Ask HN: How do I move forward after being laid off?

Sorry to hear. I was just laid off 3 weeks ago (3rd time I've been laid off during the last 10 years). It can be very stressful.

Here's a tip from the book "How to stop worrying and start living" (Dale Carnegie): live in day-tight compartments. This means to focus on getting through one day at a time.

As others have already pointed out, you should be able to get onto your wife's insurance because you've just had a "qualifying event". In the event that you do need COBRA, you can enroll in it retroactively (just pay attention to the dates).

My current plan -- stay current on LinkedIn (indicate that you're "Open to Work", search for jobs through LinkedIn, apply to jobs, reach out to people in your network, etc.). I follow-up on emails and job search first thing each morning. Then I spend some time doing hobby software development to keep your brain fresh and maybe even pick up a new skill or 2. After that, I work outside or in my garage on other (unrelated) stuff. In my case, that's a combination of woodworking and metalworking. You need something to pass the time and ideally give yourself some exercise.

I highly encourage you to do stuff that will tire your body during the day. This will make it easier to sleep at night. You may also find that taking 5mg of melatonin may help too.

You will need to remind yourself over and over that you WILL get through it.

If you have other skills maybe try to make use of them. Did you ever do any painting or carpentry? If so, you can maybe pick up some odd jobs in your neighborhood if needed.

Good luck. Don't be too hard on yourself.

Thats too casual about melatonin IMO. Seems 300 mcg is the sane dose and I take a fraction of a 5 mg (5000 mcg) dose (4 sprays make a dose) and try to taper off. Or I feel unable to be sleep without melatonin or feel a full dose to be the baseline. So much for "non habit forming".

Thanks!

The first time getting laid off or fired is always scary and stressful. I know this sounds trite and stupid, but try to _relax_. Now is the time to start thinking strategically, and you'll have a harder time doing that while pumped full of adrenaline.

Your full time job is now to find a job (or more specifically: ways to bring in money). That means 8h a day of concerted job search. The market is not favorable atm, but it's also not anywhere near impossible. I got laid off twice while living on a farm (30m from the nearest gas station), but always managed to find something remote, even if it was sometimes suboptimal (and this was before remote was really a thing).

Think of the different ways you can make money. Perhaps reach out to your network to see if any consulting gigs are coming up. One-off projects have a tendency to go over, or turn into other projects. Maybe something international will work, even if the work hours end up being a bit lopsided? Of course keep at the regular employment game as well, but now you need to be thinking creatively. Yeah, you could work at a pizza joint or something, but chances are also pretty high that these smallish businesses are having computer troubles that you could fix for a reasonable fee.

You have skills and knowledge, and those are valuable to businesses in the right context.

Next up is saving money. Most people can save an incredible amount of money on food by changing how they cook. Like cooking from base ingredients using an easy cooking method like a slow cooker or pressure cooker, in large batches that you can freeze, making your own bread, etc. Most of the kitchen tools you'd need are available at the nearest second hand shop for dirt cheap. There's a reddit for living frugally. I forget the exact name, but there's lots of good advice to be had.

>Next up is saving money. Most people can save an incredible amount of money on food by changing how they cook.

Fortunately we are fine on food. We have over a year of food in our pantry and make everything from scratch already :). We'll get food out for birthdays, valentines day, and our anniversary next month (we always get BW3 on our anniversary because we had it the night before we were married). We don't have to buy anything but just $10-15 of fresh produce a week makes a world of difference to our food storage. We were also lucky enough to already have all of our seeds for this year too and we always keep a few years of lids on hand.

Alright, so you've already got a good head on your shoulders and are used to thinking strategically :)

You got this! Just focus on the game and the many creative ways you can interpret the rules.

Sorry this happened to you. I know it’s a shock and going through this is really stressful.

You’re in rural Indiana and worried about the job prospects. But you got a job at a YC company before. How did you do that? Can you run that same playbook now to find something?

> How can I justify the high cost of COBRA health insurance with limited funds, so my high school teacher wife isn't burdened by my potential medical debt while being our sole provider? How do I fall asleep at night?

Instead of doing COBRA can you get on your wife’s health insurance plan? It’ll almost certainly be cheaper than COBRA and a spouse’s job loss should be a qualifying event to let you enroll mid year.

