What Happens When You Lose Your Dream Job?

Perhaps you were made redundant. Maybe your employer went bust. Or something happened in your personal life that required you to leave. For whatever reason, your dream job is no longer available and there’s no way you can get it back.

This happened to me a year ago when I was the Singapore community manager at Yelp. I got pregnant and my husband found a job in Hong Kong, so the writing was on the wall. Additionally, Yelp shut down their international community operations by the end of the year which meant there was no chance for me to return. I struggled to come to terms with this for months.

July 2017 marks one year after I’ve left. I’d like to share my reflections and what I’ve learned since then.

Allow yourself to grieve

If you worked tirelessly at your dream job, eat/breathed/lived it, and were very successful at what you did, losing this opportunity is almost the equivalent of losing a loved one. Don’t be surprised if you start noticing symptoms similar to grief.

In my case, I found myself talking to my husband every night about what I could’ve done and should’ve done while I was still working (many thanks to him for listening to me ramble and repeat myself!) I found myself still spending time on the Yelp app, consistently posting and interacting with people as if I still worked there. I would go about my day, still in work mode, thinking about what I could contribute to make Yelp more useful.

I don’t regret doing any of the above. In fact, I think it was good for me to give myself time to process the loss. Treating Yelp as a hobby again allowed me to find closure in my own way and detach at my own pace.

This is the time to do that thing you’ve been meaning to do

Now that you’ve got free time, dust off personal projects you’ve been putting off and get it done. For me, it was finally buying this domain name to showcase my portfolio, along with continuing my writing practice so I don’t get rusty. If not now, then when?

This is your opportunity to grow

If you’ve always had a Plan B in case your job fell through, good on you! I never thought of a Plan B; then again, I’m the type of person that goes with the flow so I wasn’t too worried about my unknown future.

Though it’s tempting to apply to the same job at a different company, consider jobs that allow you to apply your best skills but has a learning curve. This is a good opportunity to find something new or challenging to you, acquire a different skill set, and make yourself even more marketable.

Community management at Yelp was a mix of writing, educating small business owners, event planning, marketing, and social media; I’ve decided to focus on jobs in the writing and social media fields, as they appeal to me the most.

Your accomplishments speak for themselves

When you are truly passionate about your role, it will show. Though updating my LinkedIn profile meant the end of an era for me, it did make me proud to see all the positive things I’ve done. As I put my portfolio together for prospective employers, I couldn’t wait to show off all the cool projects I successfully ran and completed.

Once I started interviewing, I had this sense of confidence answering questions which I hadn’t always had before. Passion allows you to tell an effective story of who you are and what value you bring. When interviewers can see or hear your enthusiasm, the interview will always go in your favor.

You can and you will move on

To be honest, it took me 7 months to completely get over leaving Yelp. Now that I’ve made my peace with it, I’m prepared to pick up where my career left off and find a company that wants me as much as I want them. I remain optimistic about my job prospects because I know my worth and what I bring to the table. I truly believe it gets better!