Mindset and Resilience: Jasmine Vo's Journey from Layoffs to Growth

In this episode of Guidance Counselor 2.0, host Taylor Desseyn spoke with Jasmine Vo, Senior Frontend Engineer at Synchrony, about her remarkable journey from pre-med to tech, surviving multiple layoffs, and developing the mindset practices that transformed her approach to career challenges. Jasmine's story demonstrates how combining technical growth with personal development can create resilience in an unpredictable job market.

From Pre-Med to Code: An Unexpected Discovery

Jasmine's entry into technology began like many others - with a single line of code that changed everything. Starting college on the traditional pre-med track that her parents encouraged, she discovered programming during her first summer.

"I wrote a line of code and that changed everything," she recalled. The code was simple - "D++ writing hello world to a file" in C++ - but its impact was profound.

"I didn't even know code existed or software engineering was a field. All I knew was pre-med and being a lawyer. That's all my parents drilled into me was lawyer or doctor."

This discovery led to changing her major to Computer Science, but financial difficulties during COVID prevented her from completing her degree. Rather than abandon her newfound passion, Jasmine took an unconventional path that would teach her valuable lessons about resilience and adaptability.

The Real Estate Detour: Unexpected Skills Development

Facing financial constraints, Jasmine moved to Atlanta and tried real estate for a year. While the career didn't align with her interests, it provided crucial skills that would later benefit her tech career.

"I really missed using that cognitive side of my brain. Real estate's really hard. It's mostly sales, which I didn't - I thought it was more like, 'oh yeah, I get to look at homes, show homes, help people find homes,' but it's a lot of sales."

The experience involved significant cold calling and networking in a new city, pushing her out of her comfort zone in ways that would prove valuable later. "I learned so much while doing real estate. I really had to push myself out of my comfort zone, like door knocking and cold calling. And it taught me a lot of soft skills."

This period reinforced her desire to return to technology: "I just missed coding and using that analytical side of my brain. I didn't feel like I was fulfilled."

Self-Directed Learning and Community Support

Unable to return to college due to financial constraints, Jasmine turned to free online resources. After exploring Free Code Camp and other platforms, she found 100 Devs, a community-based learning program that provided structure and support.

"When you're trying to learn online, you feel so alone because you are alone. Something like 100 Devs where Leon at the time was doing live classes every Tuesday, Thursday, 7 to 9 PM, he was online live with everyone. You're there with hundreds, sometimes thousands of people."

The community aspect proved crucial for motivation and support: "It's really big community that you can lean on for help if you get stuck and be assigned homework. There's people from the first cohort that are there to help you."

Within three months of intensive self-directed learning, Jasmine landed her first tech job, immediately increasing her earning potential: "That was a pivotal moment for me because now I was making more than my parents combined."

The First Layoff: Learning About Vulnerability

Success in her first role led Jasmine to focus intensively on work, perhaps too intensively. "Really just dove into my career and learning as much as I could in my first year. Kind of stopped networking, kind of stopped [activities] outside of work because I was just trying to be the best at my job."

Then reality struck with brutal timing: "My whole team got laid off three days before I put a deposit on my home."

This experience taught her about the unpredictable nature of the tech industry and the importance of maintaining professional relationships. Her response demonstrated the power of community connections built earlier through 100 Devs and platforms like Twitter.

"I was kind of in crunch mode, panic mode, reached out to my network on X or Twitter and a couple big people retweeted my stuff, like people with big followings, like Daniel Johnson, James Quick, people that I've connected with over the years."

The networking efforts, particularly through documenting her learning journey with 100 Days of Code, paid off with multiple opportunities: "From there I got a lot of DMs, a lot of job opportunities. I was interviewing, had an offer, a couple offers."

The Startup Experience: Growth Through Challenges

Jasmine chose to join a startup, attracted by the founder's vision and the opportunity for significant responsibility. The role provided accelerated learning opportunities that wouldn't have been available at larger companies.

