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Discussion on: How to deal with being laid off?

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dmfay profile image
Dian Fay • Edited

Start planning. Get your resume (and LinkedIn profile, StackOverflow dev story, etc) up to date if it isn't already. If you have a portfolio/web presence give it a once-over and see if there's anything that wants changing. Change your job-hunt status on places like LinkedIn and SO so you start showing up in search results, and if you're not on both of those, set that up. AngelList is good if you're interested in startups. For remote stuff, there's weworkremotely and remoteok.

Pace yourself. Job hunting is a long game and you can't finish everything at once, but you also don't want to lose track of what you're doing. I loosely organize what I'm doing in a checklist, eg

  • update resume
  • gather new leads (repeat once a week or so)
  • write cover letter and apply at xyz corp

with a goal of clearing at least one item per day before I get to do anything fun. The one time I was laid off (2008 was not a good year to be in a finance sector startup) I treated it as a full-time job in its own right; as long as you're still working, it's better to take it slower so you don't burn yourself out.

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newtorob profile image
Robert Newton

Fantastic reply, I appreciate all the resources you put in here. I like that you mention that its a long game, i have a tendency to obsess about things and burn myself out sometimes, so I will definitely take my time and try to find the right position.

Thanks again!!