If not remember that you can enroll in COBRA retroactively for some period of time. If you get something lined up soon might be worth it to go that route.

Best of luck!

This part bears repeating: "you can enroll in COBRA retroactively for some period of time".

This doubly bears repeating: within the grace period for COBRA enrollment (for me, it was 60 days, but check with your (former) employer's HR ppl; they will still talk to you regardless of your now-non-employee status), you can even break your arm, get care, and still retroactively enroll in COBRA as long as you're within the grace period.

>Instead of doing COBRA can you get on your wife’s health insurance plan?

Not until next school year several months away, if I don't have a "proper" job by then I'm working McDonalds and we're looking at selling our house and have a whole host of other problems.

Usually companies are required to allow a change to health insurance outside of normal months after a 'qualifying life event' happens, of which someone in the family losing their health insurance because of losing their job would be considered a qualifying event. You should look into it.

If nothing else, you should be eligible for an Obamacare plan, which might not be quite as good as the health insurance you had, but would be a lot cheaper than COBRA. I've been on it for a few months before while I was in between jobs in the past.

https://www.healthcare.gov/glossary/qualifying-life-event/

Keep in mind that there's a 30-day window to exercise the QLE for an employer-provided health insurance plan.

I would recommend starting the process immediately to avoid any issues with the time involved with collecting the required documentation.

Cool, we'll have to look into it to see if it is cheaper at all!

Pretty much all insurance plans allow you to add spouse any time if the reason is that spouse got laid off and is no longer covered by an employer insurance plan. It may even be the law.

Just adding to the chorus that job-loss is a "qualifying life-event" that bypasses the annual cycles.

This. I hope if anything is gleaned from this thread, it's that he can get on his wife's health insurance asap.

Along those lines, notify your mortgage company immediately. They will try to help. No mortgagor wants you to lose your house: they're in the business of lending money, not of managing empty houses. They will most likely let you miss payments for a month or two without incurring penalties. If you're still unemployed after that, you can discuss mortgage modifications that will reduce the amount you have to pay monthly.

Especially with all the people who lost jobs due to COVID, they have become very accustomed to having to deal with this recently.

It hurts your credit, but you can forgo mortgage payments for over a year without risk of losing your house. Won't you be getting unemployment?

Unemployment in Indiana is max $390 a week and only lasts for a maximum of 26 weeks. At best it would extend our living 'runway' temporarily and I'd bring home more working a fast food job.

That is insane. Sorry about that.

I would suggest you do what you can to stay in tech. Even being a cheap freelancer would probably make you more $ than fast food and you'll have more energy for other things.

I mean, if you’re unwilling to relocate and can’t find work remotely, at least MCD would bring some money in the door.

You'll get other advice here -- and you'll be amazed at how far down you can pare your expenses when necessary.

I'll offer other kinds of suggestions:

1) I've looked back on my gap periods and realized there were things I could have done to better use my time, but in ways not directly related to finding the next job. You can only "job hunt" so many hours each day, you'll have to do other things too. Finish your degree? Maybe, if it feels productive and not enervating. Get a weird side certification? Might be more energizing to get that welding certification, or something orthogonal, not necessarily career-oriented, but productive and distracting.

2) Get physical, if you aren't already. It's a great time to work out (you have the time), and the application of discipline towards bettering yourself will carry-over to the other things. Wanted to do something that employment blocked before, like the Appalachian trail? Don't not do it because you don't feel deserving. That's one of those black holes you have to work hard to keep at bay.

Bonus:

Apply for unemployment benefits.

Find a way to be of service.

Lighten the load for your wife.

<< Find a way to be of service.

I will expand on it a little bit as it can be taken in several different ways. The easiest/quickest way to a new job is with someone's inside recommendation. There is a fair amount of people, who volunteer for a wide cross-section of companies out there. Obviously, don't do things you don't care about ( it will only make you miserable ), but I am sure some of your skill set would be valuable to someone out there.

Agree, stay active as possible. Don’t stop moving now!

>Get physical, if you aren't already.

Got that covered, I'd actually just bumped up to 20k a weekday on my BikeErg the week before this happened!

Awesome. Good… and best of luck in this next chapter. Many of us are at this kind of risk in these times.

