- A copywriter residing in San Francisco was ‘stealth’ laid off from a Silicon Valley tech firm.
- They burned out making use of to over 100 jobs in a aggressive job market as a result of AI and layoffs.
The writer wrote anonymously out of concern for his or her future profession. Business Insider has verified their identification and employment with documentation.
I am unable to resolve if leaving the Bay Area feels extra like getting solid out of the Garden of Eden or getting the final chopper out of ‘Nam.
I got here to San Francisco six years in the past for my first copywriting job. Although copywriting had by no means been my dream job, it was an open door that led me to new alternatives.
Over the following few years, that door creaked softly closed behind me. I did not even discover till it was too late.
Now, again beneath my guardian’s roof and surrounded by all my earthly possessions, I’m nonetheless reeling from a “stealth” layoff and the barren job market.
Advice from my father: You do not must do what you’re keen on — you will love what you are good at
I by no means wished to be a copywriter. I used to be gently nudged towards it.
Seven years in the past, I used to be in the same scenario to the one I’m in now.
I’d dropped out of my pre-vet program, squatting in my brother’s house rent-free, binge-watching Scandal, and frantically making use of for jobs.
A good friend had simply began a small attire enterprise and remembered I used to be a good author. He requested me to jot down some product descriptions. I made three figures copywriting that yr. As in, I made beneath $1,000 copywriting in a complete fiscal yr. But I used to be good at it. And I used to be having enjoyable.
After a yr and doing odd jobs for my good friend’s enterprise, I had sufficient of a portfolio to get a correct copywriting job at a startup in San Francisco in 2018. Securing the gig concerned good interviewing expertise and luck.
Advice from my father: Become indispensable
I took to copywriting like a duck to water, shortly changing into revered as a author, model steward, and concept generator. People counted on me, and I beloved it.
Then, in 2021, the primary spate of layoffs hit. Followed by a second. “They’d be screwed in the event that they removed you,” one among my colleagues remarked once I expressed my rising anxiousness in regards to the worsening financial local weather in San Francisco.
In March 2022, I realized that I used to be not indispensable — nobody is.
Fortunately, the job market was extra forgiving then than it’s now. Within six weeks of being laid off, I acquired three nice presents. I accepted a suggestion at a tech firm in Silicon Valley and hit the bottom operating in May 2022. I loved my new position, and I used to be good at it.
Advice from my father: There’s all the time room on the high
After a yr on the tech firm, I used to be promoted solely to be hit with a “stealth layoff,” for my part, a extra nefarious form of layoff.
As the challenge I labored on began winding down, I used to be uncertain of my future and discreetly accepted one other job provide at a small startup.
When my present head of brand name heard I used to be leaving, they got here operating by way of the proverbial airport to cease me — promotion and lift in hand.
My first mistake was accepting that counteroffer. My supervisor made guarantees I did not get in writing, which they reneged on a number of months later.
For instance, in August 2023, senior management issued a return-to-office mandate. When I used to be promoted, it was implied that I’d proceed to work remotely. The nearest workplace was two hours away. Unfortunately, no exceptions have been granted, and whispers of “pressured attrition” arose.
Severance packages have been quietly supplied to particular groups — artistic was one among them. It was bundle. Taking the severance made extra sense than making an attempt to adjust to the return-to-office, burning out, and leaving with nothing.
Everyone was unhappy to see me go, however nobody tried to maintain me from leaving.
I stayed on for a number of extra weeks, then departed in November 2023 with guarantees of nice colleague references.
Advice from my father: One in hand is value two within the bush
My job search did not begin as fruitless. Before I even walked out the door on the tech firm, I received a suggestion at one other startup for a copywriting and content material administration position.
When I acquired the written provide, it was clear that that they had misrepresented the wage vary within the job posting. It did not really feel proper to simply accept a 30% pay reduce to do double the work. I attempted to barter the wage, they usually rescinded the provide, albeit kindly.
