How many of you have been laid off twice this year already?

I’m starting to wonder what the upside of working at a big tech company really is.

Stability: no (who knows when the next layoffs will be)

Base Pay: maybe (probably higher on average)

Stock: maybe - but a complete crapshoot

Fulfilling work: maybe, but it could be disrupted by politics, maybe some side feature of a side feature, or you might just get laid off anyway

Frankly it’s hard to trust putting your energy into something new after being let go. At least at a small company market performance might be more closely tied to your performance, not random politics or idiotic decisions.

Seems you go to a large company to chill out, save up base pay, but not really give it your all as so much is out of your control.

Tech companies are shutting down their junior pipelines and turning their most senior talent into burned out careerists who don’t care. They’re managing to mediocrity, not growth. Which honestly maybe makes sense in a non 0 interest rate economy. I just wish they’d be honest about it

Two ex-coworkers were laid off, got new jobs about 1 month after, and then were promptly laid off 3 months later. The good news for them though was that they got 3 months of severance, so they were actually pretty happy with that and ended up traveling on their old company's dime...

Me on the other hand, took me 6 months to find a new gig. I did find my job on HN Who's Hiring in January though! Ever since I've been working on https://hnresumetojobs.com to make it easier to find jobs from HN. Maybe it'll help you?

Best of luck OP. Keep your head up. You'll find something soon, this is just a transitory period. It's hard not to internalize the negative emotions that come with being laid off, but the reality is it really has nothing to do with your performance at work or worth as a human being.

I completely missed the "of" in the title and was expecting a very different thread.

It should be "off" anyways.

Sorry to hear about your work troubles OP

Funny to contrast this with people boasting on HN not too long ago about job-hopping twice a year or more. Loyalty works both ways.

After 40+ years programming I never expect much stability or loyalty from employers, though it happens. The tech industry revolves around short-term results, growth at all costs, and pumping the share price, which can work out in the employee's favor, but can also lead to over-hiring and layoff cycles, projects staffed and abruptly canceled, "pivots" as dumb ideas get played out.

I know of several people who have experienced this recently either shortly before or shortly after getting a new role. Seeing multiple examples among my acquaintances tells me it's not that uncommon. Seems horrendous that companies can go from hiring to firing in the space of a few weeks, but that's the reality.

Generalizing heavily, I think layoff risks looks something like this (from most risky to least risky):

1. Startups in an immediate or medium-term funding crunch. Standards to raise money are much higher now than they were in the recent past, so a lot of companies will likely go bust if they don't trim expenses aggressively. This includes a lot of companies that look relatively legitimate, have users, have nice websites, successful raised multiple times in the past, etc. If you ask them, they will never tell you they are having trouble raising, so you have to do your own research to form an opinion of their funding status.

2. BigCos under pressure from shareholders to grow profitability due to rising interest rates and competition for investor dollars. They have plenty of money to keep people employed, but investors are demanding a pound of flesh. This is why you see share prices surge after layoffs are announced.

3. web3/crypto zombie companies that aren't in dire financial straights yet, but may be pressured to return capital to investors given recent events in the space. You probably don't want to work here anyway.

4. Well-funded startups that raised recently and are actively growing. Any runway issues they have are far enough out that you don't need to worry much today.

So my advice is: Pick a startup that raised recently and is building something that looks like it could be a real business with appropriate margins. No web3 crypto scams, no uber-style businesses that can't grow without heavily subsidizing the cost of their service, etc.

An old coworker was laid off 3 times in 2 years. He kinda just couldn't pick a winner. My advice to him (and probably to you if this is your position) is searching for large, stable, boring companies that employ software people. That's what I did after my recent layoff, which has gone well.

I have failed to get even an interview in 2 years of Job search.

I think my resume might be having many red flags, but it's difficult to find out what exactly.

I wish I could get some help on reviewing my resume

UK professional services industry — lay-offs over the last year were light compared to what I think is coming in the next 6 months. Agencies were first to rapidly downsize just after COVID, and I suspect the larger professional service firms are a few months away from the same treatment.

I've always worked in the services industry, and starting to see the same patterns before the agency lay-offs begin in the most established firms.