1. Breathe. I lost a business in the pandemic, racked up lots of debt, have a family, saw myself living day by day, held back by misery and mental health struggles. I even forgot to breathe, like I'm just gurgling water, I had to practice that deep in your gut kind of breathing.

That's where you are now. Exercises helps your core and your core helps you breathe and breathing helps your stress and stress will kill you and your family.

2. Take care of yourself. Airplane rules in effect now: secure your own face mask before others. Get your health, money, time, and mind set right.

3. Update your resume. Your last job section needs more fluffing and your long term job needs editing. Think through all the things you had to do, think of all the outcomes you achieved, find an AI cover letter / resume writer, hire a LinkedIn optimizer, hire a job submitter (this helped me the most)

4. Look for jobs at the competitors. CloudTrucks has a remote program manager role open. Apply anyway.

5. Reskill yourself. Python is great, do more, and get into data science, secure a certificate. It's been 20 years since I dropped out of college and it's hard out there for those without college degrees, sorry.

Fight the odds.

Persist to break through.

Good luck.

Indeed, SWEs often glaze over Ops, Analyst, and PM roles, but those usually (broadly-speaking) have a lower qualifications bar than SWE, and pay much, much better than McDonalds. Plus it gets you in the door somewhere to start hacking on some pain points, transfer laterally to SWE, etc etc.

>Update your resume. Your last job section needs more fluffing and your long term job needs editing.

That is fluffing them.

Ryan, I searched for your name and I can see that you are an interesting, curious, and creative person.

From my own experiences as a T shaped person, I'd say that's you, or you're well on your way to it. Job and life transitions aren't always so smooth as that T develops, but it's those occasional bigger shifts that help broaden the experience you have.

It's not always easy being T shaped, as you kind of have to start off as a minus sign (short horizontal) and move towards being more of an em dash as that vertical line begins to emerge. You can feel scattered and unfocused, but at some point you see the breadth of your experience you've gained, and that you're capable of learning new things.

An approach perhaps to jobs is not to say, "I have done these many things - perhaps one is something you want?" But instead say, "I have done many things, and that shows my curiosity, interest in learning new things, and flexibility." Heck, even a job at Taco Bell makes that T even more interesting, even if it's not a big career highlight.

Irrespective, the next phase doesn't have to be the destination - sometimes it's just another step in the journey. And don't apologize for your diversity, but see it as a strength. Some day you might find that employer that says, "Oh actually that's exactly why we hired you!"

Most likely there is SOME technical job you can do for more money than a non-technical job, and I would lean toward doing something that's still career relevant if possible.

Okay, I have to ask -- what is a "T shaped person"? I've never heard that phrase and am genuinely curious.

it's akin to "jack of all trades", we're broadly skilled over having a singular focus on one area.

It's in OP's favor; we tend to be more easily employable because we can step into roles with admittedly less of the impact that someone with dedicated skills in that area, but having advantage the breadth of the work we can do is wider.

We're cross-disciplinary, usually not academically educated, and tend to look at problems differently because we'll have a more diverse experience.

It's usually meant to describe devs as they develop and mature. They typically start with a strong descender, a specialty, then they branch out.

Generalists and T-shaped people are usually separated into different groups taxonomically.

I'm with you, though, I'm a generalist, a jack-of-all-trades, master of none. I like to describe the shape as "cave ceiling with stalactites," because there are several areas where I go deep.

I'd also like to point out that I have a few degrees, but universities tend to force people to focus, so being non-academic might make you more likely in my group. But as long as you own your education instead of letting deans and advisors stunt you (argue with them - they need that), academic education can be enjoyable and a way to experience even more knowledge broader and deeper than you might otherwise.

If stress is hurting your ability to focus, I would recommend trying exercise. Like a lot of it. 40 hours a week even. I know it sounds really shitty, but going through hell is usually the fastest way out. I've tried the curl-up-in-a-ball thing a few times and it always makes it worse than if I just endure and push through.

The human mind has an incredible ability to develop master strategy when you force the body to endure unhappy experiences. Right now, it sounds like the suffering of your body is not well-aligned with the suffering in your mind. As the physical suffering equals or exceeds the mental suffering, you may begin to feel relief.

The non-tech Fortune 500 companies are still in hiring mode. Many of these jobs are remote.

