Phil Choi shares what happened a month after his layoff. A video about it hit 100,000 views and sparked a Discord community where he now mentors learners. He's doing contract work on a Korean government chatbot and says teaching others has validated his seven years as a programmer.
Questions this video answers
Five weeks.
Over 100,000 views.
Part‑time programming to build a chatbot under a contract tied to the Korean government.
Five students.
Chapters
I just got laid off. Just kidding. That was five weeks ago. And since that time a few things have happened. I have a YouTube channel now and I have a community of people that I can relate with. I plugged that. It all started with one video that blew up. I honestly expected it to only get 100 views and instead over a hundred thousand people have watched it and it changed my life forever. This is how it all happened actually. On the day that I got laid off on the way to work on the subway, I was doing some doom scrolling on the phone on the YouTube. All of a sudden there's a workout video. It was a worker that I was working with before but stopped working with at that company. He had 100 subscribers at the time. And I was like, whoa, this is cool. You know, I was watching his stuff and over the next couple of days it grew to like 600. And I was like, whoa, that's cool. So I called him up, I think I texted him, but he was like, yeah, I'm doing YouTube. And I was like, can I talk to you about it? He was like, yeah. And we planned a meeting. I was watching his channel grow, I was seeing all the engagement and I was is really cool. So I decided, you know, I'll work out with him and invite him to my gym. And so we worked out together and he told me just shoot a video. I went back to the office to get my stuff and then like a video about just getting laid off during this laid off times would be a cool video. So I just shot a video at that moment I got laid off like right after when all the feelings were like in me, it blew up. And I remember him saying like before I even uploaded the video, I had the video like in my phone. He was like, in the beginning you can't expect a thousand views or whatever. So I was just happy if I got like a 50 or 100 views because you have to plant the seed and it just keeps growing. In the beginning it was kind of slow, but then all of a sudden I woke up to so many comments I'd have to respond to and so many views and so many people relating. And there was no like toxicity or anything. It was really supportive and I was like, whoa, this is something I could really see myself doing and it's really enjoying and fun. And with that one video, it was the start of the let fill community. I remember when I first started, I didn't even have a YouTube handle name. It was just like my name. I was talking with my friend, I was Like Varphil Konsfil. And then I was like, no, let's lead fill. And that's how it happened. And Lead Phil has become a great community. People that related and saw that laid off video, we could all grow together and find help with each other. And it was like that comment section on the first video but actually as like an interactive community and that's really cool to see. So to give you guys an update about the progress I've made in the five weeks since I've been laid off, I was scrambling around. The YouTube thing was going crazy. The lead fill community was going crazy. I was also trying to find a part time job or a full time job. But I knew with the baby I couldn't really take a full time job. And there was something called end job. In Korea you can do a whole bunch of part time jobs and get paid even more. Just doing a full time job, that's kind of like the strategy I'm going with. So right now I do have a part time job programming for building a chatbot with the Korean government that my friend has a contract with. I also found five students through the Discord community. I think you guys seen the Shay videos. He's progressing very well through that. I think I found some other mentories that I'm mentoring to become better than me at programming. Because honestly I think I say it all the time, but if I can do it, anyone can do it. You can do it too. If I can get this far, I think I have the like the tips and the easier way to get to where I'm at. I don't really do anything super difficult. I just do everything the easy way. Building a full website really fast or building an app really fast. And these are the kind of things that I got good at. I'm teaching, I'm passing on this knowledge that I have. And it's really fulfilling to see me teaching other people and seeing them smile and progress and being like, oh dude, what they thought was scary before. If I kind of like explain it with my limited vocabulary, it's easier for them to understand. And I always think of like this kiss concept. It's keep it stupid simple by kind of explaining everything in regular human terms or even dumbed down human terms how I talk anyways. But they're able to understand these like harder concepts. Push and then push onto an array or like mutate an array. No, no, that just changes the array. You know, like don't worry about it. It's not like super hard computer science terms. It's just everyday terms to kind of like, relate with programming. And that's kind of like how I think about it in my head. That's really cool to see them progress and their wins become our wins. Teaching these students or these mentorees has really validated my last seven years of programming. I put in all that work, I built those things, I made those mistakes, and now I have that mentality to like, teach the next generation or like, not the next generation, but the next people that want to learn from me. It's really rewarding. I got laid off or that's like the first time I got laid off. But anyways, I was working at all these companies and I worked at this last company where I learned a lot. It all becomes very validating for like, my whole journey through all this, like, programming career to kind of like, be able to pass on what I know while still doing, like, my own stuff. But I can still pass on, like, what I know and what I've learned to other people and what's the word that I'm looking for? Fulfilling. Being laid off was scary, especially because I have a son that is very young and I want to give him the best life possible. But being laid off has given me the opportunity to find myself again and allowed me to find my purpose and fulfillment in growing this let fill community and helping others become a developer. So if you're laid off, don't think it's the end of the world. Put yourself out there and take some chances. What have you got to lose? Work on a skill or use this time. Invest into yourself. And if you want to learn how to program, please join the Discord Channel. Or maybe just record and shoot a video. Don't be scared. Use this time to become the best version of yourself. If I can do it, you can do it too. Coding saves lives.