I think any organisation whose either dependant on public sector — or conversely, trying to scale with an operating loss, is in for a shock by year's end.

After being laid off I had the good fortune to get an offer from a remote first company. Now I'm moving back with my parents in case I get laid off again.

There's no way I'm signing a 1 year lease in the current economic environment.

It happened to me once.

In my case, the lesson that I took was that I shouldn't have taken the 2nd job. The job had some red flags, but I was uncomfortable saying no.

Thus, to apply back to your case: Remember, interviewing for a job is a 2-way street. Screen your employer carefully, and don't be afraid to say no. If you're in a situation where you can't say no, (IE, collecting unemployment,) try to make them say no to you.

I was working on a contract that was coming to a close, but I had a great rapport with the team and we had been talking about the next project for months with very clear and open dialogue about me sticking sound for it. Suddenly, there was no money for the next project. I wasn’t renewed and quite a few people on the team were laid off. It was a bit of a shock. I suppose it was foolish but I didn’t look for new work for a long time before the contract was ending, so I was completely caught off guard.

It has been very strange. I’ve never had a hard time finding work in my 12 years in tech. I’d only ever taken a while to find it due to being selective. I took time off to take care of my youngest son once, took 6 months or so to redirect learning towards embedded software and robotics “just because”, and always got right back to the whole full stack thing when I was ready.

I’ve applied to perhaps 30 positions and heard virtually nothing back. Had some great interviews that went cold. I have a feeling my resume is awful and I simply never needed to know that.

I’m optimistic though. I’ve always found myself in key roles on teams and provided critical work and guidance, so I know I’m not just some fortunate auxiliary person who happened to make it this far by luck or coincidence alone. With enough perseverance and humility I know I’ll find something.

I know all of you who are looking are having a rough time. All I can say is that things will always get harder, but they’ll get better too. After this, some time down the road, there’ll be something else to deal with too. You’ll figure that out just the same as you’ll figure this out. I suppose what matters isn’t what happens or why, but how you respond and move through it.

One silver lining is that I’ve been having a ton of fun learning more about things I’ve been curious about and generally furthering my career during downtime in ways I normally don’t get to. It might not seem meaningful or important at the moment, but it always pays off eventually. Plus learning is just fun, and fun is worthwhile. Especially when times are tough!

Good luck, everyone.

Happened to me. Now looking for job. My soul is crushed.

I got laid off for the first time ever a few months back. Still looking for a job.

Silver lining: it's been really informative to see the ways in which I'm failing interviews. It's painful, but I have enough info for taking corrective measures.

Not this year but twice recently because of externalities: first time day one of COVID, and again recently because of banking crisis.

I can’t imagine going back to work for others. I haven’t settled on a plan, but it’s either overseas or self employed, in or out of tech. If I didn’t have a kid I liked spending most of my free time with I’d probably disappear with my modest satchel of gold coins to a remote corner of the world.

I used to joke I wanted to do something interesting, innovative, or creative. My POV has changed dramatically.

I would like to suggest read the book The 100$ Startups book to look beyond the job and starting something on own with minimal investment.

https://www.d-pdf.com/book/3816/read

How about the reverse of this? Had to let go of 2 people because I do not know how to hire (apparently) as the people I hired looked good on resume, did ok in interview (but I may also be bad at that) but could not really perform the work ("simple" LEMP stack)

Not my case but I thought this might help. I wrote some tips on how to use LinkedIn effectively: https://dylancastillo.co/tips-for-standing-out-on-linkedin/

It’s based on published papers about its algorithm + personal experience.

I've been laid off only once this year (thankfully?), still no offers after 4 months of interviewing. I am a mid level engineer and I feel like I am getting knocked out because of experience. It's just stunningly competitive. Summer 2020 was a better market than this.

Not this year but happened to me at the start of COVID. Best of luck to you and keep your head up

How's that working? Is it a surprise, like you go to work as you use to and then bang laid off? Or is it more like there are early signs so you think "maybe I should update my résumé but well it won't happen to me" and then it happens?

I have never been laid off (15yrs in the industry) - but it will probably happen at my current company soon, I think.

I wildly misread the title and was fucking astonished at the feedback.

I have been laid 0 times this year. At least I'm not near bankruptcy.