Before joining Assembled I managed a support team at iCracked. I had only been a manager for a month when the decision was made to lay off 2 members of my then team. Both were amazingly strong, smart, and reliable women who’d dedicated 3 years to the company. Luckily, I had a mentor who guided me through the process. Together, we put together a plan to communicate the change; but even more, we assisted those teammates with resume creation, set up meetings to hunt for interesting positions, and scoured our networks for opportunities.
Through the process, I learned that empathy and effort count, and that helping people find their next opportunity can leave a lasting impression.
I’ve since moved on from managing a support team, but I still keep in touch with all my former teammates. Last week, many of them were laid off. As I geared up to make a list of resources that might help in their search for work, I realized that we could do better than a one-off email with a scattered list of links.
There are many job resources for startup folks affected by Covid-19 — engineers, product managers, designers, and so on — but people in support are often left scrambling on faceless job boards. What's more, there are nuanced skill sets and roles, like Trainer or Specialist, that aren't reflected in what exists.
The team at Assembled spent an afternoon collecting and curating resources specifically for those in customer support:
And our lists include information catered to support roles:
Click here to see the full list in a separate window.
Please feel free to share on Twitter or LinkedIn if you have managed layoffs or want to encourage others to contribute to the growing list!
Everyone in the support community should be aware of the available resources! For reference, we populated our lists with information from the following excellent communities, in addition to our own networks:
