Career Development Reflections on Twitter Layoffs and My Layoff
Career Key’s vision is “career well-being for all,” so I can’t help but watch and cringe at what’s been going on at Twitter recently. All the tech bro talk about “go hard core or go home,” getting rid of contractors and employees at 3 a.m., etc. It’s unnecessarily chaotic and stressful. If only such intellectual brilliance was channeled toward balancing business needs with treating people like human beings.
It’s a reminder of how the livelihoods of many are at the whim of a few (or in this case one man). This is one big reason we encourage people to take more control over their lives, through ongoing, intentional career development. Greater resilience and adaption to change is possible when we work to build more self-knowledge, skills, and a good support system.
I know how important those resources are. Early in my career, I was laid off and on unemployment. I also had the burden of student loans. I felt unmoored and like I failed somehow. Ultimately what helped me get back on my feet was moral support from friends (helped with my self-talk), networking, scrounging for independent contractor work to start my own business, and getting a personal loan to buy a printer. I was also fortunate to have a parental safety net; I would be embarrassed to ask for money, but I knew they would help me.
Career Key gives people self-guided tools to help navigate career transitions like these. Everything we do, from our free career advice Resources to the career assessments and career decision tools we sell, is intended to help people learn lifelong skills and make progress in their career development. This is what achieving the vision “career well-being for all” looks like to us.
With career development skills and a support system, you can better prepare yourself to respond to “go hard core or go home” ultimatums. Whether someone stays or goes at Twitter, I hope they can get to a point where “I like what I do each day” (career well-being) is their new normal.