"That was another pivotal moment in my career because I learned so much being like the front end engineering lead, leading a team of two, doing everything from the ground up, building the platform from zero to one, learning all the startup terminology as well, doing the marketing, hiring designers and just everything."

However, startups come with inherent risks, and the company eventually ran out of funding. This second career disruption could have been devastating, but Jasmine's response revealed significant personal growth.

Processing Failure and Embracing Change

The startup's closure initially triggered feelings of personal failure, despite Jasmine having no control over the company's financial situation. "I felt like a failure because the startup failed, because I got laid off. I never took the time to process that."

This time, instead of immediately jumping into another role, she took time for self-reflection and processing: "I had to realize that I'm not the failure - the startup failed, but I didn't fail. This is just a transition in my life for growth."

This realization led to a fundamental shift in perspective about change and challenges: "What I've realized over time is that the only thing in life that is constant is change. If you look at nature, nature is always changing, going through seasons, evolving. We look at change with a negative perspective, but it's actually just part of evolution and human evolution."

The 75 Hard Challenge: Building Mental Resilience

During her transition period, Jasmine embarked on the 75 Hard challenge, a mental toughness program requiring daily completion of specific tasks including two workouts (one outdoors), reading 10 pages, drinking a gallon of water, following a diet, and taking progress photos.

"Everything that I did during 75 Hard I'm still doing now. Maybe not to the extreme of every single day - some days I give myself a little more grace, but I still do it pretty much every day. I wake up at 5 AM, read, meditate, work out, walk, and then get my day started."

The challenge provided structure and demonstrated her capacity for consistency and self-discipline. More importantly, it established habits that support both physical and mental well-being during stressful periods.

"It's also important to relax as much as you work. You need to relax. That's how your body will be able to keep up with you."

The Seven Steps of Manifestation: A Strategic Mindset Framework

Through her journey, Jasmine developed a structured approach to goal achievement that goes beyond positive thinking to include concrete behavioral changes. Her seven-step manifestation process provides a practical framework for career development:

Step 1: Clear Vision - "Be clear in your vision, know who you want to be, what that person looks like. How does that person show up every single day? Because if you don't know who or what your vision is, how will you know when you get there?"

Step 2: Remove Fear and Doubt - "Removing fear and doubt and self-limiting beliefs about yourself or beliefs that you've grown over time that could be from childhood trauma or things from experiences that you've had."

Step 3: Align Your Behavior - "The law of attraction states that the energy that you put out into the world, you get back and really need to become aligned with the behavior of the person that you want to be."

This step involved practical changes: "Someone who works a 9 to 5 in tech is going to be working from 9 to 5. So I took my time from 9 to 5 to learn, to network and just use that as work time and put myself in that schedule before it even happened."

Step 4: Overcome Tests - "There's always going to be people, things, experiences, obstacles that show up. This is your time to lean into your faith muscle and really believe in yourself."

Step 5: Embrace Gratitude - "Gratitude is so important because as you get to your dream, you might want to keep pushing forward. And that's where you can overwork yourself if you don't take that step to just really be mindful."

Step 6: Turn Envy into Inspiration - "You really just need to use that as inspiration to see that is where I could get one day. Being jealous is actually a good thing because it shows you that's something that you want."

Step 7: Trust the Universe - "My plans have never worked out. What's more important is just being very present in the moment and aligning your behavior with your vision of where you want to go, but not being so stuck in like, you have to get to this point by this point."

Meditation as a Tool for Mental Clarity

Jasmine's meditation practice goes beyond simple relaxation to include specific techniques for addressing limiting beliefs. "Meditation is more about being mindful and being present of how you're feeling and you can use it as a tool to remove fear and doubt."

Her visualization technique involves treating negative thoughts as clouds: "I would sit there and think of every limiting fear or belief as a cloud. And with every breath, the cloud disappears."

This practice provides a concrete method for processing difficult emotions and maintaining mental clarity during challenging periods.

Education Philosophy: Multiple Paths to Success

Based on her experience with both traditional education and self-directed learning, Jasmine advocates for educational approaches that match individual learning styles and circumstances.