Walmart has over 1300 openings with the word “software” in the title https://careers.walmart.com/results?q=software&page=1&sort=r...

CVS has 486 https://jobs.cvshealth.com/job-search-results/?keyword=softw...

UnitedHealth has 616 https://careers.unitedhealthgroup.com/job-search-results/?ke...

Go down the list https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_companies_in_t...

Many are WFH. Good luck

For Walmart, at least, they seem to have some freeze going on. I applied to positions two months ago, and they are still "Application Under Review."

Interesting. They added about 350 openings in Feb, so I assumed they were still pretty active

Home Depot and Southwest Airlines also hiring remote for Corp roles.

Guessing by some of the details in your post, you're a bit of a prole. I'm a prole who did manage to get a college education. It was great, no lie. But I'll tell you, almost every other prole I meet in this business, institutionally educated or no has the same credential/class anxiety.

Despite that anxiety, they keep turning up. I keep finding them. I think this is because the bottom line is that most companies don't care about a degree. For some jobs yes but for most positions, they care about where you worked last, what you did and what was the impact.

I feel you. The employment anxiety has been killer. I dropped some pounds not eating for about a week myself. Medical bills and broken down cars still haunt my dreams. But try to remember that you are so far ahead of most people it's almost a laugh. Because 4 years can get you a degree but it takes a life to be where you are. Disciplined to grow your own food, humble to work any job to get by, unattached to material posessions enough to let go of your home rather than let it sink you (look how many made this mistake in 2008) that is resilience.

You really are in a good place. It's corny but the biggest thing you need is to believe in the fact that you belong in this business and that there will be a next job.

What’s a prol?

Member of the Proletariat. Wage earners who generate economic value with their labor.

Prole / proletariat

Thanks! :)

Now’s a good time to post your resume here since you’re getting this attention!

Edit: doing it for ya…

https://www.ryanmercer.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryanmercer317

https://issuu.com/ryanmercer/docs/ryan_mercer_resume_2023

1. It has nothing to do with you. You got laid off. I don’t know you and I can tell you that your job is the least interesting part about you. Ask your wife. Ask your family. Ask your friends. None of them care what you do.

2. It is actually awesome you are in a degree program. Because if you really want to avoid the conversation you can explain any gap with, “I was finishing my degree.” Not that you really have to because getting laid off is so common these days no one bats an eye or cares.

3. Get on your wife’s insurance. She is a teacher, so it is more reliable and probably better. Explore unemployment benefits. It is better to take unemployment because it will free you up to focus on the job search and your degree. I have been there and I took a hourly job out of pride, but I don’t know if I would do it again.

4. Spend 1-2 hours a day applying or interviewing for jobs. The rest of the time do what you have always wanted to do if you didn’t have to work.

You will be fine.

Been there. First, the company I worked for 11 years sold my team like livestock to another company. Two years later, they laid me off along with the majority of my team. I learned a hard lesson: you are just a number on a spreadsheet.

The interesting thing is that, after several months of unsuccessfully finding anything decent again, I was offered a lower position job at the same company that laid me off, but at a 50% lower salary. It included medical and was better than what I could find on short notice. I reluctantly took it.

The good news is that the work was based on a daily quota, so I made sure I reached my quota by lunchtime every day and then went home to look for new jobs. I must have applied to five jobs every day for about three months, managed to get a couple of interviews, but they were low-paying jobs. Finally, I got a call for something that looked decent. I had to backtrack as I forgot when I applied to it since there were so many. This one was from two months prior. I went for two more interviews before I received an offer. I accepted with the condition that I would give my current employer a two-week notice. I didn't give the two-week notice; I quit on the spot and took a well-deserved two-week break.

This new job is the best I have had so far, 12 years and counting. The best advice I can give you is that you didn't do anything wrong, so don't let it take you down. Most importantly, don't give up. Be patient and persistent; you will be pleasantly surprised.

Fwiw I don’t have a degree and have worked remotely for several years (predating Covid) including for Bay Area startups. Don’t let that weigh on you, you have 26 years of experience - that’s long enough that no one cares anymore. I have 9 years experience and it doesn’t bother me anymore either, I just don’t have an education section on my CV anymore and it’s not been held against me.

