Former (thank god) employer rejected my notice and made the resignation effective immediately - it’s so funny

Some advice, if you want it, from someone knee deep in a 25 year technology career: I have made some dumbshit decisions in my life. Really terrible ones. Some of them surrounding job loss, things that are similar to the situation you describe in this post. And I wrestled with the same internal monologue as you have here: what will they think? How will my reference go? What will their opinion do to my future job prospects? I have a cheat code for you. I like to call it the "You Don't Need To Give a Flying Fuck About Them Button Mash". Here's how it works: * Take a good look in the mirror and establish self-respect for what it is you have done, and can do, and develop a clear understanding of how you provide value in a job * Know that the only thing an employer \*ACTUALLY\* needs from you is work product, and if you know the work product they need and you can articulate it to them that you can do it, then you're 95% of the way toward winning the role because a lot of people don't understand their value; most employers can't even articulate what they need, and you can blow them away by reading between the lines to talk about the things you know they need that they don't even know * Smash the apply button on every job that is remotely interesting or that you have even a vague qualification for - jobs are funny, they teach you just as much and indeed more than they take skill to perform; chances are if you apply for a job that you don't have the exact skill for, that you can develop those skills on the job. Employers who interview candidates on express skill are passing over people with aptitude for generating skills - be the candidate that can generate the skill they need * Wrap yourself up in your skills and confidence like a security blanket, go to the interview, state your qualifications and skills, impress them with knowledge and your thirst for new things, amaze them with your insight about what they need and how you can do it, and when you're rejected move right on to the next one * Profit Jobs are just jobs, they are not life. Sometimes it's super important to foster good relationships with the right people at the right company, other times you don't matter to them and they don't matter to you. The ones that deserve the extra effort, and the people who deserve the extra attention, will make themselves known to you by their positive presence in your life. tl;dr do good work, assess your reward structure, if not good enough move on and fuck the people that don't value what you do. As long as you value what you do, you won't go wrong.