In June 2025, I got laid off.

I started work on Monday morning like normal, and by 10:30 I was on a Zoom call being told about severance.

It was jarring. One day you’re managing projects and Slack messages, and the next day…you’ve got no work to do.

All the things I was working on were just open loops in my mind that never got closure, so for a few weeks I kept thinking“Oh, I need to check in on that project.” Only to realize..."Oh yeah, I don't even work there anymore."

The first reset

The week after the layoff, our family had a vacation planned.

It couldn’t have been better timing. I got to disconnect, visit family, and think through what was next without feeling the pressure to start job-hunting immediately.

When I got back, I put up a LinkedIn post about the layoff and what kind of work I was looking for.

Because I’d already been posting on LinkedIn consistently for over a year, that post took off. Three CEOs DM’d me with contract offers. I was super appreciative but passed on them. I knew I wanted to focus on a full-time role.

But it confirmed something important: my network would play a big role in my job search.

How I structured my days

Both my kids were already in school, so I suddenly had long stretches of time to myself. It’s easy in unemployment to feel like you should always be doing something—sending resumes, refreshing job boards, proving you’re not wasting the day.

I knew if I gave in to that, I’d burn out.

So I built a predictable schedule. It gave me a rhythm, and it reminded me I didn’t need to spend every waking minute chasing the next job.

Here’s what a typical Monday looked like:

• 5:15am – Bible + prayer, then map out my week
• 6:30–7:00 – Breakfast with my daughter before school
• 7:00–9:00 – Time with my son (walks, bike rides, or runs together)
• 9:00–9:30 – LinkedIn engagement + DMs
• 9:30–11:00 – Job hunting (applications, outreach, interview prep)
• 11:00–1:00 – Exercise + lunch (run or jiu-jitsu)
• 1:00–2:00 – Job-hunting tasks
• 2:00–3:00 – Flex time (house projects, networking calls, errands)
• 3:00–evening – Pick up my daughter, watch the kids, family time

I tried to keep Mon/Tues focused on job applications and leave the back half of the week for WFH Dads projects (like this newsletter).

The inner struggle

One of the more surprising challenges was identity.

I was meeting with another dad at my church who was also in the same spot. Two 38 year old men with families who were in between jobs, trying to figure out what's next. We both said the same thing: “When you’re a kid, you imagine by the time you’re late 30s, you’ll have it all figured out.”

For me, this is my second career. I was a teacher for 10 years before moving into social media and marketing. While I’ve built up solid experience, I sometimes feel new to the field, which is weird when you're almost 40!

Those conversations showed me I wasn’t the only one figuring things out at this stage of life.

What worked in job hunting

I knew that applying to dozens of jobs wasn’t going moving the needle.

Instead, I:

• Applied only to jobs I felt 90%+ qualified for, fit my salary range and were fully remote (I couldn't see myself going back into an office after years of the flexibility of WFH).
  ​
• Used AI to help tailor my resume to each role (see my process here).
  ​
• Leaned into my unique advantage—short-form video.

For example, I applied to a social role at Google Data Centers. Instead of just sending a resume, I made a video on LinkedIn about data centers and said at the end: “This is my way of trying to get the attention of the hiring team.”

I got an interview request almost immediately.

​I did the same thing for a cybersecurity company called Huntress. The job listing had already closed, but after I posted my video, a hiring manager DM’d me asking for my resume.

Find your edge and showcase it publicly.

​I wrote more about this idea here.​

What kept me grounded

A few other practices made this season healthier than it could have been:

• Time with people – Lunch or coffee with friends 1–2 times a week. Zoom calls with other dads.
  ​
• Health – Protected my 11–1 block for running or jiu jitsu.
  ​
• Household wins – Finally cleaned the garage and finished our will and trust.
  ​
• Sleep – In bed at 9:15, up at 5:15. More rest than I’d had in years.
  ​
• Learning – Took courses on copywriting, YouTube, and community building. Helpful for both career and WFH Dads.

And I eventually deleted LinkedIn from my phone. Scrolling job boards outside my work blocks wasn’t helping me or my family.

Final thoughts

Being laid off was hard. The identity struggle of being 'unemployed' sucked. And it would’ve been easy to slip into overwork just to feel like I was doing SOMETHING.

But a predictable rhythm (and the choice to prioritize people and health alongside job hunting) made all the difference for me.

Your job doesn’t define you.

Use the in-between seasons to invest in what's important.

Where did I land?

I did end up landing a full-time role about 4 months into the layoff as a social media content specialist at Huntress, the cybersecurity company I mentioned above.

It's been a great spot to be!

Recommendation of the week​

​Top 5 ChatGPT Prompts for Job Seekers​

This video has some valuable prompts that help with company research as well as personalizing your resume to specific jobs.

I didn't want to send the exact same resume to each job but instead wanted to highlight the aspects of my work that were more relevant to the job I was applying for (and not include irrelevant details).

This video gives ways to speed that process up (and see gaps that you may be blind to) using ChatGPT or whatever your LLM of choice is.

What about you?

If you’ve been through a layoff (or any big transition), what helped you get through it?

Email me at thom@wfhdads.com and let me know. I read and respond to all of them.

Thom Gibson Founder of WFH Dads ​​​

​

600 1st Ave, Ste 330 PMB 92768, Seattle, WA 98104-2246
​Unsubscribe · Preferences​