Career Update: Yellow Looks Good on Me!
I told ya’ll the story of my layoff, how it made me anxious, and doubt myself — it’s not something I would wish on anyone. But as they say, every cloud has a silver lining or in this case, a yellow lining.
So on Feb 17th, I got laid off at Chipper, to say that I loved that job would be an understatement. It came with everything, a good salary, great benefits, lots of travel and an amazing manager (God bless you Wiza). So to have all of that yanked away was not easy, it threw off lots of the plans I had, personal, financial and even professional.
I am a planner, a long-termer. So I had ambitions of growing within Chipper, actually, my goal was to make it to Director level by the time I clock 3 years at the company — yes I dream big.
After the dust settled on the layoff (which for me was barely a week), I started reaching out to my networks for any opportunities that may be out there. I knew exactly what I wanted — to stay in tech, a role within product. So the search began. I had some solid leads! All in fintech, different products but seemingly all exciting at the same time. Out of the 3 leads that looked promising, only one actually panned out. As for the rest, one went quiet and the other informed me that they had paused hiring and they were also in the middle of a restructuring (scary).
“Welcome to Yellow Card”
As fate would have it, all of this was leading up to a dream role. At that time I couldn’t really see it as that but now that I am 30 days into the role, I know for sure that this is where I belong.
One month exactly after the layoff, I signed my contract to join Yellow Card — Africa’s largest Crypto company and the only one that holds a license within the continent. A role to lead a new product within the company, as my new manager calls it, “a startup within a startup”. I totally understand when people say “my heart is full” because that is what I feel.
Being a person whose career means a lot to them, holding the position that I do at Yellow Card is a dream come true — being a solution to many businesses across the world, using crypto to solve real world financial problems and most importantly, greatly contributing to financial inclusion one API integration at a time.
As I conclude, I acknowledge that tech winter is still with us but I do wish that my story serves as a reminder to hold on to hope for everyone affected by the layoffs. Keep sending those applications, reach out to your networks and don’t be afraid to share your story with the world — you never know who is listening.
