By Jasmine Browley ·Updated April 14, 2023
When Jasmine Walker, 30, found out she was about to be laid off from her job, she didn’t feel the deep shame she experienced when the same thing happened a few years ago at another company.
“It’s not my fault so I have nothing to feel bad about, in theory,” she told ESSENCE. “But it never feels good to know you’re about to lose your job.”
For the last two-and-a-half years she’s worked as an infection control lead with the contract tracing unit at the University of Chicago, one of the main entities in the city tasked with following the containment of COVID-19. Since 2020, she’d been in a long-term contracted role, but had hopes it would lead to a full-time offer over time. That hope was thwarted when the team began to downsize in response to the U.S. government’s handling of COVID-19 tracing following the vaccine rollout, which has been a success by their measurement. In fact, earlier this month President Biden signed a Republican-authored bill terminating the national emergency over the COVID-19 pandemic.
About a week before the April 10 announcement, Walker’s department let go of 90% of its staff.
Although incredibly disappointed, she hatched a plan. Instead of going the traditional route of just immediately >her Instagram account.
“I didn’t feel the need to keep this close to the vest because it was something completely outside of my control and I know so many people would want to support me—they can relate to what I’m going through.”
She’s right.
As previously reported by ESSENCE, businesses are hemorrhaging layoffs due to a pandemic-induced recession and a need to quickly cut costs. So far, companies like McDonald’s, Meta, Twitter and Amazon among many others have let thousands of employees go. Much like them, Walker just wanted to ensure landed on her feet in a job market rife with uncertainty.
“I’m looking for opportunities but more than that, I’m giving my community the chance to support me in ways that make sense, because I need them, you know? Closed mouths don’t get fed.”
Since she received the news of her pending layoff (tentatively scheduled for June 30), Walker has continued to run her side consulting business and also launched a full social media campaign that includes stylized posts of her resume, tips on how people can help those affected by layoffs, and specific calls to action on how they can assist her.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jasmine Walker (@jas.piration)
And so far, it’s working like gangbusters.
“Since I opened up about my job search on social media I’ve gotten a few people to review my resume, which is really great because resume editing services range $200 up to $5,000. And so I’m trying to cut expenses and don’t want to pay to have my resume reviewed. So I’ve had people from different industries reach out to me and offer to to do it for free, and they are usually in charge of hiring, so they can offer an incredibly valuable perspective. Additionally, I also posted about which companies I was most interested in, and it turns out someone in my personal network I haven’t spoken with in a while is in a leadership position at one of those organizations and was able to give me an internal referral. It didn’t show up on LinkedIn that this person worked at the organization. But they told me like, oh, I just started, but I’m willing to help you. I’ve also been offered a 6-month free trial of LinkedIn premium with is usually around $40/month and that’s an incredible tool to have in my arsenal because that’s a hub for hiring teams.”
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jasmine Walker (@jas.piration)
As Walker pointed out, losing a job, regardless of the circumstances, usually evokes strong emotions and can often lead to isolation. She’s imploring people to lean on their community instead.
“People want to help, we just have to help them help us. We’ve got this.”
The post She Was Laid Off. Now She’s Turned Her Job Search Into A Social Media Campaign… And It’s Working appeared first on Essence.
0 Commentaires