I lost my job at Goldman Sachs on Tuesday, September 16th. Today is the one-year anniversary of that fateful day. I'd like to spend some time in this post recounting the events of losing my job, reflecting on what I learned and how thoroughly God used the experience to literally alter the course of my life. Without further ado...
The Events
On Sunday, September 14, 2008, I was (as most people were) blissfully unaware of the craziness going down in the financial world. As the actions of a few overflowed to affect the rest of us, especially those of us working in downtown Manhattan.
I showed up to work at my previous employer on Monday morning with a little trepidation. Not only had the global financial markets experienced significant turmoil in the previous 24 hours, but GS itself was releasing some sub-par 2nd quarter results. Seeing as we were sitting in HR, and training, no less (not the most necessary of divisions), everyone was a little worried about keeping our jobs.
Monday came and went. Tuesday morning came and went. At around noon on Tuesday, I got a meeting request from my supervisor. The meeting was at 3pm. By 3:30pm I was cleaning out my desk, handing over my badge and walking out of the building (in tears of course). By 5:30pm I was drinking a margarita with a former co-worker (who had left on her own a few months earlier).
As you can imagine, I was completely shocked, scared, worried, embarrassed, and every other emotion you would have if you had $1,200 rent due for the next 3 months and no foreseeable income. I kept telling myself that it must be because I had already told me managers that I was planning on quitting in December. It was only fair for me to be the one to go since everyone else was presumably more committed to their job. Fair enough. But that still meant that I was to be living in the city for 3 more months and was unemployed!
Of course, I called my parents almost immediately. They were supportive and shocked and insisted that I come home to re-group. They bought me a ticket to go home Friday for a week. (this was on Tuesday).
On Wednesday, I began working with the agency that I had been working for on site at Goldman. My hope was that they could find me a placement somewhere else. I also applied for unemployment and spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself. It wasn't until Wednesday evening that I finally got ahold of Taylor to tell him the news. He was so supportive, which made me feel a lot better.
I went home on Friday, which was just what I needed. I spent a week at home with family and friends. I went out to dinner with my grandma, ran my 18 mile long run (I was training for the NYC marathon at the time), replaced my phone with a blackberry when it suddenly died (needed that like a hole in the head!), and just relaxed and tried to forget about returning to NYC.
I played with so many situations in my head. I thought about subletting my apartment and not going back at all (I was planning to leave the city in December anyway). Problems with that: 1) all my stuff was still there, 2) I had a trip planned and a ticket purchased leaving from NYC in October, 3) I wasn't sure I was allowed to sublet my apartment. I thought about just staying through my trip in October, but when it came down to it, the sensible thing was to go back to NYC and see if I could find SOMETHING to do before officially throwing in the towel.
I got back to NYC on September 29th. My friend Kari Welch was working for a staffing firm. While I was home, I sent her my resume and a description of what I was looking for. On Monday (the 30th), I went for my 19 mile training run (good way to blow off some steam!) and while I was gone I got a call from the recruiter at her firm. The woman was very nice and said that she may have a position I was interested in. She suggested I come in the next day to fill out paperwork so I would be ready to start right away.
On Tuesday morning, I trucked it down to their office, all dressed up in my interview best. I filled out the paperwork and when I finished, they told me that they would be submitting me for the original position they had in mind, but they had just gotten a request for someone to start immediately and work the rest of the week and would I be interested in that. I clarified what they meant by immediately. They meant that I would literally walk out of their office and go to this non-profit to start working. Oh....ok, then, immediately it is! Who was I to turn down employment?! It was paying $17/hour which sounded better than nothing, so off I went!
I was working at a nonprofit in their corporate compliance department. Evidently, the assistant to the head of Compliance was out for the week for family reasons and, since
she couldn't type, she was desperate to have a replacement. Luckily, I am quite good at typing, though that turned out to be only one of the random, unclear, and unpleasant activities they needed me to do. Luckily, I am a superstar secretary and was able to do a pretty good job. The only bad thing about this position was that it was just for the week. That was ok, though, there was that other position that I had originally applied for, surely someone with a Master's Degree from a top 20 school could get that, right. Wrong. On Thursday I found out that I hadn't been selected for the other position (which would have been longer term and paid more). I was despondent. What was I going to do!? Well, luckily, that Friday, and for the next 3 Fridays, my boss called me into her office at around 4pm and asked me to come in on Monday. I literally lived like that for 5 weeks straight, not knowing each day if I would have a job the next day, but so thankful when they asked me to come back. God was totally looking out for me.
Running parallel to this experience was my housing situation. Remember that $1,200 rent I was talking about? Well, that was just half of the $2,400 rent for the apartment I was sharing with a friend. And in early October, that friend disappeared off the face of the earth. She stopped paying rent, wouldn't return calls, and left me in danger of losing $2,400 worth of a deposit that I had made when we signed the lease. I decided after a few weeks with no response from her to sublet my apartment and found a girl on Craigslist who seemed nice enough. She was moving to NYC from Ohio (just like me!) and would be looking for a job when she got here. Well, she ended up being pretty unpleasant. I don't think she liked me very much, she seemed resentful of my job since she couldn't find one, and she was just generally not a very pleasant person. Nice.
