Rebounding from Redundancy

How I accelerated my job search after being laid off

I’m thrilled to announce that I’m starting a new role on Monday!

I got job offers just five weeks after being made redundant

I’ve kept this offer under wraps while finalising the details and taking a well-deserved break. Now, I want to share how I quickly turned a gut-wrenching redundancy into an incredible opportunity as VP of Engineering at BeZero Carbon, a Series B climate tech startup that produces ratings on the quality of global carbon projects. I was fortunate to have several options, but this role aligned best with my needs, values, and moral compass. I am incredibly excited to roll up my sleeves and get started.

At the start of May, topi, the Series A startup I worked for, made my role as a remote Head of Engineering redundant. I was gutted. After giving myself a week to process the layoff, I decided to move forward without regrets. I chose to turn this setback into a significant positive opportunity.

I almost always quit without a new job lined up. I’ve only tried securing a new role before resigning once, and it didn’t end well. Work is like a relationship—I need time to decompress and move on before starting something new. This way, I avoid jumping into a rebound job with baggage from my last one.

While this approach has generally worked for me, it has some major flaws and certainly wouldn’t work for everyone. It usually takes 10-12 weeks to find a job that matches my values, experience, and expectations. During that time, the stress of worrying about money and the duration of my job search can be overwhelming.

This time, I wanted to see if I could handle all the stress upfront by securing a job first, and then taking a break. After working long startup hours before the redundancy, my brain was still in “go mode,” and I wanted to use that momentum.

The results were amazing—I accepted an offer in just five weeks. So then I had time to organise, recuperate, and prepare for the new role.

I recognise my privilege in having the experience, network, and lifestyle to support this job search approach. I have invested considerable effort in building my network and personal brand through engaging with the wider tech community, which has significantly contributed to my success. Despite this advantage, I believe others can benefit from the steps I took and the lessons I learned.

I approached job hunting strategically, and this article covers what I did and learned to achieve such speed.

1. Active and Loud LinkedIn Use

Being made redundant positively impacted me because I could shout loudly about seeking a new role. I could openly talk about why I was looking for a new role and what I wanted from my next role.

Excerpts from my redundancy LinkedIn post

Being able to be so loud about my circumstances, combined with having a great network from public speaking, meant that my post had a broad reach. I have always built out my brand and my network regardless of whether I was looking for work, and here, the power of that effort definitely came into force, and I had some incredible support from across the community.

My network capital originated from various sources, but the most significant contributor was public speaking. It wasn’t just the act of public speaking that mattered, but the incredible people I met through it. While public speaking enhanced my credibility, essential relationship-building could have been achieved by attending diverse events and engaging meaningfully with both speakers and attendees. Another significant part of my network comes from maintaining relationships with former colleagues after leaving a company. This is a happy side effect of wanting to continue spending time with awesome people.

In the following few days, I received a large number of leads—83 to be precise—and it was tough to keep up with all of them. However, I certainly wasn’t going to complain about the attention I was getting.

I was quite specific about what I needed from my next role, which meant there was not a huge degree of noise in those messages - Ok, a few irrelevant messages, but no more than normal.

Active and loud engagement with LinkedIn really boosted my exposure and got my profile in front of the right people at the right time.

2. Understand what mattered to me

It’s easy to fall into the trap of seeking roles that fix issues from my last job, but that often leads to a rebound role. Instead, I focused on what I enjoyed most and where I could be most effective. 

Combining my values, morals, and passion for building out teams and not only technical architecture, I outlined my needs for a role:

• Scope mattered to me
  I needed the autonomy to influence organisational setup, processes, people, and tech. Being close to the business was crucial for delivering the right solutions. I wanted to own outcomes, not just outputs.

• Moral alignment was key
  I wanted to make a positive impact on the world. I am motivated by problem spaces that drive positive impact, not by making the rich richer or through products that rely on unhealthy engagement or trickery.

• Value alignment was essential
  An amazing coaching course, “Leaders that Coach” by Coach/Lead, helped me realise how much my values influence my leadership style. My top values are autonomy, diversity, and collaboration. Any company I interviewed with and any prospective manager I spoke to needed to see why these values matter so much to me. If they didn’t understand how these values contribute to delivering a first-class product, pushing for change would have been a slog.
  You can also find a similar values exercise in the workbook of the book “Scaling People” by Claire Hughes Johnson.

• Remote or a trusted hybrid model was important
  Living outside London, I needed time to balance activities like going to the gym and tending to my beloved allotment a couple of times a week before work. Remote roles are becoming rarer, but I also missed in-person collaboration, so a hybrid role would work too. However, I was disappointed by companies advertising a hybrid model with four days in the office. I wanted a company that recognised my level and trusted me to be in the office when it made sense, rather than on specified days. I believe all employees should be offered this trust, not just senior hires though.

These elements let me ask questions to ensure we were aligned during the interview process.

3. Interview in parallel, not sequentially

Historically, it takes me a lot to commit to an interview. I need to validate whether the role fits my criteria before even starting the process. By the time I start, I’m already heavily invested in the company and focused solely on getting that role. In relationship terms, I was quick to become monogamous rather than dating lots.

This time, I decided to interview at several places simultaneously. This approach was partly for speed and resiliency, but I also discovered something unexpected—I loved talking to so many companies. I was growing my network and learning so much. This newfound love for interviewing really motivated me to keep talking to more companies.

