What will you do? Beyond a 6-12 month emergency fund, what other financial preparation? Will you spend 40 hours a week on job search and leetcoding?
If you think like that you will make it a priority to have money in your savings account, keep your leetcode skills sharp, and keep an eye on the job postings, occasionally applying to interesting ones (perhaps once a week), and accepting interview requests from recruiters (perhaps once a month).
The thing I find hard is when I know that my life is objectively having a negative impact on those I love and society generally. That tends to be when I spiral because at that point I know I'm better off not being here. I'm not there yet, but given the economic backdrop and my personal situation I think it's 50/50 whether I get there.
Not writing this because I'm looking for help or sympathy. I don't feel depressed. I'm a happy person and I smile a lot. For me it's a bit like sleep in that it's not something I choose or seek, but I get tired of being awake sometimes. Something like that anyway.
But I guess what I want to say is that if someone you know is being laid off and you want to help, then actually help or don't say anything at all. Don't tell them some BS about how it will be alright and how they'll get through it because when it's clearly not alright and when they're not pulling through (which I promise you is how they're seeing it) then it those words will only make them feel like more of a failure. Instead actually make sure they're alright. Give them somewhere to stay. Give them a hot meal. Don't tell them they're wanted, make them feel it, you know?
Thankfully my wife is a Marriage and Family Therapist, and earns close to what we NEED, so all of our big bills (rent and mortgage, insurances, car notes, etc) are taken care of. So that means if I get laid off, there isn't a lot of pressure on needing to find another job. But as others have said, there are plenty of unsexy jobs available.
I have also always had the idea that this is the last gig I am going to do, so if it ends, I might end up going full time into my furniture building hobby. Take it from a few grand a year to a few grand a month by working full time at it instead of tired nights and weekends.
Now for your question:
Now I live in Germany, so 6-12 month fund isn't even necessary as in case of a layoff, as I've worked for long enough, I'll get 1 year reduced paycheck that will keep my bills paid.
But I've saved the emergency fund nevertheless.
Honestly, it's the only thing I have control. And of course, if I get laid off, I'll do what is needed to do.
If companies want me to leetcode, I'll leetcode. If companies want me to prepare better for whiteboard interviews, I'll also do it.
Here in Germany it isn't very common, they mostly give you a take home exercise, but in case of a layoff, you should be prepared to take action on what is needed for you to get back to a job.
I wouldn't be overly concerned, people think of those scenarios as very dire, with mass unemployment.
In case such thing happens and it is as dire as you think, social chaos will be huge and governments will need to find a solution for this problem. Even if that means sending all IT workers to start digging holes, to fill it out with dirty over again. Just be ready to work on whatever comes and on adapting yourself to any new situation.
I hope we never have to dig holes together, but in case we do, let's make it fun :)
If you are a skilled IT professional, that is healthy and can talk, write and deal with situations in an analytical way, you'll find a solution. I find it sad that people that are very dedicated to their jobs have this sort of thoughts, whether they will make ends meet in case something out of ordinary happens. It is very likely that you will.
This might mean taking some paycut and needing to refinance or rethink your finances, but it won't be the end for you. Just chill and relax. Life also has up and downs and you likely have it better than most.
Also learn to see your possibilities without your job. This comment makes me think you are too attached to your current situation. Maybe if you were digging up holes or working as a cashier on a wall mart, you'd still be happy and figuring things out.
And to wrap up, enjoy your life, you only live once, to waste your time being worried about it.
Even if you get a layoff package, EI here takes that into account. For example if you get a 3 month severance, then your EI will be approved and start in 3 months, basically pretending like you were still working those 3 months.
Then I update my resume, update my LinkedIn, start setting up some job alerts, set myself to "looking for work" so recruiters will see me.
I have a couple of recruiters that I reach out to as well.
I have unfortunately been on this treadmill more than once. It's tough. The biggest thing to make sure is you start looking and keep looking for work. Once you start spending a week or two binging shows or playing videogames without a single resume going out, you're going to be in a bad place.
Edit:
To your specific question, no. 40 hours a week doing interviews, jobhunting and leetcode is absolutely not necessary.
When I am off work and looking I would say I spend about an hour or two each morning looking for jobs, replying to recruiters, etc. I do try to keep a normal schedule so I don't treat it like a vacation. No sleeping in excessively, no staying up excessively late.
