From Layoff to Liftoff: My Journey of Career Reinvention and Resilience in 2025

How setbacks, self-discovery, and unexpected opportunities shaped my path to a new beginning

Photo by Valeria Kapatskaya on Unsplash

Friends, it’s hard to believe that 2025 is coming to an end. I don’t know about you, but it’s been a helluva year filled with many ups and downs. Despite the wild ride, I’m humbled but honored to be writing this little newsletter.

As I reflect on all the ups and downs, it’s impossible not to think back to one of the hardest moments in my life up till now: my unceremonious layoff in November 2024. I took three months to lick my wounds and develop a strategy.

I decided that I was going to take my time and look for a new mission, find a new North Star, something that would guide me to a higher purpose and make me proud of the work I do again.

I had so many ideas and voices running through my head that I was getting overwhelmed. In my search for clarity and after seeking advice from friends, a dear reader and former classmate suggested I read the book “Designing Your Life.”

I checked my bank balance and realized I had some money left in my dwindling budget and ordered it. I cracked it open the night I got it from Amazon, and suddenly everything fell into place. Reading this book prompted a lot of self-reflection. It was the first sign, the first turning point, on a new road to an unknown destination.

Up until this point, I felt like I was sailing ahead without any real direction - I was blinded. Then, with a short break in the clouds, I was able to find a bearing and chart a path to a safe harbor.

I knew where to go, but I knew the journey would be tough.

Yet, being tossed around in a dark ocean of my emotions, I realized that I had been given a gift, a chance to reinvent myself - again - but this time with a different purpose.

I was going to do things differently.

With a renewed sense of purpose, I felt ready to step back into the professional world. By the end of January, opportunities began to arise. Having worked in Series A to F startups, I reached out to former colleagues and landed a few conversations, which led to more interviews. On average, I did six rounds of interviews and coding assignments, but I often heard, “Sorry, we’re going with another candidate.”

Gut punch.

During this period, I explored many paths to keep myself afloat. While interviewing, I was also landing small consulting gigs and trading options. Initially, I tried building AI products; however, I soon realized AI Agents were disrupting every idea. As a result, I decided to focus on what was working: Engineering and Options Trading.

Up to this point, I was doing some AI consulting, but I was making money from “bread and butter” site engineering. While this work was very intermittent, it was a lifeline.

The meat of my income was trading options, a highly speculative way make an “easy buck.” Let me tell you, it’s not an easy buck. It’s hard and not for the faint of heart, but it worked out for me because the bull market was raging and the shenanigans of the current administration amped up the volatility.

In the end, I survived. I was able to “get by” and put meat on the table for my family.

Then, in June, the big payday came: I landed a full-time position as an AI Advisor at a large, well-respected company.

Now, after 6 months of learning the ropes there, I can say that this is the best organization I’ve ever worked for. Not because of the opportunities it affords, but because of the people. Everyone is kind, driven, intelligent, and so team-focused that it feels like a medley of the best bands ever, playing together at Live Aid.

Arriving at this new job sparked a flood of memories and self-reflection. It felt like I had finally arrived at port after a long journey into the unknown and into myself. I felt a wave of emotion wash over me. I saw my life flash before me.

There I was, on my first day of elementary school, a 6-year-old me holding my lunchbox and looking into a room of children I’d never seen before.

I saw myself in my friend’s dorm room, studying for one of my Engineering classes. Tired, exhausted, but feeling like I had a fellow brother-in-arms ready to tackle anything.

I saw myself driving my dying father to get French fries at his favorite diner for the last time, but not knowing it was the last thing we ever did together.

I remembered holding my mother’s hand for the first time as a child, looking up to her towering over me.

I felt the nervousness and the excitement of opening a letter from the State of New Mexico congratulating me on passing the PE.

Then I was in the delivery room, cutting my daughter’s umbilical cord. Two years later, my son’s umbilical cord.

My first kiss. My first love. My first heartbreak. My first kiss with my loving partner.

The intensity of these emotions made me collapse on a metaphorical dock in my mind, exhausted but with the feeling “I made it through. I’m here. I did it.” In that moment, I realized just how much this journey had changed my perspective—not just on my career, but on what truly matters and how I want to move forward.

’I know what I have to do now. I got to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring?’ - Chuck Noland (Cast Away)

Remember, my friends, there will be dark times in our lives. As we navigate through those times, we must remember to keep breathing, to keep moving forward. Tomorrow is another day, and anything is possible.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year. See you on the flipside.

Thomas