However, I needed to put in place some rigour to enable me to decide between the roles:

• I took a lot of notes about everything, including data about the roles and how I felt talking to someone or learning something. Writing as much as possible helped me refer back later and avoid mixing up similar roles.

• I needed a framework to analyse the potential impact I could have in the role. I recently listened to an amazing podcast, Lenny’s Product Podcast, featuring Bangaly Kaba. He has a formula for assessing the ability to impact:
  

  potential impact = environment * skills.

  
  The environment includes the manager, resources, scope, team and their skills, compensation, and culture.

  
  I used a version of this framework to assess my potential impact in each role.

Example of how I would impact “score” each of the roles I was applying for

• Talking with friends and family about different roles was also beneficial. They often noticed when I was more enthusiastic about a particular role before I even realised it myself.

• Make sure you complete all the interviews because I found that I got more excited about one or another at different stages as learnt different things 

4. Learn about my blindspots

I had spent quite a lot of time reflecting on what I would have changed during my last few roles and how I could have amplified my impact. I had spent a lot of time cataloging what things I wanted to work on and what strengths I should amplify to help me succeed. However, in isolation, I couldn't see my blind spots.

So, I made time to hang out with some ex-colleagues. From my most recent job and previous roles I have had as well. I even fulfilled a promise to visit a fantastic lady I worked with in Sofia who had so many valuable insights for me. This was incredibly useful for me to understand some of my blindspots, but additionally, it was a lot of fun. My position had now changed both in context and seniority, which enabled a much more open flow of conversation because there was no positional pressure on the conversation. 

Understanding my mistakes and blind spots allowed me to show vulnerability in interviews. I could explain situations where I thought I was right but wasn’t and how I would approach them differently in the future. Additionally, this self-awareness would be a valuable learning once I landed a role. 

5. Make Generative AI part of my team

AI has been incredibly helpful as my assistant during my job search. I used it to reword cover letters and refine my LinkedIn profile. It also helped me brainstorm impactful wording. However, it was only effective when I provided all the necessary information; otherwise, the results were generic and obviously generated. I would braindump into ChatGPT and ask for various versions of the text and iterate over and over again. At work, I have colleagues who can review my work, but I wanted to find a way to emulate that review process before I asked busy people for their time. It is definitely the approach I will take going forward, even when I have colleagues again, as people's time is so incredibly precious.

I also used AI to generate a CV since I hadn’t had one for over a decade, but most applications still required it. In my previous job searches, I was quite passive, and most recruiters were satisfied with my LinkedIn profile. However, I realised a CV was essential for actively applying for jobs. I tried several tools but can only recommend KickResume. It helped with the layout, though I still had to update many details manually. While useful, it still has a long way to go to become fully generative.

6. Gear my brain towards interviews being a fun learning opportunity

I’ve had some great interviews and learned new ways to extract maximum signal appropriate for the role. This time, I approached interviews thinking about what I could gain from them, rather than focusing on what the interviewers wanted to hear. This mindset relaxed me and helped me bond with my interviewers quicker. It created a virtuous circle, allowing me to enjoy the conversation flow even more.

7. Don't have only one focus

Focusing solely on job searching was really stressful for me, as my mind would dwell too much on the redundancy. To counter this, I incorporated creative projects into my days. Whether making furniture or working on my veg patch at the allotment, I found this balance brilliant for relaxing my brain. It also gave me time to think over the roles I was discussing and to formulate my communications. Plus, my persistent back pain vanished with the increased movement instead of being desk-bound.

I was fortunate that my interview period was relatively short. However, interview burnout is real and can cause significant stress, as it tends to be self-perpetuating. So for me balancing with other ways to feel productive really enables me to fend off the burnout.

8. Prepare for every call, big or small

I asked for interview formats and details of who would be interviewing me ahead of time and prepped for every call. For technical system design interviews, I spent a lot of time figuring out the best way to present the technical story. I used C4 architectural diagrams in Miro, which all my interviewers were familiar with, providing a cognitive shortcut during my presentations.

Example System Design Context C4 diagram, I would also do the container level diagram

I did extensive prep beyond this. I read and researched the people, product, and industry, allowing me to have a set of pre-written questions for everyone I spoke to. Just as I need high-signal questions when recruiting for a role, I need those same high-signal questions for interviewing. I find these questions difficult to think of on the spot, especially after an hour or so of intense questioning so being able to reference pre-written questions was invaluable for me to learn about the company and the role.

In summary

My approach to job searching this time was transformative, and while it was my own journey, I hope it proves insightful for others. It’s important to note that my journey has been ongoing for many years, during which I have built up my skills, experience, personal branding, and a network of trusted relationships. This newsletter focuses on the additional strategies I applied specifically for this job search. It’s easier to condense five weeks into an article than trying to unpick a couple of decades worth of effort.

By leveraging LinkedIn, understanding and prioritising my values, interviewing at multiple companies simultaneously, seeking feedback to uncover blindspots, using AI to assist with applications, viewing interviews as learning opportunities, balancing the process with creative personal projects, and preparing thoroughly for every interview, I turned a challenging redundancy into a fantastic opportunity.

Next newsletter …

Next time, I thought I would continue on a theme and talk about some of the questions, approaches and types of interviews I had when looking for this leadership role