3 Lessons I Learnt From Losing My Job at 25
By: Lim Janice
Tags: Unemployment, Life, Life Lessons, Career, Choices

I learnt these lessons so you don’t have to.

Photo by Justin Kauffman on Unsplash

At 25, I left a well-paying job in the oil & gas industry, to pursue Marketing in a startup.

The oil & gas industry was hit especially hard during the COVID-19 pandemic, and my company was laying off 30% of the workforce. I thought I’d stay ahead of the game.

I found a Marketing role in an ecommerce startup. As the world was in a state of lockdown and everyone was shopping online, I thought this was a perfect opportunity for me to learn about direct-to-consumer marketing from a promising industry.

4 months in, the company I was working for merged with a competitor that had an existing Marketing Team, and I was laid off.

Mind you, we are still living in the world of COVID-19 induced, unprecedented levels of unemployment. So unfortunately for me, this article is coming to you from an unemployed 26 year-old.

Here’s what I learnt in the months after getting laid off:

1. Your work is not your entire identity

I struggled with this a lot. Simply because I felt like I lost everything I ever knew. When my friends and family would ask me about work, I had to tell them I wasn’t working anymore. The conversation became uncomfortable, and everyone would wonder — then what is she even doing everyday?

Well, though I did struggle with that identity crisis for the first few months, I see things more clearly now. I’ve been dedicating a lot more time into my hobbies such as rock-climbing, reading, and making crafts. I love that I have control over the the way I spend my time.

2. Don’t get caught up chasing something you don’t want

I spend the first few weeks of unemployment desperately scouring job posting sites, and screening through dozens of open positions. I wasn’t interested in any of those jobs. Instead, I found myself dreading having to write cover letters for those jobs, hoping to fake my way into my next role, just like I did with my first.

The truth is, I fell into the first full-time job I had by chance. At that point, I had just graduated, and a friend of mine said he knew someone was hiring. I had already been through more than 10 interviews by then, and I was ready for anything at that point. I just wanted to get out of the never-ending job search.

As luck would have it, I got the role and started working in a few weeks. I stayed in that company ever since, before dramatically sliding back into unemployment and leading me to where I am now.

But, in my search for my next big break, I had a sudden moment of clarity. If I’m going to be looking for a job where I would probably spent the next 5–10 years of my life, shouldn’t I find something I actually want to do? All the open tabs of potential jobs were just the closest options I could fit into my resume. I wasn’t really passionate or interested in any of them. So, I’ve decided to take a break from it all, and close the tabs that have been open for weeks.

Instead, I’m dedicating the next few months of my life to maximizing the experiences I want to have. If that eventually sparks an interest for the potential organizations I want to work for, then I’ll go for it. In the meantime, I have to take the chance to experience as much as I can, while I have the time to.

3. You have time

And finally, if you’re in the same position as me, I want to remind you that you have time. I don’t know how long I’ll be alive for, although a quarter-life crisis seems to imply that I’ll live to 100 years old. But, I know that it is more important to do something I enjoy, rather than chase something I feel like I have to, just because my friends are doing it.

I think about those stories we’ve all heard — about how people make inspiring changes to their lives like going back to school at 40 to take up a new degree, or packing up their lives and moving abroad to start afresh. I think those stories are inspiring and encouraging, but they also remind me of the choices I have.

Given my current situation, the doors of opportunity have opened wide for me. I could choose to stay on the trajectory outlined in my resume, or I could make the change to pursue anything I could possibly want. Instead of having that enlightenment at 40 years old, I’m having it 15 years in advance. What’s stopping me from studying another degree now, if I decide that that’s something I want to do?

What’s stopping me, and mostly you too, is fear.

The fear of being judged. Being questioned by your peers about your life choices. Being surrounded by people who are skeptical of your decision. Your own insecurities saying, “are you sure you studied for four years to get a degree, only to change your mind and get another one?”.

The next four years are going to pass, whether you take that degree or not. The choice is yours. You have time.