Career emergency: What to do if you’ve lost your USAID job

After weeks of chaos brought on by the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, the vast majority of USAID employees, contractors, and implementing partner staff are facing a jobless future. For everyone, it’s been an incredible shock, and few people have a backup plan when it feels like their entire sector is in the same boat. To help our community think through how to start coming to terms with this new reality and what the next steps may look like, Devex convened a career emergency webinar on Friday targeted to those who have been directly affected. Devex President and Editor-in-Chief Raj Kumar assembled a panel of sector leaders, including former USAID Administrator Gayle Smith and several others, who offered context, comfort, and guidance to those dealing with this unprecedented crisis. “While this is big for each of you, those of you who have suddenly seen your jobs evaporate, this is big for all of us, so our commitment is to you and with you,” Smith told the audience. “This isn't a one-off. We will be with you all the way through this.” Kumar and the panel also spoke of the importance of leaning into community and support networks, both professional and personal, and trying to push back against feelings of shame. “You did not land in this situation through anything … that you did,” Kumar stressed. “You need to reach out for help, and you need to know that there are many opportunities out there for you,” added Scott Beale, executive coach and former head of global operations at Peace Corps. “They’re not necessarily going to knock on your door, but if you knock on someone else’s door, some of those doors will eventually open.” Here are a few more key takeaways and practical tips from our discussion that aimed to help USAID professionals navigate the devastating fallout of the U.S. aid freeze. You can also watch the event in its entirety below. You have more options than you might think For USAID workers returning to the development job search, it’s understandable to think that you’ll just be one of many others merely competing for fewer opportunities. “I do think this is going to be a rough period … especially because of the sheer numbers of people who are going to be out looking for those jobs,” Joel S. Hellman, dean of the Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, acknowledged. But as several on the panel explained, if you want to continue to do purpose-driven work, your skills will be needed, and with an increasingly diverse set of stakeholders. “There are going to be spaces both in the traditional ways we think about development today [and] new spaces and entrepreneurial spaces that are going to be emerging quickly tomorrow that need your talents,” Fatema Sumar, executive director of the Harvard Center for International Development, said. While the development job market is likely to tighten for many, know that there will be a need for other funders and the private sector to “pick up some of this incredible gap,” Sumar said. “Philanthropy is going to have to change [and] other governments are going to [have] to step in, even if they don’t want to because there's going to be crises all around the world that somebody has to solve,” she added. Smith advised looking at U.S. state and local governments for an uptick in relevant roles, given what could be a significant “reduction in federal support for disaster and crisis response, and therefore, a greater amount of pressure on state and local governments,” she said, adding that, “the advantage you have there is, you’ve served the federal government, so you go in with a certain set of skills.” Reflect on what you do best, and how to convey it “As someone that's made multiple transitions in my own career across different sectors, skills are transferable, your talents are transferable, and you have a lot to offer,” Sumar said to those thinking about how their previous experience could translate to new job opportunities. Understanding how what you’ve done in one area can apply to a new space is not always easy, said Zaid A. Zaid, head of U.S. public policy at Cloudflare and a former senior attorney adviser to the general counsel at USAID. Speaking from his own job search experience, he said it was helpful to think about what you might say in a short elevator pitch that gets to the heart of what you have to offer. “Essentially, my job was to get shit done, but that’s not something you can put on a résumé,” Zaid said. But it’s important to articulate your unique problem-solving ability, which holds incredible and broad value, especially if framed a certain way. According to Hellman, rather than saying, “I'm someone who does humanitarian relief, or I'm someone who does post-conflict assistance,” talk more about how you can take on “really difficult, naughty, complex, [and] wicked problems” and “figure out a way to get things done and have impact on the ground. That’s a very valuable set of skills.” The aim is to “talk about your experience in a way that will resonate [in] a different context,” said Kate Warren, Devex’s executive vice president and executive editor. This includes not assuming that all recruiters in the social impact space understand terminology that may be sector-specific. “Probably everyone on this call knows what the ‘interagency’ is, but if that is on your résumé, and you are looking outside of the U.S. government or outside of the Washington corridor, people don’t know what that means. So you've got to translate interagency into something like cross-functional,” Sumar said. Identify transferrable skills that are in demand As Hellman explained, this could be the right time “to think about [the] skills you want to build further into your career … in order to help you for potential pivots or to deal with what's to come.” Knowing the types of roles and specialty skills that a broad set of social impact recruiters are looking for can help you round out any missing skills as well as what you already have in your toolbox that may be worth highlighting in your CV. Areas like project management, procurement, and budget management have long been in demand and will continue to be, the panel said. But there are others that might not instantly come to mind that you may already have foundational skills for. “A big one is event coordination and logistics,” Sumar said. “So many of you who have planned visits, who have planned events, who have planned all those things, a lot of companies, a lot of universities, a lot of spaces need people who know how to execute logistics.” Other areas to consider for those who have extensive USAID project experience include writing and communications and policy analysis, she added. Update, Feb. 10, 2025: This article has been updated to include details from the event. Ready to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by the recruiters who matter most? Update your Devex profile and start connecting with top global development recruiters now.