Losing your job is painful and unfortunately the current economic conditions have led to many layoffs and firings in companies large and small. However, we’ve learned though thousands of interviews over the years that job loss is one of the most common catalysts for massive life improvement. Below, we’ve shared stories and perspectives from some very successful members of the community around how they dealt with job loss.

Jonathon Addington

So, I was working with a native plant landscaping company for a couple of years, and as they were transitioning to using more herbicides and doing more jobs involving sod placing instead of purely native plant installations, I was slowly dropping my availability to focus on Seitanic Jax more. When I got down to two days a week, I received a call from the boss the day before work and he told me that they had to lay me off because of my lack of full time availability.  Read More>>

Lauren Permenter

I worked an entire decade at a local community mental health agency. I loved my job as a therapist, loved to bear witness and support client’s growth and emotional healing and later loved supervising newer therapists. It also simultaneously felt “safe” compared to my friends and family who do freelance work. I naively thought I’d never have to worry about suddenly losing a job because I’d chosen the safe route of W2 employment.  Read More>> 

Deanna Covas

When I was laid off from my full-time role as a Disney Cast Member due to COVID, I was heartbroken. Like so many others, I suddenly found myself without the career I had poured years into. But instead of letting that loss define me, I decided to take a leap of faith and create something new from the ground up. Read More>>

Qiwei Zhang

The Blizzard layoffs were challenging, but they reinforced my commitment to the games industry. Rather than seeing it as an endpoint, I treated it as a catalyst to refine my skills, expand my network, and diversify my creative perspective’s immediately focused on three actions:
Upskilling Strategically: I deepened my expertise in real-time VFX tools like Unity
VFX Graph and Niagara, while studying art direction principles to align my work with broader project visions. Read More>>