Amanda Snyder Cathey said she lost her job the day after she finalized her divorce.

The product designer said she was surprised to learn that she qualified for certain benefits.

The experience inspired her to share her findings with others by vibe coding a free layoff support tool.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Amanda Snyder Cathey, a senior product designer in Santa Fe, New Mexico, who built a free layoff support tool. Her identity and background have been verified. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

The day after finalizing my divorce in February, I got laid off from a senior product design role at a real estate tech company. A few weeks later, my landlord told me I had to quickly move out because the house I was renting had a septic issue.

I knew getting laid off was a possibility. We had several layoffs during the five years I was at my last company. But it was still a shocker.

I have three daughters. The oldest is starting college in the fall, so I had to reapply for financial aid at every school she wanted to get into since my income had changed drastically.

I was laid off once before, but I quickly found another job, so I never applied for unemployment benefits. I knew I'd need more runway this time because it's a very different job market now.

When you lose your job, you're in a fog. It's just very overwhelming. I didn't want to be a deer in the headlights, so I took some time off just to get myself together and figure out what to do next.

One night, I was brainstorming with a friend about things I could build with AI, because in every job interview I've had, I've been asked about how I use it.

At the same time, I saw a problem based on my experience finding the resources I needed most. I also noticed all these people on LinkedIn talking about layoffs and how they were struggling. Building a layoff support tool seemed like the perfect use case.

So what I did was I created a one-stop shop where people can search by state for information on accessing unemployment benefits, health insurance, health coverage, food assistance, and other essential resources. I made sure to include mental health resources because getting laid off is a real blow to your self-confidence.

The tool, called RIF Surfer, lives on a website that also has a checklist of steps to follow after a layoff, plus information I found surprising and helpful after mine. For example, I didn't know that you could still qualify for unemployment benefits even after receiving a severance package, or that I could qualify for Medicaid. So, it's a lot of me trying to demystify some of these things.

I'm a designer, not an engineer, but I built RIF Surfer in one week by vibe coding with Claude. I was inspired by the gov.uk website, which has a benefits finder. It's very utilitarian. I wanted to keep my site very basic and straightforward.

I found it fairly easy, like being an art director, which I'm familiar with, because as a designer, it comes with the territory. I just thought of Claude as a cognitive partner. It felt natural.

The tool and website it's on didn't cost anything to make beyond my Claude subscription and some additional usage fees. One night, I hit my usage limit and paid around $50 so I could keep working because I was really into it.

My plan is to keep RIF Surfer free for users. I think where it could be monetized would be outplacement firms or enterprise. Companies could white-label it and tailor the information for the folks they lay off.

For now, though, I just want it to be a free community resource β€” a soft landing and a way for folks to bounce back. We've all got to learn how to surf this wave.

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