6 avenues open to someone who lost their job due to the USAID crisis

At a time when many development and aid organizations are putting a freeze on hiring, it can feel, to those who have lost their jobs due to the USAID crisis, that they have limited options. “I think a lot of us are just finding it overwhelming to know where to start,” said Laura Wigglesworth, a talent acquisition specialist who worked at CARE until it, too, was impacted by the United States’ withdrawal of aid and development funding. USAIDStopWork estimates that over 176,000 people — nearly 20,000 based in the United States — have lost their jobs since President Donald Trump made the decision to significantly reduce the United States Agency for International Development and suspend most of its programs. The effects are being felt across the sector as other organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee, Mercy Corps, and the Danish Refugee Council, struggle to maintain staffing levels without U.S. funding. Thousands are now scrambling for work in an oversaturated job market. While looking for a position within the sector is certainly still an option, development career experts told Devex that those impacted do have other avenues. “For those who just want to find a job, that's great. We can pivot them into other services and skill development pathways,” said Kyle Dietrich, founder of Grounded Idealist, a collective that supports individuals and organizations during transition. From retiring to retraining to pivoting to the private sector to founding a new company, experts laid out several avenues former USAID staffers and others navigating the unemployment abyss can explore. 1. Consulting work Staying in the sector and offering skills on a consultancy basis is one way of earning during this period of uncertainty. “Probably anyone who works in this space has the skills to add value as a consultant,” said Sarah Steller, director of Keylime, a marketplace that matches international development organizations with consultants. As employers battle to stay afloat financially amid broader aid cuts, they are also more likely to offer short-term contracts rather than permanent positions, Steller added. On Devex’s jobs board, hundreds of calls for consultants have been posted in the last week alone. These include a posting from the Asian Development Bank for a financial consultant, one from the World Resources Institute for a human resources expert, and another from the Food and Agriculture Organization looking for a beekeeping specialist. Consultancies in funding are particularly popular right now, said Steller, with organizations looking for people with experience working with funders such as the United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office or the European Union, as well as those who have worked on private sector partnerships. “There is definitely still an opportunity to write grants for other government donors and [respond to] other [requests for proposals],” Joanne Sonenshine, a funding adviser to corporate sustainability leaders, told Devex. The challenge, however, is that with so many people looking for work, as with any vacant permanent positions, the market is “hyper competitive,” said Steller. Candidates should therefore think about what their niche might be and learn what the market is for their services before they dive in, she advised. 2. Transition into state and local jobs USAID staffers as government employees are well-placed to move into other areas of state and local government, said Dietrich. “This is a really big opportunity. … It brings a lot of these deeply committed service-oriented Americans to invest in their own country at a time when I think a lot of them feel othered because they've been so internationally oriented at a time when that work has been devalued,” he shared. Civic Match, a program launched by Work for America, a nonprofit initiative tackling the government staffing, is supporting former USAID staffers in translating their internationally-focused skill sets for a state and local context. “There’s a huge need in state and local government for contract procurement management, program project management, policy analysts, and research data analytics, which are some of the top skill sets that we see from folks coming out of USAID,” said Caitlin Lewis, executive director of Work for America. Dozens of former staffers are already in the final stages of securing such jobs, she shared, including a former local partner adviser with USAID’s Office of HIV/AIDS who is up for a position with her local councilman’s office in Virginia Beach, while another former staffer has already been hired in Indianapolis’ city government, Lewis said. Even with the potential for the government to make federal funding cuts, Lewis said state and local governments are always hiring because they have to continue to deliver critical functions such as clean water, education, and public safety. Some are even taking steps to specifically attract former USAID workers. Maryland has made it easier for those affected by the cuts to obtain a teaching certification, while Pennsylvania is helping to ensure federal expertise meets their state civil service requirements, Lewis said. “New York, Hawaii, New Mexico, and California have also all done a lot of outreach to federal workers,” she added. 