ZMT · for engineers, after the firing
You were fired. The room got quiet. You went home different.
You are not alone here. Most people who built something useful in their career have one of these in their past. This page does not pity you and does not tell you it will be fine. It names what is happening and gives you the next move.
First · two things you need right now
Trust
That this is survivable.
You have agency. Ten years from now, this is not the story you tell. Many of the people you respect have been here. They did not become smaller from it · they became sharper.
Comfort
Without pity.
Nobody here will tell you "you will bounce back." That is hollow. What is true · what you are feeling has a shape, the shape is known, and naming it is the first useful thing you can do today.
Then · the four stages
You will pass through these. They do not arrive in a clean order; they arrive in waves. The point is not to skip them. The point is to recognize them so they do not hold you longer than they should.
1 · Denial
“Maybe they will call back. Maybe they are realizing the mistake.”
They will not call back. The decision has been made for weeks. You were the last to know.
2 · Anger
“They did not see what I did. They cut the wrong person.”
Some of this is true. Some of this is the easier story to hold. Both can be real at once.
3 · Bargaining
“If I had just made one more PR. If I had just spoken up at the standup.”
One more PR would not have changed it. What might have changed it is a different relationship with the room.
4 · Depression
“I am not good enough. I never was.”
This is the cheapest lie grief tells you. You were good enough to be hired. The question is what you do next, not what you secretly were.
5 · Acceptance · the destination
What I did mattered. What I missed also mattered. Both are true.
And now · the one question that matters
Once you can see the stages without being held by any one of them, this is the question. Most people who get fired have an honest answer to it · and it is the same answer. Take a second before you read it. Then answer truthfully.
How many questions did you ask each day at work, in the last year?
Not the lookup-Google kind. The "why are we doing this" kind, to a real person.
The path from here · four moves
The next role is not the work. The next role is downstream of these four. Get the four right and the role finds you.
1Ask more · with context
Not 'should we do X?' · that is asking for permission.
Instead: Why are we doing this? What does success look like? What changes if we do nothing? These three reveal the WHY substrate before you commit any time to the WHAT.
2Align with outcomes
Not with tasks. Not with managers.
Tasks change. Managers leave. The outcome is what the business actually needs. Engineers who align with the outcome are the ones still standing after the reorg.
3Become valuable
Define value as: the engineer the team cannot afford to lose.
Not the smartest. Not the loudest. The one whose absence makes the next deliverable slip. You become this by being the engineer the founder can ask the hard question and get a real answer.
4Build optionality
So the next firing matters less. Or never happens. Or you are the one choosing.
Optionality is built quietly · the daily log, the questions asked in public, the curated wall, the people who know your work without you naming it. None of this happens after the firing. It starts the day you decide it matters.
What not to do this week
- Do not lie about it on LinkedIn. "We mutually decided" reads false. It always gets out.
- Do not panic-apply to 100 jobs. The next bad fit lands you here again in nine months.
- Do not take the next role until you have written down what actually happened. Honestly. To yourself.
- Do not burn the old team in conversation. Future hiring managers ask the old team.
- Do not try to prove the old company wrong. Work on what is true about you.
One concrete next move
Take the culture assessment for the team you just left.
Five minutes. The score tells you whether the room was Silent or Heard. A read instead of a story. Whichever it says, you walk out of this week with substrate instead of shame.
Read the team you just left →