I lost my $200,000 job... now what?

When I began my career, my job was to actually evaluate the safety, the security, and the reliability of artificial intelligence. My research found that it was not ready yet, but today it actually replaced me. So here's the email I received from the Amazon vice president at 5.50 a.m. in the morning. Hi, Charles. I have some important but difficult news to share with you. After a thorough review of our organization, our priorities, and what we need to focus on going forward, we've made the hard business decision to eliminate some roles across Amazon. Unfortunately, your role is being eliminated as part of these changes, and your employment will end after a notification period. Me and about 16,000 other people received that email this morning, and across the last three months, about 30,000 people have been laid off. There have been no warnings, there's been no official announcements, although by last week especially, people thought that this might be coming. But the writing has been on the wall, especially since last June when the Amazon CEO said that Amazon would shrink in terms of total headcount, even as its profits and income grew as they adopted artificial intelligence. So in this video, I want to talk about why this is happening, what I'm actually doing right now, and all the things that I'm sort of considering as I decide to do what's next. But first, let me back up. If you didn't watch my video last week, let me give a super, super quick recap of my career so far. I graduated college in 2022. I began my career at a government nonprofit research company called the MITRE Corporation. I did a lot of different things for that company, they do a lot of different research, but the main thing that I was working on was evaluating how to adopt artificial intelligence into the government so that it was safe, secure, and reliable. And it became really obvious that, at least for sensitive use cases, artificial intelligence was just not ready without what we call human in the loop, meaning that somebody else had to review the decisions of AI to make sure that it wasn't making a really bad decision. But when the new administration took over in early 2025, the MITRE Corporation started seeing very mass layoffs. I saw the writing on the wall and I took a job at Amazon Web Services, even though it meant I had to repay my entire master's degree back to the MITRE Corporation. But I figured that within a year, that would probably be worth it. And I joined AWS in their security operations, specifically working on what we call systemic risks, which are complex, large-scale problems that do not get fixed very fast. I was helping make sure that those actually got managed. Some of that work, I think, is extremely important. But to date, me and my entire team were laid off. At this point, executives are saying that it's not about AI, but it's obvious to everybody actually within Amazon that it is. People like myself, as technical project managers and security engineers even, are being laid off en masse, and they're really only being replaced with software developers who are tasked with automating as much as they possibly can. So there are two things that really scare me right now. One, I'm really scared about how many people think that they'll be able to work a traditional 45-year career. I know that the tech industry specifically has always been sort of unpredictable, but I think that artificial intelligence is just starting with the tech industry. I think it will disrupt a lot of industries in a way that things really haven't been disrupted since the Industrial Revolution. And I don't think people are necessarily prepared for that. I think it's still easy to think that AI is just a bubble and it's overhyped, but AI can already write better than a lot of people. It can already code better than a lot of people. It can do research better and faster than a lot of people. And at Amazon, they're working extremely hard to make basically autonomous agents that can think and act and make decisions completely independently without a human in the loop. And I would love to be wrong, but at this point, I don't really see how artificial intelligence makes more jobs. With every other technology we've had, it has been to automate manual labor and free up humans for more thinking. And that, overall, I think has been positive. But at this point, we're really getting to a position where I think AI is automating the thinking and what's left is the manual labor type jobs. So I really don't know how this new economy looks. I'm pretty worried about it. So as a savings coach, I sometimes talk to people who say that they really love their jobs. They want to work a traditional career. So they're not worried about saving more than, you know, 10 to 20 percent of their income because they actually want to work until their 60s. But what I'm really worried about is that a lot of people who enjoy their jobs still won't necessarily have those jobs. I really don't know what types of careers are even going to exist in 10 years from now. But the second thing I'm worried about is that I am pretty darn concerned about Amazon trying to mitigate so many security issues without a human involved. This is completely counter to what my research found at my first company. But at this point, Amazon is really trying to automate as much of the pipeline as possible. And a lot of security risks, I believe, will be managed without a human reviewer. That can lead to issues with Amazon, but it's not just Amazon.com. There are literally