A new tech role arrived just as burnout and health problems were already escalating. After a restructuring made her eligible for a layoff package, she chose to leave—then used the pause to recover, rethink her career, and rebuild her work life around her healt
For most of her 20s, she chased one goal: breaking into tech.
She had been working in higher education and believed deeply in its mission. But the pull to build products that shaped how people lived and learned wouldn’t let go. She wanted a faster pace. bigger challenges. and proof that someone like her could succeed in an industry often seen as closing doors on outsiders. Rejections kept stacking up, making the dream feel further away—yet she continued pushing.
When she finally landed the tech role she’d been working toward, it felt like vindication. She was proud and relieved. convinced that once she broke into tech and found the “right” job. she would stick with it forever. What she didn’t see was that she was stepping into the job at the exact moment her life was already collapsing under its own weight. And she didn’t realize she had been clinging to an outdated idea of what a career should look like. The dream and the burnout arrived together.
She started the job while finishing her MBA. To everyone else, it looked like momentum. To her, it felt like an exhausting performance of holding everything together. Her days were spent learning a new industry. Assignments and deadlines consumed her nights, and she kept telling herself she could do it all.
Her body disagreed. Her hair started falling out in clumps. She woke up exhausted, no matter how much she slept. A constant tightness settled in her chest, even on ordinary days. She convinced herself the stress was temporary—the price of ambition, and the cost of finally making it.
Then, one afternoon, her boss called her in. Her boss’s tone was measured, but she knew something was coming. The company was restructuring, and her role was at risk. Her boss offered her a choice: accept a layoff package or stay. Staying didn’t feel like an option. At that point. it had become impossible to ignore what she had been feeling for months: the environment wasn’t sustainable. and the workload was pushing her past her limits while she was still trying to finish school.
Recognizing that truth was validating and devastating. It confirmed she hadn’t imagined the pressure. At the same time. it forced her to confront how much she had sacrificed to hold onto an idea of success that wasn’t actually serving her. It also opened a question she’d been too afraid to ask: what if the career path she’d been chasing so desperately wasn’t the one she needed?.
She accepted the layoff package, even though it felt like watching her dream evaporate just as she’d reached it. She had fought so hard to break into tech, only to leave burned out, unwell, and uncertain about what came next.
Once the initial shock faded, something unexpected happened: she had space to breathe. For the first time in years, she let herself rest without guilt. Her body began to heal. Her hair stopped falling out. Her energy returned. She rediscovered parts of herself she’d abandoned in the relentless pursuit of more.
The forced pause gave her clarity. When she started working again, she approached it differently. Instead of returning to a traditional full-time role. she began taking on projects on her own terms and chose work aligned with her values. She built a schedule that protects her health instead of sacrificing it, and she embraced flexibility without apologizing.
She realized she didn’t need to destroy herself to build a meaningful career.
Her experience also landed with a broader lesson: losing her dream job wasn’t the end. It was the reset she needed.
Being laid off from the job she thought would define her career a few years ago was painful and destabilizing. But it gave her a chance to rebuild her professional life around balance, intention, and actual joy. It taught her that a career path isn’t a straight line you draw once and follow forever—you can redraw it continuously. with more information and clearer priorities each time.
She described the truth as “far more liberating”: careers evolve as we do. It’s okay to pivot if the industry that excited you at 25 drains you at 30. The role you fought to get might teach you exactly what you don’t want. and the skills you build in one chapter can become unexpected assets in the next. None of it is failure.
Most importantly. the experience shattered myths carried since college—that successful people find their path early and stick to it forever. that pivoting means failing. and that changing your mind makes you unreliable. She said she spent her 20s believing career changes were something to fear or avoid. Now she sees them as necessary recalibrations. each shift teaching her more about what energizes her. what matters to her. and what kind of work allows her to show up as.
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The newsroom photograph credit in the source appears as “Luis Alvarez/Getty Images.” The piece also includes the name “Ashley Rivera Mercado.”
tech career layoffs burnout mental health health recovery MBA career pivot restructuring flexible work higher education