That was my second mistake. I had no concept that may be one of the best — and solely — provide I’d ever see.
Advice from my father: It’s all a numbers sport
Even as layoffs rolled throughout the trade, I used to be initially selective with functions.
I fired off voice-y cowl letters and personalised notes to hiring managers. Securing interviews was straightforward. Recruiters referred to as each week for about eight months. But it grew to become obvious that even when I progressed to the interview course of, I used to be a preferred ninth or tenth alternative.
In an employer’s market, it isn’t about whether or not a candidate might do the job; employers need somebody who’s already carried out the job many occasions precisely as they’d prefer it carried out.
I used to be burning out. Getting additional alongside in interviews is a double-edged sword. Being on the shortlist is a win, however you make investments time and power, and rejections sting extra.
I sunk 10 hours into a replica take a look at for a part-time contract position that went to another person. Then, I spent a complete weekend researching and writing a replica take a look at, solely to get a telephone name to say they weren’t transferring ahead with me. The copy take a look at hadn’t been opened.
Each software was time wasted I did not have. My severance dwindled, and emails from no-reply addresses spanned a number of pages in my “Rejection Emails To Laugh About Later” Gmail folder.
I began to panic as six months of unemployment got here and handed.
Finding freelance work was not as straightforward as I’d thought. Recently laid-off freelancers flooded the market. I used to be dipping into my meager financial savings to pay lease, and any advert hoc freelance work barely lined groceries. My lease was up in July, and it felt irresponsible to resume my contract and not using a wage.
I Easy-Applied to any job I used to be remotely certified for. Jobs that had been up for 2 hours had 500 candidates. The rejection, which was uncomfortable at first, was now insufferable. It was dying by a thousand — and possibly a literal thousand — cuts.
The remaining straw was once I made it to the provide spherical of an interview course of, proper beneath the buzzer to resume my lease. Then, I received a heartfelt name explaining that though everybody beloved me, another person received there first.
Applications might have been a numbers sport at one level, however that is a rule from an outdated rulebook. There are no guidelines anymore. The goalposts are being tossed round, and we’re tossed round with them.
Advice from my father: People genuinely wish to assist
The Bay Area advertising professionals group is an extremely supportive group and associates and colleagues referred me to many positions.
Getting turned down with an enthusiastic referral is an additional intestine punch. Everyone who believes in you is one other particular person you let down. When I left my job in November, my good friend and profession coach stated I’d be employed by January. It’s nearly July.
What might I say to him now? What might he probably say to me?
People genuinely wish to assist, however you’ll be able to’t community your approach right into a job for which there’s merely not sufficient demand.
Advice from my father: It’s OK to let your self really feel dangerous for some time
The hourglass ran out, and I moved dwelling this summer season.
I’m grateful I’ve someplace I can reside with out paying lease and that I get together with my dad and mom. As my new actuality settles in, alongside emotions of failure, there’s additionally grief.
Grief for the lack of independence, of goal. Grief for the life I’ve inbuilt San Francisco. Grief that my profession was a home of playing cards. Grief for having to begin over at 33, which is not outdated however is not younger, both.
There’s a way of aid, too. I can take the monetary stress off whereas I lick my wounds. I’m having fun with investing in myself versus one other company job.
It can be straightforward to scapegoat AI. I underestimated how inimical it will be to our jobs. But we’re dealing with an “enemy” we do not know or perceive. Copywriters most likely will not exist in 5 years. I’m studying new expertise and, hopefully, future-proofing myself towards additional automatization.
Before coming to San Francisco, I had already failed out of 1 profession, and it nearly killed me. In 2017, I discovered myself in a hospital chatting about Star Wars with a safety guard as he confiscated all my sharp objects.
Back then, I noticed I wasn’t loopy; I used to be simply adrift. I acknowledge that feeling now. Although I’m resolved towards the identical ending, I’ve to course of it first.
