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Steven Lowe’s financial goals always seemed just out of reach.Then, in early 2024, he landed a six-figure art director role at StubHub — the highest-paying job of his career.”It was the first time I was able to comfortably make my student loan payments,” said Lowe, who’s 41 and lives in…
Dave Lewis had what it took to land jobs at some of the most sought-after Big Tech companies. But after getting laid off twice in three years, he found himself grappling with where he fit into the future of tech.Lewis spent a decade at Google, was laid off by Amazon,…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Fatema Ali, a job seeker in her 30s who lives in Texas. She previously worked for IBM as a project manager before being laid off in 2024. The following has been edited for length and clarity.In early 2024, I began to…
I was one of the first Twitter “influencers” back before it even had an app. When Facebook launched pages, I was the first gay journalist to have one after they helped me set one up, complete with the blue “verified” checkmark that actually meant something before they started selling them.I…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Brittney Ball, a 36-year-old former Meta employee based in Washington DC. It’s been edited for length and clarity.I didn’t anticipate being unemployed for over a year after my layoff at Meta. I assumed that, coming from Meta with my skillset, there’s…
I spent over 10 years at Meta, joining in 2012 when the company was still called Facebook and the newly acquired Instagram team occupied just two rows of stand-up desks in a half-filled Menlo Park campus.As a global director, I helped lead a creative group launching campaigns with Marvel, Disney,…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shanon Morris, a 34-year-old entrepreneur in Ithaca, New York. It’s been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… I’m a Navy veteran, Marine Corps spouse, and the CEO of Trimester Abroad, where I develop solutions that elevate the travel and…
When Tejal Rives was laid off from Amazon in October 2025, she and her husband had a plan. Loading audio narration… They had bought a career-coaching and résumé-writing business, Do My Resume LLC, in 2024. Rives used some smart time management hacks to turn it into a side hustle alongside…
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with small-business-owner Kristina Martinelli, a 56-year-old AI consultant who formerly worked a corporate job. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Loading audio narration… Getting displaced at 55 years old caught me completely off guard.I had just spent two years…
On an otherwise innocuous morning in January 2025, I lost my job. Loading audio narration… When the CEO asked me into his office, I already knew what was coming. Management had held an emergency meeting earlier that morning, warning us that mass layoffs were coming.Two of my colleagues had already…
