each point in time for you to achieve that 10 year goal?

Looking 10 years down the road can be daunting, but remember this is not at all set in stone. In fact, it will likely change as you go through your next role and life milestones. Even a broad goal for the future can help you make decisions today and by breaking it down into smaller, digestible pieces, you can confidently take your next steps.

As an example, I have always wanted to move into Product Management since I learned about it. I understand many of the technical concepts, but also enjoy the business piece of how the products we develop fit into users’ lives and can solve real problems. My 10-year goal is to create and manage a product that is making an impact at the scale of millions (if not larger), whether that is part of an innovative company or trying to build another start-up myself. Going through the steps above, I realized to achieve my 10-year goal, I have to continuously grow my product sense and gain experience in a scaling product. To do that, my one/two year goals should focus on transitioning to a product management role with a team that can both grow my abilities, but also make an impact quickly. As mentioned above, I had the privilege of taking some time to focus on the ideal role due to my current savings, minimal bills to pay, and being early in my career.

One of the most impactful things I did was post to my LinkedIn network as soon as I was laid off. I saw how powerful it was when people were laid off from Coinbase a couple weeks earlier, and how many opportunities surfaced as a result. As one of the first people to post the news to LinkedIn, and from shares in my network (many of which I haven’t had the pleasure of even meeting), I somehow became the top post in LinkedIn News on the topic, leading to greater interaction.

Especially in this volatile landscape of hyper-growth companies, it’s very difficult to judge which companies are doing well or which are about to do another round of layoffs. By posting to your network, you can attract recruiting teams that are aggressively (in a good way) hiring, that hopefully have a long runway (NOTE: runway is how long a company can survive based on funding in the bank before another round of fundraising - a big reason why companies laid off employees was to extend their runway and not raise funding in a down-round like in the impending recession). That being said, do your due diligence once you are in the later stages to determine if you are confident that the company will continue to grow/can survive the next couple years without layoffs. This could be looking at metrics evaluating current team size or recent fundraising events on LinkedIn and Crunchbase. Even in early conversations, a great question is asking about how management views the growth and the runway of the company! This can help you determine if you’re joining a winning team and if the risk is right for you.

I was blown away by the amount of support that I received on my post, in my personal messages, and in-person - especially from Wealthsimplers that I just met a week earlier. A byproduct of that is the vast amount of information that I had to sift through for opportunities that I wanted to follow up on. While trying to churn through my inbox, more messages would pour in, making it hard to keep track of each opportunity. I ended up dedicating the following weekend to making a list of each opportunity and important details to stay organized.

On that point - a HUGE thank you to every single person that reached out with support, referrals or opportunities. I am sorry that I haven’t had the opportunity to respond to or loop back to every single person yet, but I truly appreciate the support and generosity. It is in times like these that you see the kindness in the people you surround yourself with - I am beyond grateful.

All that being said, take your time to go through the messages and emails. It’s easy to feel like you need to get through every message immediately to secure a role and not miss out on an opportunity, but I promise you it’s more effective (and healthy) if you take your time to set your goals and follow-up accordingly.

I know it’s difficult and daunting to restart the recruiting process, but take this as an opportunity to make a change for yourself. This may be taking a well-needed break to travel or even some time with family, or for others like myself - use it to reposition your career.

It may be cliché, but this is truly your story to write. When you look back at this time, it could very well be one of the best things to happen for the purposes of your growth and career. As Booker T Washington said, “Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome”.

So you may be thinking, what's next for me? After having at least one interview a day for 30 work days straight, and sometimes having 7 interviews in one day, I was on the brink of burn-out and exhaustion. But, because I persisted, I received multiple offers and I signed with a role that aligns with my goals and offers opportunities to experience substantial growth, just one month after being laid off.

At the end of this month, I will be joining an exciting Series B start-up as a Product Manager. While I plan to expand more on my decision in a later post, this fast-growing company presents an exciting opportunity to help build products at scale and have an impact solving problems that I’m passionate about.

For friends going through this tough time of layoffs, take your time and use this as an opportunity to choose your next adventure. You will likely be at your next role for a pretty long period of time, so choose wisely and don’t settle!