This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Felisha Case, a former technical program manager at LinkedIn who was laid off in May. She’s 40 and lives in the Denver area. The following has been edited for length and clarity.
A week before I was laid off from LinkedIn, a colleague told me he’d heard something was coming. So I waited.
One morning in May, I logged into my computer and went to grab a cup of coffee while it was booting up. When I came back, there was a meeting on my calendar that hadn’t been there 30 seconds earlier.
I checked my email. That’s when I realized: If you have this meeting, you don’t have a job.
For the first time in my career, after roughly 13 years working at companies including Amazon, Oracle, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I’d been laid off.
There had been layoffs at LinkedIn before, but I thought other roles were more likely to be affected. So the news came as a shock.
As I began looking for work, I found myself reflecting on how I’d landed jobs in the past. My first tech job came about in an unusual way: through my wedding.
My wedding unexpectedly helped launch my tech career
In 2013, my husband and I got engaged, and we knew we didn’t want a big wedding. I loved our anniversary date of September 26, which was 11 weeks after our engagement. So, we decided to put the wedding together quickly and get married on our anniversary.
My in-laws had connected us with one of their former neighbors to take our engagement and wedding photos. The photographer also worked at Amazon. She said she was impressed by how quickly I’d planned the wedding and asked if I’d be interested in a program manager job on her team.
She referred me for the role, which I eventually landed. I started at Amazon a couple of months after the wedding.
Moving into tech was a huge financial change for my family. Before Amazon, I worked in a project management role outside the tech industry as an hourly employee. My husband and I didn’t think I’d be able to continue working if we had children because my paycheck wouldn’t have covered day care. Tech changed that.
We were able to finally start thinking about having a family.
In 2018, I left Amazon for a technical program manager position at Oracle. About a year later, I joined Twitter, where I worked until 2022, and moved with my family to Colorado during that time. I then joined LinkedIn, working remotely as a technical program manager. I stayed there until I was laid off.
I took some time to process my layoff
Under the terms of my layoff, I was technically still employed by LinkedIn and receiving my regular paycheck for two months, through mid-July. Then I’d receive my severance pay.
What surprised me was the range of emotions I went through right after my layoff. It felt almost like a grief process: I was sad, I was angry, and I went through all of those different feelings.
I took a week or two after the layoff before starting my job search. But I knew how long tech interview processes could take, so I wanted to get the ball rolling.
Felisha Case
I’ve gotten all of my past roles through personal connections
Personal connections played a role in every tech job I landed, whether it be learning about an opportunity or a referral. I’ve tried to rely on my network in my job search, asking for referrals when I can. But I’ve also been applying to jobs where I don’t have a connection.
My advice for job seekers looking to leverage personal connections is not to be afraid to reach out. Most people are happy to help, and you’re probably not bugging them.
Be open about your search with people in your community, too. You never know who might know someone who’s hiring or know of an opening that could be a good fit for you.
AI has made this job search feel different
One thing I’ve noticed so far is how much AI seems to be part of the job search process. I think companies are using AI recruiting systems to weed out candidates, which means I get fewer chances to actually talk to a recruiter.
I’ve also noticed how much some employers seem to care about how I’ve used AI in my previous role. I have some examples to share, but at LinkedIn, there was a more serious push for employees to adopt AI tools only shortly before I left.
For people like me, AI was just starting to become part of the job, and now it can feel like we’re being asked to go back and get a whole new education in AI. Now that my kids are back in school, I’ve started spending more time experimenting with AI tools.
I’m trying to find an upside to being out of work
Being out of work has been a big adjustment for me. This is the first time I haven’t worked since I was around 16, and the first time I’ve been home with my kids since I was on maternity leave.
While I’ve been applying to jobs, nothing solid has come through yet. I think there are a lot of technical program managers competing for roles right now, whether they’ve been laid off or are looking to make a change.
My advice to someone going through a layoff is that it’s OK to feel however you feel about it. Even though it’s not a personal decision, it can still feel personal. But try not to sit in those feelings for too long. Keep yourself busy, whether that means taking a break or starting the job search right away. Figure out what makes sense for you.
It’s a crappy situation. I don’t want to be unemployed. I don’t want to be looking for a job and feeling that pressure. But I’m also trying to see the upside.
In early August, I took a weeklong break from searching to kind of reset and focus on the last week of summer with my kids. I’ve had more time with them. That part has been kind of fun.
Do you have a story to share? Reach out to the reporter via email at [email protected], or via Signal at jzinkula.29.