Im from Germany and Im working alongside people with a masters degree in CS while I only have an apprenticeship with a bad „high school diploma“. All that based on one year of work experienced and being very eager to learn things.

26 years of work experience are worth way more than most degrees, I wouldnt worry one bit. Especially with a good resume which I guess OP has, since he hasnt been unemployed for 26 years!

>26 years of work experience are worth way more than most degrees,

Not when 10 of it is fast food/retail/digging graves for a living and another 15 and a half of it is filling out hyper-specific paperwork all day that doesn't translate to any other industry or role.

I’m sorry you’re going through this. If it helps, I’ve worked in software for over a decade with an unrelated college degree and it’s never held me back. All anyone ever wants to know is that I can do the work.

> How can I justify the high cost of COBRA health insurance with limited funds, so my high school teacher wife isn't burdened by my potential medical debt while being our sole provider?

I can’t help you figure out how to deal with this financially, but you should absolutely write your Senator and Congressperson and let them know that COBRA is an absolute joke.

The existence of employer-sponsored healthcare for workers like us is frequently used as an excuse for not reforming the USA’s absolutely bonkers healthcare system. The system supposedly works for people like us, and we vote, so politicians are too afraid to upset the apple cart.

Anyone who has ever gotten the bill for COBRA after getting laid off knows that it’s basically useless. And what’s worse is that the other options — an exchange-based insurance plan, or Medicaid — might also be either too expensive or unavailable.

You can make a huge difference for everyone by speaking out on this subject. Tell your representatives that the system doesn’t actually serve you. Tell them that we need a system that’s not based on the highly variable generosity of individual employers, or the assumption that you’re putting money away each month to assume your employer’s share of your health insurance plan if hard times fall on you.

I learned while filing taxes after a layoff is that COBRA payments are typically not tax deductible. If you're employed and paid $200/month deducted from your paycheck, that was taken out before taxes. But when you're stuck paying the full cost +2% administrative fee (say, $500/month), you're paying with after tax dollars unless COBRA and other health expenses exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income.

Feels like getting kicked while you're down.

i feel like everyone in the US should experience COBRA and the choices in the marketplace. healthcare.gov thing. I think we'd see some real change. absolutely insane that we dont have a real safety net like that.

> You can make a huge difference for everyone by speaking out on this subject.

honestly idk, being in software i made a ton of money, have a lot of savings, no one is going to feel any sympathy for me. even if while uninsured one unfortunate thing would wipe out all that effort

I'm sorry this happened to you. It sounds like you are feeling extremely lost.

1. Take time to regather and make sense of things.

It can be hard when it feels like there is a constantly ticking timer but you need to move out of panic mode and into a functioning state. This is not just snapping your fingers. It takes time and "active recovery". I like a mix of reading, exercise and meditation but you might prefer walks, therapy, etc.

2. Establish a new routine

Work provides a natural routine which you've lost. Establish a new one. When I was laid off, I would wake up at 8:30 and quietly have some breakfast, shoot off 3-5 job applications, and then work on an activity (home repair, chores, learning). Give yourself a schedule.

3. Make three plans

Make an optimistic plan, a "most likely" plan and a failsafe. Maybe you have a company you dream to work at and trying to apply with them is your optimistic plan. Maybe it's running a bakery and your action here is to do the math on your business idea.

The "most likely" plan is what it sounds like. This is probably a job like your old job, making about the same pay. What are you willing to give up? What do you need? Are you willing to fly out once a month to a client site?

Your failsafe is that. Maybe it's a boring but sufficient job. Talk to your friends and former colleagues. Maybe you have a side gig that could cover the bills but is annoying. The goal of the failsafe is to cover the basic needs, not hit all the wants.

4. Execute forward every day

Move each plan forward every day. Take a little action. Call a colleague who you think can get you in at BoringBigCo. Send a resume cold to a dream job. Reach out to recruiters who might have good leads.

At least you don't have cancer.

I worked for Atlassian, and my wife was fighting cancer. She had one of the two very important surgeries when she wasn't even able to move. They fired me the next day after the first surgery. I remember I was running at home like crazy, making soups and preparing food, and attending meeting with Atlassian where they said - "you are fired".

I hope in the next decades we gonna fight for our rights here in the US. Economy is not what it used to be. We need insurance that is not tied to an employer. We need safety net. Otherwise it all can get derailed really quick.