By week 5, the Corporate Compliance department had officially exhausted all of the tasks they needed my help with. Luckily, I had made an impression on the Director of Development who asked me to come over and work for him for a week. Why, certainly! And just like He had been all along, God continued to provide!
The week that I worked in development actually ended up being the week before the NYC Marathon. I was nervous, excited, and ready. I drank tons of water, ate well, and tried not to think about the fact that I would probably be unemployed the next week (hey, a day off after the marathon would be a good thing!). And wouldn't you know it, that Thursday, I finally got a call from the staffing agency asking if I would be interested in a higher-paying job at an online advertising company. They wanted me to start Monday. The day after the marathon. Nice.
Of course, I was desperate and the job sounded interesting enough, so I agreed. And less than 24 hours after finishing 26.2 miles, I showed up at the office of acerno, a small online advertising network that was actually being purchased
that day by a larger company called Akamai. Excitement all around. I met my new boss, Matt. He explained to me some of the work he had for me to do. This was to be a 3 - 5 week assignment, which was perfect because I was supposed to move home in 5 weeks. I got along well with Matt, did what he asked me to do, and started to get to know a little about the online advertising business. I was really excited to go home and to visit Taylor 3 weeks after that, so the time just flew by.
Things continued like that through November. In early December, part way through my last week, my boss asked me if I would be interested in continuing to work for him remotely. Um...YES!! That literally meant that I would take me laptop, move home, and sit on our couch in my PJs and get paid $22/hour (much more than I could make anywhere in Ohio). By this point I also had health coverage and everything. This was SUCH a God-send.
I moved home and worked remotely for 40 hours/week for 3 weeks until I left to go to Indonesia to meet Taylor. It was so nice to be able to still earn a paycheck! I didn't really know if Matt would have anything for me to do after my 3-week trip to Indonesia, but I had bigger things on my mind (seeing my fiance for the first time in 5 months!), so I didn't think too much about it.
I went to Indonesia (you can read about that
here,
here, and
here) and when I returned, I got in touch with Matt to see what the deal was. He had work for me for the better part of the month of February, but then things started to slow down. I was working 2-5 hours per week and not making much money. That continued for the month of March and much of the month of April. In mid-April, Matt started to shop my resume around because he knew that I was ready to start looking for full time work again. I had told him I wasn't sure I wanted to move to New York again, but he assured me that the salary I could garner would be enough so who was I to argue? By the end of April, he had put me in touch with the manager of sales who had been dragging his feet about hiring a sales coordinator for months and was eager to have someone who was familiar with the company and could jump into the role with minimal supervision. Count me in!
I should also mention that it was around mid-April when Taylor's friend, whom he had interned with in 2007, started reaching out to Taylor about the possibility of a job, also in New York. It took a few months, but he ended up starting that job on August 10, 2009. After having about 2 months to come back from Indonesia, relax, and work with me on finding an apartment and moving. SUCH a God thing!
Anyway, the last hoop for me when I found my job was to figure out when I would start. I wanted to be home until June 1 because I had a Bridal shower on May 31 and Taylor wasn't coming back until June 7, so there was no reason for me to be back. Of course, I didn't want that to prevent me from getting a job so I just crossed my fingers. And then, miracle of miracles, it turned out that my staffing company was requiring me to continue working through them until, get this, Friday, May 29, because that would be my 6-month mark, and the point at which Akamai wouldn't have to pay a fee to hire me. So everything worked out just PERFECT, and I was able to start my new job on June 1 just like I wanted to.
I know this was a terribly long and convoluted story, but if I learned anything from my experience it is that God is watching out for me (and you, and everyone else for that matter). Too many things happened just perfectly for there to be any other reason than God. And I thank Him for watching out for me during what was one of the most tumultuous times of my life. I am so lucky and blessed to have everything I have!!!
UPDATE:
As if the story of my journey through unemployment and trusting God wasn't already amazing enough, it took another turn in July 2011. Taylor got accepted to Business School at the University of Michigan, so we decided to move to Ann Arbor. The Michigan job market/economy are not known for their strength, so I asked my manager if, after 2 years of working for him, I could take advantage of a pilot program called "Akamai Anywhere" and work remotely. To my great delight, he agreed. Not only was I able to move to Ann Arbor with Taylor, but I kept my salary at the previous level it was in New York, was able to have health insurance for both of us, didn't have to look for a job in Michigan, and got some good perks like our home internet being paid for by my company and the chance to travel back to New York periodically on the company's dime. I literally never would have had this opportunity at most other jobs, and it all goes back to being a Wall Street Reject. Praise God!
