Laid Off
and Lost.

Titles are temporary.
Identity is not.

Most career books teach you how to craft a new resume. This one tells you the whole truth about what happens when the career comes to an end and nobody talks about it: the identity crisis that emerges when you lose your title, the isolation that silently worsens the situation, and the process of clarifying what you are actually trying to rebuild.

It took a year of interviews with 29 people to write it down: a Pentagon executive who lost two identities within one morning, a USAID employee who witnessed the collapse of her agency, a professional disc golf player whose career was never planned, a single mother who returned to school at 52 to finally chase her lifelong passion, a federal prison employee who earns the respect of those serving life sentences by working with dignity. Different experiences, backgrounds, and titles. The same core problems underneath.

Savan Kong wrote this book while still in the middle of the transition himself, not on the other side of it. He was unemployed for a year after leaving the Department of Defense. He received an ADHD diagnosis at 46. Christmas was tough; the budget was tough. He is still figuring it out, and that honesty runs through every page.

If you just lost a job and do not know who you are without it, this is for you. If you are still searching and doing everything right but feel completely alone in it, this is for you. If you have got the next job lined up but cannot name what you are actually rebuilding toward, this is for you too.

Each chapter ends with a Try This section: specific, doable actions for that week, not someday advice. You are not behind. You are not broken.

Listen while you read.

Every conversation in the book started as an episode. Go deeper with the audio.