millions of companies which rely on Amazon Web Services and a critical security flaw in Amazon Web Services can impact a lot more people. So I totally understand that these changes could save Amazon a ton of money, but I am worried that something bad could happen because of this. So at a super high level, that's what's happening. But I want to kind of zoom in back on my life because I've gotten a lot of questions about how I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, what I'm planning to do next. And that's what I want to talk about for the rest of this video. But first, real quick, if you have not joined my free community, I would highly recommend it. It's all about people who are trying to save more money, change their spending habits, and help each other out. It's one of the most positive places on the internet. I absolutely love the people in there and I'm very active. There is a link in the description. You should absolutely join. But anyways, in terms of how I am feeling, to be clear, I am fine. If you've been watching these videos for a long time, you know that this channel is really all about frugality, living well beneath my means, and saving as much as I can, which means I really am not stressed about money at all. So if I seem unusually calm for somebody who just got laid off, that really is why. I'm not worried about paying my bills for a very long time. And as part of being laid off, I'll at least get the next 90 days of pay. And just that will cover more than a year's worth of expenses for me. I live on less than Virginia minimum wage, even though I make significantly more than that at Amazon. So there is zero money stress in my life right now. And in terms of how I have my money allocated, this still doesn't change that much for me. I still want the vast majority of my money invested for me. Really, the only thing this changes is I'll keep a little more money on hand, but even just my next paycheck, again, will be multiple months worth of living expenses for me. So I'll just keep most of that handy in my bank account in case I have to move or put down a security deposit on a new place. But that's really the only change I have to make. I don't need to sell any of my investments. I don't need to make any drastic sort of changes to how my money is managed. I'm pretty fine with how it is. If I do get closer to the end of this 90-day notice period, at which point my paychecks will stop, then I'll think a little more about how much money I want to have on hand and other decisions. I'll get to that later in the video. But right now, very few changes. And I also got a few questions about how I'm feeling right now. And really, this doesn't change a whole lot for me because I know that these layoffs were not about individual performance. My entire team was cut. This is a restructuring at the organizational level. It's not about me not being good enough or me not doing my job. Some of my absolute favorite people were let go in the last round who were extremely smart, extremely hardworking, ideal employees. So I know that this isn't really about me. So really, the only negative things I'm feeling right now is, one, I am kind of frustrated that I left my last job. I repaid a $36,000 master's degree to take this position at Amazon Web Services. At my last company, I knew that I was going to be laid off eventually, but I didn't know when. I held out for about as long as I could with the offer on hand, but eventually, I knew that I just had to switch over to Amazon Web Services. I still don't know when I would have been laid off. It could have been another six weeks. It could have been another 12 weeks. I couldn't have waited that long. So I had to leave instead of being laid off, which is why I had to repay that master's degree. And again, that would have been worth it if I was able to stay at Amazon Web Services. But to only be here seven months and now be looking again, that's a little frustrating. And the other thing is, I do sometimes get imposter syndrome looking at job applications. I've had this sort of career where I've kind of had my fingers in a number of different things. At the Mitre Corporation, I did a lot of different types of research and then some early exposure to management. At Amazon, I work on sort of unique, interesting risks that a lot of companies don't necessarily manage because they don't have the scale and complexity that Amazon does. So sometimes looking at positions, I get a little insecure about my skill set and whether I'm really good enough, really qualified. I felt this last time I was job searching as well, and it worked out fine. I found a position that I thought I was really good at, really well suited for. Hopefully, the same thing happens. But yeah, job applications are stressful and intimidating, and I'm not looking forward to going through that process. But let me talk a little bit about what I'm actually doing right now. So when I got news that I was probably going to be laid off last week, one, I dusted off my resume. I needed to update it with my Amazon experience. So that's number one. It's really easy to forget all the great things that you have done. I needed to make sure I wrote all of that down. Second, I reached out to a lot of the people I know in the industry. The benefit of being at a company last that also went through a large layoff is a lot of the people I worked with have ended up at different companies around here, some very, very good companies. So I reached out to a lot of those people on my network. These aren't necessarily