Unemployment v2 Week 0
Second time in my career that I’ve been laid off. So far? Not so bad!
What’s different this time
- I don’t have a lease over my head because I was about to move home.
- My savings are larger and I’m farther on my FIRE path.
- People are showing support and I’m more open and honest about what I need from them.
Sense of self
I think one thing that hit me during my first layoff was the loss of a part of myself. I lost my income and thus a sense of stability. But as cliche as it may seem what was worse than that was the loss of my identity. I wasn’t a software engineer anymore. I didn’t feel right calling myself that.
I never realized just how often I told people what I do for a living. After losing my job I realized that 90% of the time that’s the second thing you talk about after you learn someone’s name when you’re an adult.
Luckily this time around I’m not so attached to having a job. I’ve been doing so much thinking and working on my personal brand which has helped me feel more solidified about who I am. I don’t care to lament about what I went through or anything related to my former employers rather I just want to keep focusing on what I’m doing.
What have I been doing?
- Solving some Leetcode problems
- Preparing for a cross-country move
- Cooking Kenji’s garlic noodles recipe
- Rewriting my Neovim config
- Reflecting on the tech industry changes
- Commenting on HackerNews articles
- Trying to think of micro business ideas
That’s probably a short list compared to all that I’ve been doing. I’m sure I’ll find time for video games and binging TV shows but right now I have the drive to get things done so I’m going to take advantage of that.
Are you gonna take a break?
Well, imaginary interviewer, I’m glad you asked!
I plan on doing some traveling within the US to visit friends I haven’t seen in years. I also have been thinking about doing a trip to another part of the world.
I never got the backpacking experience of my 20s so if there ever was a time it would be now.
Sense of relief
Honestly I feel pretty relieved. Now I have more choices but the hard one was picked for me. I’m not sure when I want to jump into the job market. I’m okay with just focusing on hobbies with the occasional practice problem.
It has been fun to have my 9-5 transfer from working on someone else’s dream into working on my own.