"It depends on who you are. If you like structure and you like going to college where you are surrounded by people that you can lean on for help in person, and if you're someone who needs that, then that might be the route for you."

However, she emphasizes that self-directed learning can be equally effective: "If you're someone who's very self-driven, you can keep yourself on structure by yourself, then I think that going to self-paced bootcamp route is very ideal because one, you can save a lot of money."

She acknowledges that certain technical areas may benefit from formal education: "If you're going into something that's more nuanced like AI or ML, then you kind of do need to go to college."

The Importance of Soft Skills

Throughout her journey, Jasmine recognized that technical skills alone weren't sufficient for career success. Her diverse work experience - from Papa John's to real estate to call centers - provided crucial interpersonal skills.

"All of my weird jobs that I've had before, like working at a call center or retail or working at a snow cone shop, all those taught me soft skills that I use today that I wouldn't have without them."

These experiences provided confidence in communication, customer service, and handling difficult situations - skills that prove valuable in any technical role.

Current Role and Continuous Growth

Now six months into her role as Senior Frontend Engineer at Synchrony, Jasmine continues applying the mindset practices and habits that helped her navigate previous challenges. Her routine maintains the structure that proved effective during her transition period.

Her preference for remote work with occasional in-person interaction reflects understanding of her optimal working conditions: "My ideal setup is remote with one in-office meeting a month. Remote obviously gives you more flexibility and the ability to have more focused time. But I do love to connect with people."

Lessons for Career Resilience

Jasmine's journey offers several key insights for building career resilience:

Embrace Change as Growth: Rather than viewing career disruptions as failures, reframe them as opportunities for evolution and skill development.

Maintain Professional Relationships: Networking during good times provides crucial support during challenging periods. Community connections can generate opportunities when needed most.

Develop Mental Practices: Having structured approaches to processing setbacks and maintaining positive mindset provides stability during uncertain times.

Balance Work and Personal Development: Intensive focus on work shouldn't come at the expense of relationships, health, or personal growth activities.

Learn from All Experiences: Skills developed in seemingly unrelated roles often prove valuable in unexpected ways.

Create Structure During Transitions: Having daily routines and goals provides stability and progress momentum during periods of uncertainty.

The Value of Doing Hard Things

Throughout the conversation, Jasmine emphasized the importance of challenging oneself: "Do the hard thing. Your brain is not going to like it at first. That's just a natural feeling. It would be crazy to think that you'd feel confident doing something that you've never done before."

This philosophy applies to technical challenges, career transitions, and personal development activities. The 75 Hard challenge exemplified this approach - committing to difficult daily practices that build mental resilience and confidence.

Looking Forward: Continuous Evolution

Jasmine's story illustrates that career development is an ongoing process rather than a destination. "With new levels comes new devils" - each stage of growth brings new challenges that require continued adaptation and learning.

Her approach combines practical skill development with mental and emotional preparation for handling setbacks. This holistic approach to career development acknowledges that professional success requires more than technical competence.

Conclusion

Jasmine Vo's journey from pre-med student to senior frontend engineer demonstrates that career paths rarely follow straight lines, and that resilience can be developed through intentional practice and mindset work.

Her experience shows that setbacks like layoffs can become catalysts for growth when approached with the right framework and support systems. The combination of technical skill development, community engagement, and personal development practices creates a foundation for long-term career success.

Most importantly, her story illustrates that taking time to process challenges and develop coping strategies isn't just helpful for emotional well-being - it's a practical career strategy that builds the resilience needed to thrive in dynamic industries.

For professionals facing similar challenges, Jasmine's example demonstrates that with intentional effort, support systems, and the right mindset, career disruptions can become opportunities for growth and advancement rather than just obstacles to overcome.

This blog post summarizes insights from Guidance Counselor 2.0, a live streaming show hosted by Taylor Desseyn that explores career development in the tech industry. Find the full video of the episode and more here: Mindset in the Job Search w/Jasmine Vo