Laid off during mat leave. Job hunting is horrible now.
As the title states, I was laid off during my mat leave from a US tech company. I have 8 years of experience in SaaS marketing, but you’d never know it with how little I’m able to talk about it in the two recruiter calls I’ve had so far.
My brain feels moldy. I can’t think through questions on the fly, so writing things out beforehand can only prepare me for so much. I’m also drawing on experience that’s supposed to be present day but in reality, it’s 6+ months ago. AND! I’m not supposed to mention I have a child, the reason I’m so rusty!
Today I had a call for a company that should have been a perfect fit, and I just blanked. On a very easy question. I couldn’t think of a single thing to say and I panicked. I did something I’ve never, ever done before— I made up a quick excuse and exited as gracefully as a horse with three legs, and then immediately burst into tears to my husband.
My son sleeps decently well through the night (2 wake-ups) but the broken sleep is really starting to weigh on me after 5 months. My husband helps where he can, but he needs his brain so he doesn’t lose *his* job. We don’t have family nearby. We live in a VHCOL area and, although I have severance runway through July, I can feel the weight of needing to get a jump on job hunting now.
I just hate this. My son starts partial daycare in a month, so I’ll be able to get more sleep and hopefully focus better. I don’t even want to do what I was doing before, but if I can barely talk about my direct experience, I’m definitely not in a position to pitch myself for something new.
I’m okay, just deeply embarrassed. If you have a similar story, I’d love to hear it.