They lost their jobs in 2025. Here’s how they pivoted

More than 280,000 people have lost their jobs worldwide since the Trump administration shuttered the U.S. Agency for International Development in 2025. Former federal workers and contractors had spent years, sometimes decades, building their careers through USAID. Here, six former USAID workers share what they have learned after abruptly losing their jobs in the year since the agency shut. Brian In 2019, Brian Pedersen and his husband took a one-day workshop about buying bed and breakfasts, thinking maybe later they would start one. But when Pedersen saw in early 2025 that he was losing his global health career of over 20 years, their plan moved up. In February 2025, they contacted a broker. In April, Pedersen — who worked in social and behavior change full-time with USAID-funded projects at international organizations — lost his position. By September, they bought an already-up-and-running business in Galena, Illinois: Miss Murphy’s Bed and Breakfast — soon to be Miss Murphy’s High Street Inn — is a six-bedroom house located a three-hour drive west of Chicago. While it’s a shift from global health, Pedersen said he sees ties to his previous career when he’s looking after guests. “I’m hoping that they feel cared for, which is the same thing we try to do in global health,” he said. “That’s how I’m sort of bridging the gap between what I used to do and what I’m doing now.” Munkaila After his USAID-funded position in Accra, Ghana, ended in April 2025, Munkaila Mohammed spent months in the house, watching everyone around him go to work or school while he applied to job after job unsuccessfully. By August, he set up a consulting firm using his monitoring-and-evaluation expertise, and then he landed full-time work with Medtronic LABS in September. There, Mohammed used his experience writing abstracts for USAID projects to submit one for a Ghana Health Service conference. It was accepted — a first for the team, despite multiple previous attempts. While Mohammed said his USAID contractor experience helps others see him as an expert in his field, he is now skeptical of development work after how quickly USAID funding left Ghana. He’s seen how people’s expertise can’t be used if there are no resources to fund it. He said countries also need to create more sustainable systems that aren’t dependent on external funding and can withstand any shocks. “For me, that is the biggest lesson.” Monica and Hadas When Monica Bansal and Hadas Kushnir saw they were losing their climate-related positions at USAID, the two friends, who were neighbors in Washington, D.C., couldn’t find anything they wanted in their sudden, forced job search. “We just wanted our jobs,” said Kushnir. Instead, they started their own environmental limited liability company. While Kushnir has since moved to Seattle, the friends are collaborating remotely with a grant from the Navigation Fund for fired federal workers doing climate projects. They both officially lost their jobs in July. They’ve conducted surveys, along with group and individual interviews, that examine how the sudden end of U.S. foreign assistance affected environmental programs, and how those programs might continue. They’ve focused on seven countries: Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya, Mozambique, Peru, the Philippines, and Vietnam. With this project, the Momentum for the Environment Initiative, partners in former USAID countries can also be connected to funding that continues their work. The friends said through their 150 interviews, people have been thankful there’s a space to share their expertise. Before USAID closed, the friends created a network for over 600 people working with environmental projects for the agency in 65 countries. People connect to find help with projects around the world, or just to support each other. The friends said these ventures carry on the work colleagues did under USAID. “We felt like there was so much knowledge, there was so much depth, there was so much that was at risk of being lost, that's the mode we went into,” Bansal said. Jamie An immigrant from Colombia, Jamie — who asked that her full name not be used — came to the U.S. at 14. After college, she interned at an organization managing some USAID-funded projects, stayed with international work, and later got her master’s degree. In her last position, she worked at USAID supporting projects in Latin America. She took the federal workforce early resignation option, so she was on administrative leave with the agency until losing her job in September. She’s submitted over 200 job applications from her home in Washington, D.C., without landing anything. In the meantime, she volunteers with an education startup that helps youth find career paths. She sees it as a continuation of her previous work creating scholarship programs for Latino youth. “Now what I tell young people is the importance of building your social capital really early on and understanding how to use it,” she said. “Continue to build those networks.” Corinne As a former team lead and adviser at USAID, Corinne Hart integrated gender equality and women’s empowerment into economic and environmental programs. While still at USAID, Hart completed leadership coaching training and started using it in her work. After losing her job last July, she moved out of Washington, D.C., to Ocean City, Maryland. Wanting to continue using the coaching skills she had gained, she set up her new business: Hart & Co. Coaching. She started with a small workshop for former colleagues, focused on processing the loss of their USAID work and how they could move forward in their lives and careers. She’s since run it for over 100 people affected by federal funding cuts. She offers one-on-one and group leadership coaching and is hosting a women’s leadership retreat. Hart said she enjoys the new purpose of helping people visualize what kind of life they want, both professionally and personally. She’s been able to focus more on her own health and family, learning how important it is to keep your self-worth separate from your career. “Because, as we all saw, it can be taken from you at any moment.”