I was laid off as part of the last financial crash in Ireland. I’d been working as an administrator at a well known mortgage broker business at the time. We wer

I was laid off as part of the last financial crash in Ireland. I’d been working as an administrator at a well known mortgage broker business at the time. We were told the housing bubble wasn’t going to affect our jobs because we did so much other business. In retrospect most of that other business was mortgage-adjacent. Insurance etc. Anyway the boss calls us all in one by one and explains things. I see other people coming out looking shook but it’s my first job out of college so I’m still totally surprised to be told I won’t have a job next week. I had some help from other people who worked there offering to get me started at another mortgage company, but also had a friend who worked a 20-hour week assisting somebody with a disability, and was looking for his own replacement. At the time this work paid well in Ireland, it was 20 euro an hour, easily the equivalent of a full time entry level job in some other industry. I took that job, lived with one of my college roommates nearby, worked my 20 hour weeks, wrote plays and poems, and played shows with my band, it was great. I was lucky to be laid off and have that amazing experience. It turned out to influence everything else I did in life, including working for 7 years with folks with disabilities in one way or another, and when switching to full time web development, having a good eye for accessibility. I was on my way to getting some qualifications and become a financial advisor back in 2009 at that company that laid me off. It’s just what they expected of junior employees. After a certain point I might have fallen into just doing that as my career after sinking some time into learning non-transferable financial skills.