3. Move into a different sector entirely There are many fields to which the skills of former USAID staff can transfer. Some are related to development, including philanthropy, think tanks, or nonprofits focused on local issues. Others might be entirely new territory, such as the private sector or technology. Wigglesworth suggested there might be potential in academic institutions or consumer goods companies. “A lot of folks [have] expressed an interest in moving to the private sector,” said Jeremy Schifeling, a career development speaker and author. While that could mean focusing on sustainability or corporate social responsibility in conglomerates, it could also mean exploring unrelated passion projects; something Sonenshine shared she is seeing people lean into. “I've seen people completely pivot and look into doing things that are more personally of interest,” she said, sharing that one former USAID staffer is becoming a yoga instructor. Dietrich, a trauma-informed leadership coach himself, began Grounded Idealist after he was laid off as a USAID federal contractor within the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance in February. 4. Become a development entrepreneur The issues USAID was created to tackle still exist and therefore require solutions. “The needs, regardless of the issue you care about, still exist, but the actors, the places that are going to be mobilized and fill these gaps, are not really emerging clearly,” said Dietrich, explaining that this is an opportunity for people to rebuild the future of the sector. He guessed that “10% or 20% of us are going to have to become entrepreneurs.” That could mean starting up nonprofits, social enterprises, or businesses to address issues pertaining to hunger, conflict, health, or climate change. “We hope a lot of them will be social innovations or socially conscious ventures that continue to build off of the sectors and the experience of service that they've dedicated their lives to,” Dietrich said. As she considers what’s next, Wigglesworth said she is ruminating on several ideas related to social entrepreneurship and talent acquisition. 5. Take a break If a person has the resources, during this transitional moment it could be a good idea to take some time off, said Katie Latham, founder of Changemaker Careers. “It’s encouraging folks to take that moment to pause and reflect and really understand what matters to them most as they look at next steps, and know that dream jobs change as we, and our circumstances, change,” she said. After all, the dismantling of USAID has been what Dietrich called “a collective trauma” with the potential to trigger “existential and identity crises” for those who have worked and studied for years to be in development. “Suddenly, the container for that deep transformation that they've dedicated their lives to has not only been dismantled but targeted,” he said. With that in mind, taking some time to regroup and figure out the next steps could be advised. “Whatever your circumstance allows for, take some time to move through the grief, to feel the feelings,” Latham said. For those of a certain age, retiring altogether is another option, although Schifeling warned that the rising costs of living as a result of inflation and Trump-imposed tariffs have put that out of reach for many. “There's a feeling of ‘I could have retired if my retirement account had stayed strong like it had been the last couple years, but now it’s taken a hit and the price of everything is going up.’ It just feels like a ‘walls closing in’ mentality,” he explained. 6. Educate yourself Time away could provide an opportunity to train in a new area or skill. “If you have built an entire career around wanting to serve others in need, it would be crazy to say I have to throw that away permanently, so it’s how do I weather the storm and continue to build up my accomplishments, and my credentials?” Schifeling said. That doesn’t necessarily have to be in the form of graduate school, said Wigglesworth. “I'm much more of a proponent of bite-sized things than going back to school and getting a master's degree, which is a big investment. And for a lot of us who have 20 or more years in the field, it's just not feasible,” she said. The likes of Coursera provide courses, some of which are free, on topics ranging from psychological first aid to graphic design. Wigglesworth herself has upskilled on generative artificial intelligence. Schifeling, however, urged people to think carefully about what skills might be of use in the future. A few years ago, it may have made sense to learn how to code or to invest in data skills — but today, many of those tasks are “being eaten up by AI,” he said. For Latham, experience often goes farther than education so she suggested also taking the time to gain “volunteer or build something on your own, depending what skills you're looking to use,” versus focusing on completing an online course or certificate. “This is the time when we hope people won't just cede the space and surrender their passion and their purpose, but retool, reimagine, ideate, and be part of building the future of this sector, because there is going to be a future of it,” said Dietrich.