How Do I Recover After Being Fired?

How do I regain my confidence after being fired? How do I talk about being fired? Can I recover from being fired or is my career over? These are the questions we will answer in today's episode of Dev Questions.

[somfierce]

I got let go on Tuesday and this is genuinely helping me process the barrage of frenzied half-thoughts and emotions I've been having. Introspection, accountability, and acceptance are so important

[randyriegel]

I worked a very well known Health Insurance company in Pittsburgh. The IT manger that hired me was cool as hell. As long as I got my stuff done he didn't care about breaks, long lunches, etc. He left the company and then another lady took his position (she was dumb as a brick). She started micromanaging so badly our team was almost afraid to take a bathroom break. She bitched at me about being late because I was in traffic for 2 hours. It was almost a relief... I actually told her when I got fired at 4pm... "Couldn't have you done this earlier so I could have beat traffic?" :) New company I'm at is mostly work from home. No one keeping track of me. I told my boss which is VP of Technology that I had to take a long lunch cause I had some errands to run and that I'd make it up. He responded with "I'm not babysitting you do what you want as long as projects are being handled." And laughed about me asking for permission.

[arnotek]

Great advice all around. For a vast number of people that get fired, it best thing that ever happened to them. (Although it does not feel like it at the time!) It provides for other opportunities and in many cases, leads to far better situations.

[Keem_Software_]

I know this is a year later but when I tell you I opened YouTube and this was the first video I saw. I was literally let go last Friday. I worked as a Software Developer for 4 years and 11 months. This being my first career and it has been tough trying to put the pieces back together after this layoff but just watching this video shines a light on my current situation. Im past the point of being angry and now Im working on getting myself out there to figure what’s next for me. I hope I can find job that’s perfect for me.

[fernandavega]

I got fired one month ago, I am a single Mother and I am feeling so insecure about my skills, I am so scare of make the same mistakes once again. My biggest problem is that I am not confident and I always think that I don't deserve to get a better job or succeed in my life. I really need help and change my mind, otherwise I will lose my only change to get a better life for me and my son!

[IMustHaveThatApe]

Fantastic insight. Forget software development, this advice could be extended to almost any area in life that involves conflict and disagreement.

[dakotatavizon]

hearing this really helps. I'm in a tough spot right now and I believe my employer is going to fire me here soon and I completely understand why, as I am 100% at fault. Like you, I was unhappy at my job, more so for the company I worked for. I honestly love what I do, but somewhere down the line, i just felt neutral and I lost my drive. I just wanted to quiet quit, lay low and hope for the best that I didn't get caught. I would commit to only 50% of the job, only putting in the physical labor and not commit to the logistics side. I've been working for the company for several years with no problem and this year I just couldn't take it anymore. My health took a hit, there was no stability, and just don't know anymore.

[aimene_.]

Recover, this word means a lot of what software developers suffer nowadays.

I consider that as one of the most stressful jobs in the world.

Be strong guys 💪 thank you Tim to be here. Your videos help us so much

[justinian.erdmier]

Thank you; this was literally perfect timing. I was just laid-off from my first dev role because of the lack of work. I worked for a small, local consultancy that built custom software for clients, so it wasn't like it was because of the recent trend of tech lay-offs, but still... I really got depressed there for a moment. I appreciate you taking the time to talk about this and sharing it.

[metalhead]

Yep. It's also a shame that employers don't want to tell you why they fired you because of legal exposure.

[Eliphasleviathan]

Just now getting the confidence and drive to get out there again after being let go last April. Needed this video then lol. Props for making it though, because it will help speed up that recovery process for some people.

[OscarAgreda]

Great video! It's truly impressive how you connect with your audience and provide amazing advice and empathy. I have watched a couple of your videos and they are by far the most complete resources I have found on the internet based on your teaching skills. I agree with you, it happened to me as well and it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. It was hard to see it from that perspective back then, but now I am so glad it happened. Looking back, the company I used to work for with their outdated software, due to bureaucracy they were too afraid to use new technologies, now when I think about it, compared to my Blazor Web Assembly, Domain Driven Design, and C# Clean Architecture, my present is 1000 times better than when I was laid off.

[ibuprofenPill]

I’m a senior software engineer and was let go today. I was not fired for cause, rather for cost saving measures. It was no fault of mine. Not taking it personally is damn near impossible. It’s the fact you can’t plan life anymore that hits hard, everything is put on hold until you reestablish another source of income. It effects my mental and spiritual health. At 54 years old it gets tougher every time it happens. This is the 4th time in 12 years.

[koderhythm]

I'm a senior dev and I got fired recently for making a stupid rooky mistake. I'm not sure who the following quote is from but it helped me a lot!
"Never be a prisoner of your was a lesson, not a life sentence". In other it, own it and move on

[keyser]

Good advice on recovering from being fired. On a related note, I don't view interviews as being interviewed. I'll answer their questions, but I'm really there to ask the questions to see if they will be a good fit for me. I don't need them so much as they need me. If they don't need or want what I bring? No sweat off my back and best of luck to them finding somebody better.

[sdbulbasaur]

I was let go on probation a few a days ago. i am still a little hopeless but now i felt that i lack a little bit of communication with the team lead too, as he said we were not able to find projects for you. So i should have asked more about projects but i thought i was working and asking less questions to get a new project put me in this stage. Thanks so communication is the key for my next. I just want to find soon

[STUPIDYOUTUBE_HIDINGMSGS]

I haven't experienced being fired yet, but here I am thinking of quitting eventhough I'm grateful to the company and my boss for giving me a shot at the role, it's has a decent pay, good mentors. But the bottomline is, like Tim, the work is not giving me the satisfaction and learning at the end of the day. We're basically working on a project that fixes bugs on a very complex, spaghetti like code without documentation and is around 20 decades old. It's like trying to write C++ software commercially with just the fundamentals of programming skills, that's how this system is built. I get the pay, no problem, I'm happy with the boss, but I always end up wasting time on unimportant things and not being focused because I'm not interested in what I'm doing. But there's also the anxiety of finding a replacement job and what I'll do next with recession looming and economy is on a slump.

[jbroberts]

Thank you so much for this video as someone who was just fired two days ago

[runtimmytimer]

Another awesome vid Tim. I despise corporate America. I hate it. I can't stand it. It makes me absolutely miserable. It takes a lot of effort for me to stay in corporate America so your advice is really appreciated. My non-compete expires at the end of the month then I'm hoping to be out in < 2 years. It's gonna be a 2 years.

[jordanloar]

Thanks for the video. Your situation describes mine pretty closely. Thank you for the hope, encouragement, and honest advice.