As layoffs rise and hit Black women hardest, “fail forward” coach Kamika Dillard shares how to rebuild your confidence, career, and sense of self.
By Andrea Bossi
Essence
https://www.essence.com/
It seems like Black women in the workforce are under siege right now. Not only was there a forced exodus of hundreds of thousands of Black women in 2025 thanks to federal job cuts, but as Black unemployment rises in the face of a cooling labor market, systemic challenges, and the aftermath of axed DEI initiatives, Black women are losing their jobs at three quicker than other women. We, the economy’s proverbial “canary in a coal mine,” are in undeniable distress. This is part of what inspired Kamika Dillard to transform her experience being laid off from Microsoft last summer after six-and-a-half years into a movement.
The morning she was laid off last summer, Dillard remembers doing her New York Times Strands puzzle, themed “keep on keeping on,” and taking a screenshot of it for how it spoke to her. ”I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was just the puzzle in front of me but looking back, it [felt] kismet. A quiet message I didn’t yet know I needed,” she wrote in a reflective essay after the layoff, which wasn’t the first one she experienced. When she was let go, “that old feeling showed up. The one that says maybe I’m not good enough to be here. The one that so many of us carry quietly, even when our resumes say otherwise.”
Dillard now works as a “fail forward” coach, helping her clients re-think their next move when they’ve hit what feels like failure. She also heads her platform and podcast, “Black Women Will S.A.V.E. Black Women.” The acronym stands for support, amplify, validate, and elevate. “I want Black women to give themselves permission to fail and to stop equating failure with something being wrong. Most of what we call failure is really just data. It’s information about what worked, what didn’t, and how to move differently next time,” Dillard tells ESSENCE.
“‘Black Women Will S.A.V.E. Black Women’ is about creating spaces where we can learn out loud, share what didn’t work, and move forward without shame,” she says. “I share my own failures every episode because I know there is power in transparency. There is so much power in failure when it’s treated as information instead of indictment. The goal isn’t to avoid falling: it’s to keep moving.”
Being laid off can trigger financial stress, but it is often deeply emotional, especially when your work is tied to your value, Dillard says. “That’s what makes a layoff so destabilizing. It doesn’t just take away a paycheck: it disrupts the story we’ve been living inside. When you’ve made real sacrifices for your job—time, health, relationships, rest—and then that job disappears, it forces a reckoning. You start questioning whether any of it mattered,” she continues.
There is a timeline after experiencing being let go, which Dillard stresses is not about speed as much as it’s about direction. After a layoff, don’t treat each moment like an emergency, she says. Instead, “immediately after a layoff, the priority is information, not action. Understand your severance, benefits, and unemployment options. Give yourself space to process what just happened before jumping into job applications.” In other words, get as organized as possible. Negotiate what you can.
After settling from the first few weeks to one month after the shift, assess everything: your skills, finances, energy, and actual desires for the future. Update your resume, LinkedIn, website, and any other platforms, Dillard says. Decide if entrepreneurship is the best next move, or if there’s a strategic move for your next role. If it’s the latter, create structure around the job search, with measurable and actionable goals, like applying to three intentionally chosen jobs per day.
“Between government instability, rapid AI adoption, and shifting labor priorities, the market is moving in ways that traditional job search strategies don’t always account for,” she says. Those applying to jobs today need to have a mindset ready for the moment. “By six months, patterns start to emerge. If the search isn’t moving, this isn’t a personal failure but a signal to reassess strategy. This is often when reskilling, consulting, or a pivot becomes a thoughtful decision instead of a reactive one,” she adds.
It’s also important to not isolate yourself, especially since layoffs often affect many employees at the same time. Find your group, whether it’s former coworkers who can support you as you enter your job search or fellow coworkers who were laid off and can share resources and connections. “Community is not optional during a layoff: It’s essential,” Dillard flags. “Staying connected reminds you that this moment is shared, survivable, and temporary.”
Despite the turbulence in the job market right now, from burnout to record cuts, Dillard is seeing a silver lining: the ex-Microsoft manager sees this moment as a rare opportunity to move forward as a collective.
“We were tired. We were overextended, over-performing and carrying systems that were never designed to sustain us. This moment has forced a pause that many of us wouldn’t have chosen but one we needed,” she tells ESSENCE. In that pause is the chance to grasp at evolution. “Black women are rethinking how we work, who we work for, and what we’re willing to sacrifice.”
In other words, Dillard likens the current moment to the early days of a modern version of the Harlem Renaissance, specifically “one led by Black women, shaped by our values and rooted in collective care,” she says. “This season is not the end of something: It’s the start of something more intentional, more powerful and more ours.”