Other than that, I mostly do spend my days on what I want to. Take walks, play games, work on side projects, whatever. It's a good time to rest and destress, just don't let yourself stop pushing for a new job.
One other important thing is when I am seriously job hunting, I reply to every recruiter who messages or emails me. Regardless of if I am interested in the job or not, it's good to connect and they might find something else. Being polite goes a long way because they are very used to being ignored or having people be downright rude to them.
Tech prep: I’ll probably find an interesting open source project and work on that while doing some leetcoding and system design on the side.
Job search: I noticed there is a number of openings at banks, insurance companies, and other not so sexy places here in Seattle.
I would do the following (in order):
1) I would immediately start reaching out to friends/former coworkers to see if there were any opportunities out there. (3mo. - 6mo.)
2) I would reach out to consulting firms to see if there were any work available. (3mo.)
3) Would freelance for a while to see if I could drum up some longer term consulting work. (6mo.)
4) Look for a job outside of the tech industry that could leverage my technical work or problem solving ability. (6mo.)
5) Move to a lower cost geo, change careers, retrain or go back to school for a career in another sector. (∞ mo.)
In parallel with above.
* I would continue to contribute to open source to keep my skillset up to date.
* Provide some training on the skills I do have, give talks at software conventions (network).
* Volunteer and giveback.
Time-wise, I'd probably take a month off to recover and decompress. If the timing were right, I might even take longer and hike a section of the Appalachian Trail or Pacific Crest Trail. After that, I'd take another month to brush up on my leetcode before jumping into interviews.
Make sure you have connections with your coworkers you wish to remain connected with (for friendship and/or opportunities).
Make sure you have no personal data saved only on your work computer.
Advocate for open sourcing any small utilities or other code that you have written so that you can have good public code samples.
Make sure that you have non-work access to retirement accounts, paycheck stubs, etc...
Finally, be willing to leave first. (For many) it can be hard to not have your work as part of your identity. Remember that businesses cannot care about you, just people in them.
Save just enough money so you don't end up homeless and hungry
I have some small freelance projects that I would spend my 9-5 on (they don't come close to paying my bills but I'd want to stay "productive") and I'd apply to a bunch of places. I'd probably lean heavily on HN's "Who wants to be hired"/"Who's hiring" monthly threads as that's how I got my current job and I've been quite happy with it.
I'd spend a max of ~3mo looking for my idea of a good job then relax my expectations and then around 6mo really start scraping the bottom of the barrel (aka apply to larger companies). After about 3-4mo I'd probably take a part-time job (in tech or otherwise) to slow the draining of funds from my accounts, that and/or take on more freelance work.
Taking online courses in my spare time now, so when I really need it, I have some momentum. Passing that first assignment was tricky .. getting easier now (been out of school for ages).
Amount of LinkedIn pings I get from recruiters has definitely gone down. Still getting pings but these are companies I don't wish to work for.
There is some good advice here .. leetcode and general interview practice is a good idea, reducing unnecessary expenses, and networking. I am not doing great on all 3 fronts.
I have a family with little kids. It is a bit tough to lower expenses. My biggest fear is if my decent tech salary goes away, it will be hard to adjust to a new normal. The hedonic treadmill only speeds up. Need to have significant discipline to go the other direction.
Good luck all!
After closing down my last startup I did it. It was a great balance of community providing some baseline structure to my days while being mostly unstructured allowing me to explore interests for fun.
And at the end they help a lot with getting a job. If you can pull it off financially/with timing, I highly recommend the experience.
I would review spending to understand what the major costs are or investment mistakes were if you don't have as many years you could take off as you have worked. Much like a sports career there's no telling how long a tech career will last or remain interesting to you and gradual raises in spending should not mean you don't have enough to consider a very soft landing in a poorly paying field, entrepreneurship without backers, etc.
Good luck.
[edit] Oops, never mind. My iPhone word wrapped the headline between “laid” and “off.”
In the last decade I leave it all running and continuously stay in semi-passive job search mode. My LI is wide open. Recruiter wants to send me a job description? Sure, I'll read it. I've gotten a few decent raises that way without really trying.
TLDR: you should always be prepared for a layoff or rapid job change. Don't wait until you're being handed your papers.