Mind the Gap — update + October meetups

A few weeks back, I posted an interest-check about starting an in-person group for women navigating a career transition — layoffs, burnout, pivots, the ambiguous “what now” space in between. [Original post]

The group has met a few times now and honestly it’s gone…way better than I could have hoped. It’s pretty isolating and lonely in this ambiguous space and it’s been so delightful to find and connect with others in it! Every meetup has looked a little different — one was more about the emotional processing/headspace of this “gap” whereas this week’s meetup leaned a bit more into creative career-pivot strategies.

Here’s the format for each meetup:

• Working session (1 hour) — quiet tables for unstructured, quiet body-doubling time (apply for jobs, work on a resume, build your empire, or play a few rounds of Wordle), and collaboration tables if you want feedback, interview practice, or just to talk shop
• Post-work social time — stick around after and socialize. Commiserate about the job market, trade corporate horror stories, enthrall and educate us with your latest internet rabbit hole topic, or just hang out

Who it’s for:

• Women/non-binary
• Mid-career (vs. new grads)
• Going through a transition — laid off, exploring/switching careers, taking a career break, burnout recovery, etc.

If you’re deep in active job-search mode, hitting the pavement hard, and want networking or tactical job-hunt accountability, Mind the Gap might not be what you’re looking for. The space we’re trying to foster is a bit more focused on the in-between, the curiosity, and people who are intentionally taking the space to figure out what’s next.

If any of this resonates with you and you’ve been sitting on this since the first post (or if the grayer skies are making you crave the company of a cozy community) — we’d love to have you!

Next steps — October meetups:

• Wed 10/7, 2-4pm
• Wed 10/14, 2-4pm (at a different, further-north location — testing it out)
• Sun 10/18, 11am-1pm
• Wed 10/21, 2-4pm

We meet at a cafe near 5th & Pine downtown, with one session further north. For more information and to RSVP, leave a comment! (Sorry for the extra step — Reddit’s rules mean we can’t just drop a link, so a comment works best!)

Thanks for all the interest and engagement with the original post! Hope to see you at a meetup!