This has been a tough week in tech.
Layoffs at Twitter, Stripe, and Meta have sent shockwaves through the industry. And while there are reasons to believe tech’s long-term future remains strong, for those suddenly facing job loss, this is a frightening, uncertain time, professionally and financially.
With that in mind, let me offer a thought that may feel almost blasphemous right now:
Redundancy can be a powerful blessing in disguise.
Note that word: can.
I’m not here to sugarcoat. For many, redundancy is devastating. It can feel like an earthquake—financially, emotionally, psychologically. I’ve seen clients struggle with real stress, anxiety, and a painful blow to self-esteem.
And yet…
When I look across my clients, friends, and family who have faced redundancy over the years, I notice something striking: for most, being let go ultimately became the best thing that ever happened to them.
Not because the path was easy. It wasn’t.
But because it provoked change, the kind they might never have dared to make on their own.
In an ideal world, we would all be proactive, initiating our own career transitions before the walls close in. But in reality, most of us stay put. We play it safe. We resist change, even when deep down we know we’re stuck.
Redundancy removes the choice.
Suddenly, the decision is made for us. And that shifts everything.
Where once we’d never dream of quitting (too risky, too reckless), now we have no option but to redraw our map. Ironically, this can liberate us. The risk isn’t ours alone to shoulder—it’s been forced upon us, and that frees us to design a new, bolder future.
And that’s the key word here:
Design.
In my coaching work, I come back to this idea again and again:
Career success is less about passively following a path and more about creatively designing your own. Too often, jobs shrink our world. They box us in. They separate us from our deepest career motivations. They institutionalize us.
But redundancy?
If you meet it with resilience and clear thinking, it can force you to reframe, reinvent, and reimagine your future.
It can reconnect you to what really drives you—and open doors you’d never have dared knock on before.
If you want to explore how to design that kind of future for yourself, we’re here to help.
Jane Downes
Founder, Clearview Coaching Group
Ready to turn redundancy into opportunity?
Let’s talk about career design and the sessions available to you. Contact us today.
