Laid Off on the First Workday of the Year—and What Came Next

Source: Dev.to

Overview

How would you feel if you were affected by a layoff on the very first workday of the year due to restructuring? You’d probably feel emotionally drained, and that’s okay—no one wants to lose their job, especially not on the first workday of a new year.

This is usually the time when people reflect on the past year, set goals, and make plans for what’s ahead. You’ve already mapped things out, set targets, and envisioned how the year should go. Then, out of nowhere, boom! You’re out.

Current Situation

I’m currently navigating the aftermath of a layoff that happened on the first workday of the year. It’s a mix of emotions:

• Excitement for a new challenge – I’m eager to work on a truly developer‑focused product.
• Discomfort with the layoff – This is my first experience with a layoff, and it feels unfamiliar.

For the next few months, my top priority is finding a new role. This will be the first time in four years that I’m not actively employed, so I’m figuring out how to stay productive and maintain my mental health during this transition.

Plans and Projects

I’m staying intentional about building and learning, focusing on one area at a time:

• Personal projects in Rust and MOVE – driven by my growing interest in stablecoin adoption for global remittance.
• AI exploration – building projects around AI agents, including MCP and related tooling.
• Web platforms and infrastructure – deepening my expertise in web platform experience and deployment.

I’m open to feedback and suggestions on how to manage these efforts; feel free to share thoughts in the comments.

About Me

I’m a frontend engineer turned Developer Relations (DevRel) professional. Over the past year, I transitioned from a frontend engineering background into full‑time DevRel, collaborating with tech leads, CTOs, heads of growth, and product managers to drive developer relations at an organizational level.

Key experiences

• Frontend engineering, technical writing, and developer education.
• Hosting virtual developer events and delivering live demos at community and industry gatherings.
• Demonstrated the Nomba payment plugin for WooCommerce to the WordPress community in Lagos.
• Hosted a virtual event on webhooks in payment integrations (recording available on the Nomba Developers site).
• Authored technical articles for OpenReplay (view my profile and published work here).

I’m actively looking for my next role at a developer‑first or developer‑plus company. If you have an open‑source project that could use a technical writer, or know someone I should speak with, I’d appreciate the connection.

Contact: makurseme@gmail.com