people who I am super close friends with, but people who I had a positive relationship with, people I'd say hi to in the hallways. Those sort of weak ties are really, really valuable when trying to network because every single one of those people is often happy to be a referrer to their company. A lot of times, they get a bonus for that as well. So they have an incentive to give you a referral, and that can help you get your front door in a lot of different places. So I probably reached out to a dozen different people. Also, huge shout out to the people who connected with me on LinkedIn after my last video. I didn't even mention my LinkedIn in that video, but probably a couple dozen people all connected. A few of them reached out about positions that they knew were open at their companies. Huge shout out to those people. I really, really appreciate that. And I'm definitely not an expert in how to get a new job or anything like that. But one thing I will say is that I think a lot of people do networking wrong because I have never done networking just for the sake of networking. Really, the way I think about it is I just want to talk to people who are interesting and who I like. I want to make good impressions with all of the people I work with. And over time, I should have a good collection of people who like me. And they have worked with me. They have seen my work. They know that when I say I'm going to get something done, I'll get it done. And I really feel like that has built my network over time. So even from back in college, I was a computer science tutor. I worked with a lot of people in the computer science major. Guess what? A lot of those people are off at very good companies now. And they remember how helpful I was and that I knew what I was doing, which is why I was a tutor. And so those are all people who I now feel like I can reach out to and ask if there are positions open or if they want to refer me. Same thing at my last company. I worked with lots of different people. I led a couple small teams. And people I worked with are all people I feel comfortable reaching out to and saying, hey, it was a pleasure working with you. I love to work with you. Again, can you tell me a little more about your company and whether you would recommend it? So that's really how I've approached networking. I think people make it something that it doesn't need to be. Just make good, positive impressions on the people you work with. That, I think, matters way more than just increasing the number of LinkedIn connections you have. Anyway, that mini rant over, let me talk to you about what I'm planning to do next. And there's a few different options I'm considering. And it's sort of like preferred path, backup plan, backup plan, backup plan. So let me kind of talk through what I'm thinking about. The first thing is I would love to just find a new job, especially one in this area. As part of being laid off from Amazon, it means I can apply to other jobs at Amazon. Those, of course, will be very, very competitive. But oh, well, it is what it is. I would love to find another position at Amazon and keep the salary that I have. That would be great. There's also lots of other really great companies all around here. Just a lot of times a few metro stops away from me. There are Microsoft offices. There are Google offices. There are Mandiant offices. I know people at Capital One. I know people at JPMorgan Chase. There's lots of really big companies around here. I would love to find another position there. So I have been applying to those. I put out about a half dozen applications so far. And I will be putting in a lot more today, tomorrow, Friday, this weekend. I'll be putting in a lot of applications. I am in a pretty good position because I picked my apartment that I'm in right now about a mile away from a metro stop. So that gives me a ton of accessibility to a lot of local jobs. So hopefully, fingers crossed, I find another great job in this area and I don't even have to move. That would be fantastic. But I'm not limiting myself to that either. So at least over the next 90 days, that's going to be my focus. I can't file for unemployment during that time because I am not actually unemployed. I am in a 90-day no working notice period with Amazon. So I got a few questions about that. That is why I am not pursuing that right now. At the end of 90 days, then I think that might become an option. The other thing is in terms of how I'm looking at positions. I am trying to be pretty picky. I'm coming from a very, very good, very high-paying job at a very reputable company. I don't want to take a huge downgrade. So really, the way I'm sort of feeling about it right now is I don't want to take more than a 25% pay cut. More than that would really hurt my ego. I would love to make more money, but there's only a few companies that pay as much as Amazon does. So that's kind of what I'm looking for. That's sort of like the threshold I've been considering right now. But that may change depending on how long it takes to get a job. And if I hear nothing back from places for a couple of months, then maybe I'll be willing to go even lower than that. But I'd love to find something between $150 to $200, if not even higher. There are a lot of jobs like that here. And if I can, I do want to avoid moving. I've got a lot of my family here. Uncles, aunts, my grandfather. I've also got a few friends here. I've got this lease here that is very, very cheap and very, very accessible to a lot of things that I want to go to. So it would be absolutely