Hey folks,

As many of you saw, unfortunately I was laid off from Orbit Model. And don't worry this email isn't in your inbox to wax poetics about how sad I am or the myriad of feelings that come with a job change, but more so to chat about the turning of leaves that happens with change.

Change can be scary, but it is an opportunity. (And I'm choosing to navigate this change in public).  

Work consumes 40+ hours of your week. And when that's been upended, you now have not only free time, but also added burden of processing, headaches and frustration that can come along. When you're looking for your next adventure, often this happens after hours in the shadows or in private.

One weird blessing I've had in this experience is the ability to navigate this change in public.  About an hour after the layoff, I was able to fire off a tweet and begin my search in public.  I'm navigating frustrations, headaches, and a myriad of feelings in public. Now, this isn't to say that we need to be doing this in public, or that doing this journey in public is the "right" or "wrong" way of doing this, but rather that there are things that go unsaid through this process.

No one talks about the emotional labor, the impostor syndrome, how outdated and terrible the government unemployment websites are, the rush to get all your medical things booked before health insurance expires, or WTF is cobra health insurance the best or is it better to go on my partner's health insurance? And that's a problem.

Let's be real, my ability to do this in public and my ability to be relatively OK as I navigate this journey is a tremendous privilege. While I am the primary provider for my family financially and health-insurance wise, I am not alone. We have savings and received severance, and I do freelance to supplement my income in the meantime. But that doesn't mean it still isn't difficult.

As a collective society, let's talk about these giant elephants in the room.

🏄 Erin‍♀️

Things on my mind this week

For Hire Pages

Inspired by my now former colleague, Maurice Cherry — I've been loving the concept of "for hire" pages. Check out his here, check out my take on it — then read this blog post to see how you can create your own.

PS this has been SUPER helpful in my job search even just defining what I want to do next!

People

I was not alone in the layoffs this week, here are just some of the folks who have suffered job loss. If you would like an introduction to any of them, please reply to this email or reach out — I'm happy to introduce and vouch for any of them. If you are looking for your next role, feel free to email me and I'll add you to this list.

Events

I've got a ton of events coming up and would love to see your faces (voices in some cases?) there! As always — stay in touch with what I'm up to by visiting erin.events

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