Tag Archive for: Done Right!

But companies around the U.S. continue to hire for millions of open positions, so many of the recently laid off are turning to social media to vent and in hopes of getting employed quickly. Going public about being laid off used to be considered an embarrassing no-no. Now, it has turned into a sales pitch, with many using Twitter, LinkedIn and other platforms to land new jobs within weeks of losing the old one.

Nathan Felt wrote a post on LinkedIn after his layoff four months ago as director of product design at Guaranteed Rate, a Chicago-based mortgage-lending and digital financial-services company. He described allowing himself to be disappointed and yet hopeful about his future and attached a link to a podcast about how setbacks can lead to opportunities for growth.

He didn’t explicitly ask for a job in the post but was swamped with responses, including several offers. He started a new product-design leader job in May at Amazon.

“When I posted, I simply thought it was an opportunity to share with others how they don’t need to feel defeated when getting laid off,” said Mr. Felt, who is 38 and lives in Petaluma, Calif.

Career coaches advise that job seekers who post online steer clear of bitterness, signal an appreciation of their time at their former employer and say they are excited to find a new adventure.

“There wasn’t a stigma for me because I know it’s not performance-related, I wasn’t fired,” said Liz Maupin, an entertainment and marketing producer in Los Angeles, who announced her layoff on Twitter.

Ms. Maupin said the company had layoffs because of budget cuts stemming from a challenging climate for the entertainment industry, including Netflix’s cutbacks and a wave of consolidation. In her June 1 tweet to nearly 13,000 followers, written the same day she lost her job, she wrote, “If you hear of anything, I’m a lovely producer and am eager to keep working.” Within 24 hours, she was flooded with responses, one of which yielded a new offer. She started the new role June 10.

“To have an offer literally 23 hours later was phenomenal,” she said.

Others who have successfully won new job offers via social media in recent weeks say they included detailed information, such as job titles, experience level and what value they bring to a team.

Sarah Nelson, who works in human resources, posted on LinkedIn about her layoff from a San Francisco firm. She talked to 15 companies in three weeks and recently started a new remote job as a recruiter with Dandy, an online dental lab platform, in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I did not expect the kind of outpouring that I received,” she said.

When Silvia Fuentes announced her layoff last week, she made clear that she wanted a midlevel digital product designer role.

“Naming it saves people a lot of time, because instead of just saying I lost my job, give me a lead, it’s saying, ‘I need this type of job specifically.’ It helps get it to the right eyes,” she said.

Ms. Fuentes opted for Twitter, where she said she had more professional connections. She casually used the slang “hmu,” shorthand for hit me up, in her request for job leads, and several professionals tracked her down on LinkedIn after seeing her tweet.

“Go where you feel comfortable posting,” said the 26-year-old, who lives in Dallas. In the past week, several promising opportunities have come her way, and she has had a few initial conversations, she added.

Jason Allen got laid off from his account manager job at BrainStorm Inc., a software platform company, on June 17—a Friday. He waited three days to let his emotions cool and went through several drafts before posting about it on LinkedIn and adding the #OpentoWork designation.