Phil Choi was laid off two weeks ago and bombed a recent interview, but unemployment brought unexpected gifts: more time with family, exercise, and hospital visits he'd missed. He started a YouTube channel that connected him to a supportive community and now wants to teach others that coding can change your life.
Chapters
I got laid off two weeks ago. Since then I've had an interview for a senior developer position that didn't go my way. And I've been offered a gig to do a website for an ex CMO of a well known company. Of course it's really scary being laid off and not working, especially with the family, especially with the wife that's nagging at me to get a job. But not having a 9 to 5 is actually very comforting. I've been having more time to go to the hospital, be there for my son. Like one of the biggest things right now is getting back in shape and exercising. And these are things that I've always wanted to do and I never had time for these things and I am so thankful that I have this time. I would always just be struggling to fit all these things into my life. Especially with the big chunk of time which is 9 to 5. It's like the biggest Lego block in your life, a 9 to 5. And then you have all these like two prong pieces that you're trying to fit into the rest of the six spaces you have left. And it's super hard because you have so many things to fit in, but you don't have enough time to fit those things in. And now I have an abundance of time. But it feels like since I've queued up so many of those small little things, I'm busier now that I'm not working. But it's the things that I've been needing to do and I'm so thankful that I have this time. While this time has slowed down, one of the surprising things that have developed in my life is this YouTube journey. That first video I posted, I didn't think much of it. I thought it was just me putting myself out there. Actually it resonated with a lot of people and through the comments and the community and the support that I've gotten, it's really made me feel a lot better about putting myself out there and reminds me of when I was really a nobody. I was, you could say, a loser. Had so much time to do things at those times, but I wasn't using the time correctly. But then I found something to put my time into and put my passion into, which was coding and trying to find things that I can learn to add value into a company. I find this time is no different. I can turn my life around. Sometimes I feel like a loser because I'm not working, but I am striving and figuring things out. I'm trying to find things that I like to do and find rewarding. Putting myself out there was difficult in the beginning. It was a big decision. But one of the big things that I want to do with this opportunity is creating a community where we all help each other. I know one way I can help people is teaching programming. I can teach people because I was there too. I didn't know how to contribute to a company. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know where to start. Programming and coding is not an end all, be all solution to life, but it definitely helped me in my life and in my times of struggles. And I've been there recently. I'm not a person that got my computer science degree. I didn't major in computer science. I want to give back to the community of what helped me and saved me. So I can teach coding, I can teach programming. I can help other people get to a point where they feel like they can contribute to a company. So don't forget, if I can do it, you can do it too. Coding saves lives.
