Laid off from her tech job, social media became her safety net

Amid uncertainty, tech-savvy young people are turning passion projects into income streams.

When Los Angeles-based Chloe Shih, 32, started posting videos on social media five years ago, it was primarily a side project. She shared advice on how to navigate the world of tech — a space she knew well, having previously worked for Discord, TikTok, Meta and Google. Then, in January 2024, she was laid off.

She continued to post while she searched for a new role. "It wasn't my goal to make (social media) my career," she says. "I invested all my career into tech, and so that was what I was most familiar with."

But the more she posted, the more her audience grew. The real shift came when her "30 lessons by 30" series, which focused on personal growth, went viral. Touching on themes like why failing is good and what to look for when searching for a new job, the series pushed her Instagram following to 800,000. Within two years of consistent posting, Shih earned her first $100,000 — about 95% from sponsorships and 5% from ad revenue. Soon after, she made $250,000, matching her base tech earnings.

Chloe Shih in San Francisco. Photo: Reuters/Chloe Shih

"I was like, 'Oh my God, that's a salary,'" she says. But the journey wasn't an easy one. At the start, balancing a busy work schedule with late-night content creation was exhausting, and moving from having a steady paycheck to the unpredictability of a freelancer's income required a mindset change.

"There has to be a sense of faith and confidence in you as the entrepreneur and the creator to know what other products and services you can provide to make a steady enough income," she says.

The wider trend

Facing job insecurity, Gen Z and millennials are turning passion projects into income streams. A 2024 Glassdoor–Harris poll found that 39% of American employees have a side hustle to supplement their income, with the figure rising to 57% for Gen Z and 48% for millennials.

Alistair Kirk, an investment professional who focuses on simplifying personal finance, says social media has opened doors previous generations didn't have. "I actually think it's important for people to partake in this change, to make use of the technology we have in this age, to develop their own personal brands and to continue to provide some certain level of security for themselves," he says. However, don't just quit, Kirk adds — test the profitability of your side hustle and build an emergency fund too.

Economic shocks — from COVID-19 to rising inflation and the transformative impact of AI on the job market — have accelerated this trend. Gen Z are facing a much tougher job market than their predecessors, according to a World Economic Forum study.

Trust between employees and employers has broken down, Kirk adds. "In terms of security, I think people are willing to take the risk because they don't feel secure in their jobs anymore. The goalpost keeps shifting."

Takeaways

Build a community before you need it. Even if you are in a stable job and want to do something else, build a community first; an income is not always guaranteed. "You never know what kind of career you can make out of the space," Shih says, "because there are people with huge followings that don't make anything, and then there are people with small followings who make quite a bit."

Learn to mitigate risks. Sponsorships can ebb and flow, warns Shih. "You just never know when you're going to get it," she says. "But I think that there's a lot of ways to mitigate those risks, like just understanding the industry and market."

Have an emergency fund. "If you quit for whatever reason, have a cushion and know the business you're jumping into is profitable," Kirk says.