ideal if I could stay local. But if I get a job offer that I can't say no to, then I would definitely move. But if I'm having a lot of trouble finding something, then moving on to sort of backup plan number one. I think if I still haven't found something and I don't have really good leads at the end of 90 days, that's probably about the time I would consider moving home for a little while. I would love to spend more time with my parents. Both of them live back in Colorado. I could avoid paying rent, at least temporarily. I would keep looking for jobs. There's lots of jobs out there in Colorado as well. Or I could just start looking really nationwide. And I'm not sure how long I would consider staying home, but probably a number of months. So that's backup plan number one. But then backup plan number two is that if I'm still really not finding something after, say, six or so months, I would probably very seriously consider moving abroad. You can live on way, way less abroad. And at this point, I really saved enough money that I could probably basically retire forever if I lived in a cheap enough place. And if I'm really struggling to find work, which I don't think will happen, but if I am, I would seriously consider that option. I was actually considering that option last year as well, even when I had less in savings. At this point, I feel like I'm so close to my financial goals that it makes more sense to just find another job and reach my financial goals before seriously considering that. But again, if I can't find any work for six months, then that is something I would definitely consider. As I mentioned, I think I already have enough in savings to make myself financially free in a very low cost of living area. I'd probably travel around Southeast Asia, so Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia. Some places are very expensive in those areas, but other places are very, very cheap. Maybe other places as well. If I did that, I believe I could be financially free, but especially with some amount of partial income. For example, even this YouTube channel. This does not make me rich, but since I spend so little, it does offset some of my expenses at this point, at least in most months. So as a little behind the scenes, I make about $500 to $800 from YouTube per month. It can vary quite dramatically, but I'd say that's about an average. For me, since I live on so little, that actually covers about half of my expenses. I'm not sure exactly what my expenses would look like if I moved abroad, but that might cover all of my expenses in some places. But no matter what, that could really decrease how much money I need to pull from my investments. So my withdrawal weight from my portfolio could be much lower, could be very, very safe given that partial income. So that is a real option that sounds really fun and really interesting. But again, I think it makes more logical sense to stay put where I am in this area with all these great jobs, try to get another high paying job and just keep trying to speed run my way to full financial freedom, no matter where I live in the world. But if it's really, really hard to find something, then yeah, that's another option sort of in my back pocket. But I also know that I'm in a very different position than a lot of people are, especially for a 25 year old. I am so close to my financial goals that I don't think it makes sense for me to go back and try and learn a new skillset or sort of AI proof my skills. There's still lots of work that I can do that I think can use my skillset that's not being done by AI yet. So I think I will find another position, hopefully very quickly and then just reach my financial goals, be financially free, decide what I want to do then. But especially if I was still a student or earlier in my career or just still had a long career ahead of me, I would definitely be thinking very hard about how I could more AI proof my skillset. So two things I would recommend. One, I would highly recommend really using AI and seeing where in your work you think it can replace things that you do versus where it really will struggle and where it might continue to struggle in the future. I think understanding that can really give you a leg up in terms of understanding where your industry might end up going. Second, I would think very hard about how to get good at something that AI really just cannot do. There are a lot of things AI is not going to be doing in the next number of years. I do think a lot of knowledge industry type jobs, a lot of analyst things, whether that's a data analyst or business analyst, financial analyst, security analyst, I think a lot of those things will eventually be replaced by sort of end-to-end AI systems. At least that's what a lot of companies will be trying to do. But I think there's a lot of roles that AI is really going to struggle to do. But anyway, I just wanted to give you that life update. It's an interesting time, but I'm not super stressed. Hopefully it all works out, but we will see. I will keep you all updated. Thank you for tuning into this channel and being as great of an audience as you are. I've gotten so many messages of support, so many awesome people in this community. Y'all are awesome. And if you want to see how I spent so little, less than $20,000 per year, even though I live in Northern Virginia, an extremely expensive area, then I would highly recommend you check out this video next. Over 100,000 people have already watched it, which is absolutely crazy to me. So hopefully that's a sign it's good.