I hope grandpas in the government understand that nobody works for one company for 40-50 years anymore. They need to address that gap asap.

They economy is doing great. The problem is that 40% of the income in the US goes to the top 1% of people. That needs to change in order for the US to get its middle class back.

It feels bad and strange because it is the first time. You're not used to this situation and it came out of nowhere.

First of all make use of time to relax. Enjoy the free time. You will feel that your body and mind go to a slower state and you will have a better perspective from that point of view!

Did you like the job/your management so much? Maybe you want to try a different job this time, something you thought about earlier but never dared to hope for.

I guarantee you: a year from now you will be looking at this event much more positively, you have a clear option to think about what you want and make an active choice of direction.

Think out of the box. You have plenty of working and learning experience going for you.

Even if you would make the wrong choice, there's always the possibility to bail out and try another employer. Every employer and organization culture is different.

Sorry to hear about this, here are a few thoughts and suggestions:

* Look into getting onto your wife's health insurance - losing your job is a "qualifying event".

* Spend some time networking - if you don't already have an account on LinkedIn get one and connect to technical recruiters and others who might be able to help you find work. There are plenty of folks posting there about layoffs at the moment, so you won't feel so alone.

* Sign up for unemployment

* Consider talking to your mortgage provider and ask them to make concessions on your payments for a while until you find something.

* Try to reduce your expenses, cancel unnecessary monthly services and/or call them to try to reduce the monthly bill, explain your situation.

How can you work for 26 years on a US salary, and then panic when you're laid off? Guess you have somewhere between 1/4 and 3/4 of a million USD, in some form. I'd lay myself off if I had something like that.

>Guess you have somewhere between 1/4 and 3/4 of a million USD, in some form.

Uh hardly. 2021 I worked 600 hours of overtime and didn't even break grossing 50k USD for the year. My take home pay for the last 15 years is probably around 300k USD, when I left 2 jobs ago for the job I was just laid off from I had a 49% increase in my income. Not everyone is making six figures. Median income in my state is just shy of 31k USD a year.

My wife as a high school educator was only making about 45k (with also about 15 years experience) until last year. She now makes more but she also has to drive 3x as far to get to work so it's almost a wash.

How can you possibly know (a) how much he's been paid and (b) what his expenses are? The assumptions in your comment are ridiculous.

First and foremost, realize it has nothing to do with _you_. It's a job and nothing more.

Focus on what you _can_ control. Mainly, your skill set, interview preparation and networking.

Take a couple days off and get in a good mindset. Spend time with our spouse, children, family, etc.

Then hit it hard-- get up to speed on your skills. Prepare for interviews like it's the Olympics. Network. Polish your resume. Polish your portfolio/public presence.

You were accepted at a YC company, there's no reason you can't work remotely elsewhere.

The fact that you have reached out to this community seeking advice clearly shows that you have what it takes to find the next job , be the next great team member. Many people simply cannot open up , or go beyond their comfort zone. Open up to the universe of possibilities, keep reaching out ruthlessly and success will eventually follow. Good luck with your job search!

Remote jobs are still out there, but you need to get ready to take a pay cut.

I definitely took a massive cut and I'm making about what I was making 4 years ago. I rode the salary bubble and my income ballooned during the pandemic. Now it's back to reality. I can't blow money like I used to.

The only tip I can give is get used to rejection. It's much harder to get a job now.

Check to see if your state offers a state covered medicaid health insurance plan. Do not pay COBRA if they do offer one and if you qualify. Idk about Indiana, but New York offers it and they'll cover, nearly everything from copays, to prescriptions, to surgical procedures.

Also, apply for SNAP and any other government programs. Dont avoid them to save face as they not only help financially, but having them helps relieve a good amount of the stress of getting by until you get back on your feet, so you can focus on your employment goals and remain sane.

Been in your shoes and wishing you the best man.

Edit: https://www.in.gov/medicaid/members/apply-for-medicaid/eligi...

Do it and don't let yourself or anyone else shame you. They'd do the same in your situation if they had the option, and that's what these programs are for.

Focus on making good decisions. Everything else is out of your hands. Good luck and stay off of 4chan.

