I’m not sure how The Algorithm decided I’d enjoy your posts, but they started appearing in my feed shortly after my career reboot about a year ago. After nearly four decades at General Motors (most recently running their global competitor intelligence activity), I received an unsigned email sent at 5.07am indicating I was no longer part of the GM family. Recruiter Joel Lalgee saw my subsequent very brief LinkedIn post, figured out I had been working at GM longer than he was alive, and made a video–now at 2 million views. That got my story to the front page of USAToday’s Money section, the UK’s Guardian, the Hindustan Times, and Reddit’s “recruiting hell” discussion. A year later, my daily driver is a new Mini Cooper and I’m dabbling in consulting, writing, and speaking about the auto industry under the AutoPerspectives banner. And everyone I’ve talked to who’s still at GM tells me about the “Hunger Games” culture–so I may not like the way I was shown the door, but I’m certainly glad I’m not there.
That’s incredible!! you basically got laid off and went viral before your morning coffee. Most people just get a cardboard box and an exit survey; you got a global press tour and a Mini Cooper. Honestly, “unsigned email at 5:07am” sounds like something straight out of a dystopian corporate thriller: The System Has Logged You Out.
Glad you escaped the “Hunger Games” culture though, nothing says teamwork like 47 PowerPoint slides explaining why only one person gets to keep their job. And respect for the comeback. Consulting, writing, speaking — that’s the career version of hitting reverse out of the parking lot, rolling down the window, and saying, “I’m good, actually.”