Life after layoff: 'It's amazing what starts to open up'
October's Navigator of the Month discusses getting unstuck and the power of connections
There’s a strange disconnect between the public performance of career success that we see on LinkedIn and the inner reality of struggle, uncertainty and missteps that everyone faces at one time or another in their professional lives. Honestly, it feels to me a bit like we’re all in the career closet (speaking as a gay woman who’s been out since 2007). We are afraid to show who we really are as professionals in case we’re not accepted. By embracing our authentic professional identities, by sharing those struggles and celebrating the lessons they’ve contained, we can let go of outdated standards for success and better understand who we are and where that can lead us.
This is why I’m so excited to kick off our monthly series of Navigator Q&A conversations today. These discussions are designed to bring the hidden Kitchen Floor Moments of career transitions and uncertainty to light. Supporting subscribers, don’t miss your chance to join our next Q&A webinar in November to ask your questions of our guest on her “terrifying” pivot moment from reporting to audience and product work (see your invite in the post below). And if you or someone you know has navigated a challenging career moment, please nominate them for a future interview!
Today, I’m thrilled to invite you to hear from Dustin Block about he has reassessed what he considers professional progress and what he found most helpful in getting unstuck and moving forward from being laid off. Below is a condensed version of our conversation; anything not in quotes is summarized.
Tell me about a major shift in your career. What did you find most helpful to navigate this transition? What lessons did you learn?
There were two major shifts — one when I quit newspapers, and the other more recently when my position was eliminated at a TV news company. There was not a lot of planning in either case; although I loved the journalism I was doing as a city editor at the newspaper, I was physically unhealthy and so I quit. In the second case, that job quit on me.
What surprised me in both transitions was the burst of creativity that came with the end of these jobs, which was profoundly impactful. The first thing I did after leaving the paper was go home and code a website for the first time in my life. After I was laid off, there was an outpouring of support from so many people I’ve met over a long period of time, and I reconnected with people that I had completely lost touch with.
A big lesson for me was:
“Don’t isolate. … (And) I think if you are stuck, maybe just listen,” and pay attention to what you’re being drawn to do.
What insights or ideas did mapping your career as a river spark for you?
First of all, I loved it. What I saw at first was that my career was generally progressing upwards, with some ebbs and flows.
“Then I realized that one of the moves that I had going up wasn't an up. It was up in money, that was the only thing, and it was down in everything else. It wasn't leading a team anymore, it wasn't managing, title-wise it wasn’t anything. … There was very little to it that felt like it was progress.”
I had talked myself into taking this corporate role, I thought I made a decision that would further my career, but I actually had it wrong. That has significant implications for where I go next. I have a sense of where I don’t want to go again, tempting as it may be, if you can set the money aside.
In moving from reporting to audience development and product work, how did you make the case that your skills would transfer to a new role?
Reporting and product discovery work are identical. Your job is to go out and interview people about their problems and bring that back to developers and help them build new things. That’s what I’m doing now, and it’s the closest work to reporting that I’ve done in a long time.
When it comes to product work, a lot of product teams have a very technical skill set and they are missing the storytelling piece.
“If you're a good storyteller who puts audience at the center of your thinking, you are going to be incredibly valuable to these teams. There's an art to the sell on that, but I think if your enthusiasm is at the core, that seems to help.”
When it came to switching roles, I had complete faith in journalism, but I needed to look outside what it meant to be a reporter to the needs of my organization and the broader industry. The big jump for me came when I started connecting to industry groups and really smart people who I completely trusted because I bought into their vision. The people you admire are way more accessible than you think they are.
“Find people that inspire you. It doesn't have to be in the field, but they will lead you” to ask questions about how they got where they are.
What advice would you give someone grappling with how to plan for the next step of their career river when they cannot envision where that river is going?
“What I would do again, and what I may have to do again, is absolutely reach out to your community.”
Tell people in your life what you want to do, “and it's amazing what starts to open up, you definitely get unstuck.” Although the advice can be wildly conflicting — I had some people tell me to take three months off and others saying to start a new job immediately — connecting with people means you don’t feel so alone.
“Just start somewhere, and then just start a build from there.”
For the presently unemployed, how does it fit into the "river" methodology if you're feeling less empowered? What are some ways you can try to move forward?
“I don't know if you're ever not in the river, it's just the river is really slow sometimes.”
Even now, I feel this sense of fear that I’m not going anywhere. A random thing I did was start refereeing kids’ soccer. It’s not always the most pleasant thing, but I saw a need and I had some time. I also reached out to some small business owners with suggestions to improve their newsletters or websites. Some took me up on it, and I started racking up an hour or two a week of little jobs.
“It started to feel like something was happening. Now I'm to a point where I think I have a thing going, but it's still very much a work in progress.”
You can take a job to pay the bills and still find a way to stay relevant in your field.
“I think the way to progress is build your network. Tell people what you're looking for, be honest about what you're looking for, and then trust that it's going to appear over time.
It might not look like exactly what you want — I definitely didn't plan to be a soccer referee — but you take work that way. It feels a little bit more like you can paddle, you're going down the river, as opposed to you're just stuck waiting for the current to come.”
Happy navigating,
Bridget
Dustin recommends:
📖 For people looking to move into product roles: Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value (Teresa Torres)
📖 On unleashing your creativity: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Julia Cameron)
🎧 The Most Effective Way To Find Your Next Job with Liz Horowitz (The Best Advice Show)
🤝 Journalism groups to connect with or follow for product and engagement career opportunities: