My Last Job in Tech
Getting fired was one of the best days of my career.
I was fired from my last “real job” in Tech in 2018.
It was one of the best days of my professional career.
Let me rewind .... After closing down my second startup (I've written previously about turning down bridge funding because I wasn't confident in our approach, How to Move On) I worked several consulting jobs -- for Twitter, for a robotics company and finally for an innovation marketplace based in the Bay Area.
All three places suffered from poor-to-toxic work cultures, but the third was the worst.
I had been hired to mediate between the CFO and CPO. They were old friends who under the stress of a major product release could barely talk to each other.
Getting no support from either of them, it was no surprise when three months in they decided I had failed to bridge their gap.
I was scared. I had recently taken on financial support for my then-girlfriend, now-wife, along with her three younger kids.
My inner money manager was sounding the alarms! I only had a few months runway before I had to get very creative.
But something deeper in me was shouting with joy. I remember blasting Elvis Costello's This Year's Model to 11.... that was the album I always played in my twenties when big things happened in my life.
You could say that getting fired fired me up. :)
For the next few months, I looked at the job boards every day: LinkedIn, Indeed, Monster, Dice and a few others. I applied for a few and talked to several people about new startup ideas. But I came to realize that I wasn't really interested in any of them. I had been in Tech for thirty years, and had even founded two startups.
I understood the fundamental paradigm of the tech industry was (and is) governed by values-free “innovation” and a race to monetization. This is not to say many good things have not been created by tech companies, just that the fundamental drivers are not intrinsically values-based.
I no longer took fulfillment being part of an organization that was at its heart a “problem-solving machine” optimized for what was implementable and monetizable with little conscious thought of what would be beneficial in the big picture.
I realized that the poor-to-toxic work cultures I had experienced were connected to this mis-alignment between the organization’s priorities and my own.
In some ways I don’t blame poor Tech culture. They don’t necessarily claim to be values-driven. (Well, Google did, back when it’s motto was “Don’t Be Evil,” basically the first Zen pure precept. Of course they changed that nine years ago to “Do the Right Thing” which is a much more fungible concept, requiring the ability to reflect on consequences against the backdrop of a primary value system, which is …. who knows? The Buddhist Eightfold Path is expressly about “right” livelihood, speech, action, etc. and it’s based on specific values and vows.)
So …. It was a chance for me to reflect on what I really wanted to do with my life: the precious and limited weeks I was devoting to my work-in-the-world.
I discovered that what I most wanted to do was to bring my Zen practice to the professional world, in ways that were deep and accessible.
I had been envisioning doing so for years, but it was always in the future. Always “when I'm older.” When I had socked away more money, when I had "figured out what “I wanted to do” or “developed my work more.”
I came to see that all of those ideas were just helpful evasions which kept me on the safer, more conventional path.
I was so fortunate to be fired from my well-paying placeholder job, and forced to jumpstart a professional path that was aligned with my inspirations and creativity.
Getting laid off or fired can be the best thing that ever happened to you.
𝗜𝗻 𝗳𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗹𝘆 𝗶𝗻 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗽𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗶𝘁 𝘀𝗼.
You can turn the natural feelings of fear, anxiety, and insecurity that come with a layoff into excitement and inspiration about the future. And not be a slave to the job boards.
If you want help with this, I invite you to sign up for my Summer Mini-Course starting in two weeks.
As part of an “economy of generosity,” I am offering this at an Open Donation, whatever you can swing.
Please share this with those you know who have been laid off recently, and if you have..... congratulations!
Paul