About Unemployed Standup
Being unemployed shouldn't mean doing it alone.
When you lose a job, you lose more than a paycheck.
You lose the morning meetings. The coworkers. The routine. The accountability. The random conversations. The feeling that people know what you're working on and where you're trying to go next.
So we made a standup for people who don't have one.
Every weekday at 9am CT, unemployed people from everywhere show up together.
Five people get the mic.
They answer three questions:
- What did you do yesterday?
- What are you doing today?
- What do you need?
Then the next person goes.
That's it.
No career coaches. No webinars. No awkward networking breakout rooms. No pretending you have your shit figured out.
Just people showing up.
Unemployed doesn't mean useless.
The person looking for work next to you might know the founder you need to meet.
They might have interviewed at a company that's hiring.
They might be a designer who can look at your portfolio, an engineer who can help with something you're building, or a salesperson who knows someone in your industry.
And unemployment is temporary.
Someone attending today might start a new job next week. And when they do, we hope they stick around and help the people still looking.
Show up → meet people → get hired → help the next person.
That's the community we want to build.
This isn't a support group. It's a standup.
Being unemployed can suck. We don't need to pretend otherwise.
But we're not here every morning to spend an hour talking about how bad the job market is.
We're here to keep moving.
Build something. Apply somewhere. Meet someone. Take an interview. Learn something. Help somebody. Hell, take the day off if you need it.
Then come back tomorrow and tell us about it.
Yesterday?
Today?
What do you need?
Keep it short. Keep it moving.
And you don't have to be unemployed to show up.
The people getting the mic are looking for what's next.
The people watching don't have to be.
Founders, recruiters, hiring managers, former attendees, friends and anyone else are welcome to lurk.
Because five unemployed people talking to five unemployed people is nice.
Five unemployed people talking in front of 500 people who might be able to open a door is something else entirely.
How it works
- 01
Show up at 9am CT
One standup a day, every weekday. No episodes, no replays to catch up on. You either showed up or you didn't.
- 02
Five people get the mic
Ask for the mic, tell the room what you'd talk about, and people back the pitches they want to hear. Top three by backing get in. Two more are drawn at random, because luck is a real part of job hunting.
- 03
Ninety seconds each
What did you do yesterday? What are you doing today? What do you need help with? That's the whole format.
- 04
Everyone else helps
Applause, fire, laughing, and the one that matters: I can help. Intros, leads, feedback, collaboration. Then everyone goes back to their inbox.
Our mission
Give people somewhere to show up while they're figuring out what's next.
We're not trying to replace LinkedIn, Indeed, recruiters or your job search.
We're just putting one small thing back that unemployment takes away:
the 9am standup.