I was fired today after working at a web agency for more than a year, and I also went through a breakup recently, so I'm trying to figure out my next step. I have around six years of experience and have completed more than 90 projects, including complex custom builds, but my most recent role mainly involved choosing WordPress templates, copying them onto client domains, and replacing text and images. The work was repetitive, offered little opportunity to learn, and included practices like screen monitoring, but I stayed because I needed the income.
The company began losing money, several employees were fired or moved to part-time work, and I eventually lost my position too. I'm frustrated that my experience was reduced to basic template work, and I don't want to continue competing for low-paying agency jobs or repeating the same kind of work.
I want to use this transition to learn a modern technology stack and find a more stable role, but I'm unsure what direction to choose. What should I focus on learning, and how can I present my six years of experience and past projects so I can move into better frontend or full-stack work? I'm also wondering how much AI may affect these career paths.
2 Answers
A job can simply be a way to pay the bills; you don’t need to discover your life’s purpose immediately after being fired and going through a breakup. Start with practical steps: apply for roles you can reasonably qualify for, contact former clients or colleagues, update your portfolio, and set aside consistent time to close any skill gaps.
Also, treat the warning signs from the old agency as useful information. If a company offers no skill growth, closely monitors every minute, or hires you for a different role than the one discussed, don’t ignore those signals just because the paycheck is available. Your goal is not to find a perfect job overnight, but to avoid repeating the same situation while moving toward work that uses your actual experience.
You’re not starting from zero. Six years and 90-plus projects give you a foundation; the main issue is that your latest job description doesn’t represent your full ability. Focus first on getting back on your feet, then choose one target role instead of trying to learn an entire new ecosystem at once.
For frontend work, a practical path could be JavaScript or TypeScript, React, modern CSS, testing, Git, and basic backend and database knowledge. Build two or three polished projects that show real problem-solving rather than template customization, and describe your previous custom work in terms of the features you designed, built, and shipped. AI is more likely to change how developers work than eliminate every capable developer, so learning to review, debug, and integrate AI-generated code will be useful.
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