Getting fired can be the best confidence boost ever.

Exactly one year ago today I was fired along with the rest of my team, from a start-up here in Albuquerque. At the time I was terrified. I had only been writing software for a solid year and a half full-time. Before that I was splitting my time between designing, building and running the product design and front end teams, and occasionally writing software. The doubts crept in. Did I have enough experience to pursue software engineering full-time? Would I get another job making what I needed to make in order to survive and fulfill my responsibilities? We were all fired in October and most companies don't ramp up hiring until the spring. On top of that, New Mexico already has a very small tech community so I knew I was fighting a tough battle, in a hard ecosystem, at the worst time.

For the next three days, I was in a pretty dark place. Frankly, I was embarrassed. I had never been fired and despite some people insisting that we were all “laid off” and that was somehow not as bad, I can imagine it still feels the same regardless of semantics. Albuquerque is a small town and news of our “lay off” spread fast. I had to address it publicly on LinkedIn as I started getting questions about it the day of. At the time it was still so fresh and painful but I maintained my composure and tried to stay positve about it publicly as much as possible. Almost immediately I started getting messages from people in my network sending words of encouragement and job leads.

I had scheduled my first interview by the second day and by the middle of the next week, I had 5 interviews set up. I took every interview and every code test and challenge I was presented with. Some of these I knew were not the best fit for me but I entertained them none-the-less. They were great practice and excellent networking opportunities. I felt sharper and better after each one. This process allowed me to hone in even more on what I wanted from my next opportunity and that started to build my confidence. It was an incremental positive effect regardless of whether I secured offers from these opportunities or not.

I was unemployed for 3 weeks and during that time I had over 20 interviews at companies both in New Mexico and out. I had 5 offers in total and I was able to take the best offer for me and my future. I knew it was the right choice because I had just spent three weeks honing in on it. I also knew myself and my capabilities more than I had ever in my professional career.

All of this came from 4 things.

1. I was vulnerable and honest about my experience. Despite being embarrassed, I posted about it and talked about it openly in person and on social media. You would be surprised by how many people want to help you and see you succeed. That was a huge confidence boost and honestly, very helpful.
2. I fought to stay positive, even when I didn't believe it. Let's face it, getting fired sucks. Even if you hate your job, getting fired still sucks. I took it hour by hour in some cases. If I was down one hour I fought to be positive the next. I also leaned on my now-former teammates who were going through the same thing. My support system of my parents, wife, and friends was invaluable in helping me stay positive.
3. I took EVERY opportunity that came my way. Even if I knew I wouldn't get an offer. I attacked every interview as if I wanted that job. To do that I explored what I needed to know about a place before I accepted an offer and I asked more questions than they did in some cases. I took every coding challenge I was presented with and kept my responses to study afterward. Discussing them with my circle of developer friends allowed me to learn from every challenge whether I aced them initially or not.
4. I knew EXACTLY what I wanted in my next opportunity and I viewed my firing as an opportunity to get those things. When offers came in, I made a spreadsheet of all the pros and cons of every place (I am not typically a spreadsheet type of person by the way). The columns represented things that I now knew I wanted in a new job. I ranked every place on these attributes on a scale from 1-10. The one with the highest cumulative score just so happened to be the offer I accepted.

Getting fired ended up being the biggest confidence boost I have ever experienced in my career. It forced me to see my worth in my field and community. It showed me what I was capable of in both technical and personal interviews. It made me realize that I could do this thing, that I was good at it and that people recognized those things in me. I am eternally grateful for the entire experience. If you messaged me, interviewed me, offered me, hired me or hell, fired me. Thank you!