You should get more technical skills. I've seen many people burned by taking some basic data-wrangling SQL knowledge, working at a single company for a long time, building up non-transferable domain knowledge, and then getting kicked out the door with nothing to show for it.

Pick up any relatively popular programming language: Python, Java, whatever. This will help even if you aren't going after a software dev position. Demonstrate to interviewers that you can retrain. Throw out the phrase "automation skills" as much as possible during interviews.

If your situation allows for it and you're close enough, be prepared to commute into Indy, even if the position you interview for is still Covid remote. Showing up in person will give you a leg up.

Bury yourself in applying, that's what I usually do. I'll just pivot to being up-beat about all the cool opportunities that are out there. If I didn't do that, I'd be in a funk for sure as you say

Collect unemployment and lean on other support structures. Learn about SNAP (aka: Food Stamps) and/or Medicaid, and use them as much as you are legally able to. Thats why these support structures exist. You are not lazy, you are not a burden to society. These structures are here to help you out in these exact times of need.

It sounds to me that you've got a decent amount of work experience in IT or something? You should be able to find a job. Real world experience trumps college degrees (though college degrees are certainly helpful at getting your foot in the door).

I have over 30 years experience in a variety of roles in software delivery, been doing architect-y type things for the past several years. I never received my baca degree, and it never hurt me materially.

Work whatever network you have. Build one from past colleagues on LinkedIn if you haven’t. Start applying for remote work. Look for contract gigs if time is that short. Get your CV out there and keep applications flowing to companies.

Hello, if you are willing to move within the state, take a look at the Northwest Indiana region. For your wife, many of the school systems offer gold-plated health insurance and much higher teacher salaries than the rural systems. For you, there is a commuter train and bus service into Chicago for a tech job. Both IU and Purdue have regional campuses and you should be able to transfer credits.

The last month of the quarter (except for June) is usually the best moment to look for a job - people all over the hierarchy have KPIs to meet and whatnot.

Now is the time to send out CVs because you might well end up as part of someone's target for the quarter. The window gradually fades and closes by the end of April and what's left are companies which hire continously and they are very picky.

i feel lucky that i was laid off early in my career. now i just don't care, take nothing for granted, and i pretty much always assume the corp will fuck me over at any given time

honestly i just drank and played videogames for a while and found another better higher paying job in a couple weeks. presumably there are other remote options for you?

Yes, what you learn afterwards is to never, ever be beholden to your job as you must always have an exit strategy. A healthy savings account to get you through a long period of unemployment is what you need. Also, make sure to maximize all unemployment insurance to the fullest and all other benefits you can qualify for. You want to make sure to miss nothing. I'd also start dramatically reducing outgoings for everything so your savings go further.

If you can then take your time before taking up another opportunity. Sometimes getting another job isn't the most desirable thing until you're rested up and ready for the corporate grind again.

> i pretty much always assume the corp will fuck me over at any given time

This is a very healthy assumption that I also make. I am fully aware than I'm a resource, a cog - and they owe me nothing.

1. Look after your health. What works to alleviate stress for me is Ashwagandha. A single tablet does the trick (you should only take it if stressed or it will make you very lethargic, i.e. not daily).

2. Get busy, action overcomes fear. Start applying for jobs.

3. Good luck.

One more healthcare note - I had a lapse in coverage between jobs and my state health exchange (Thanks Obama!) was ~1/2 the COBRA price. That's what was recommended by my HR company at the job I was leaving. This was in CA, but similar situation in MA.

Good luck!

What would you be looking for as far as remote work? Folks here might have connections

Longtime engineering manager here - if you want to do some practice interviews or bounce ideas off me, I offer free coaching to people looking for career development. Email in profile.

Post your resume and skill sets. Join online communities in your field. There are so many remote options now, as you already know from getting a YC company position. Good luck!

Sorry to hear about that. It’s terrible. You say you have a 26 year work history: maybe reach out to a former employer to see what they can offer you?

I was at the employer before this one for 15 and a half years, I left because I didn't get a cost of living increase in over a decade and wasn't even making enough to rent an apartment on my own, I doubt they've drastically changed what they pay in the past 13 months.

Do you need to stay in rural Indiana? Sounds like it would help you greatly if you could move to a place that offered ample opportunity.

First of all, I'm sorry this happened to you. Here are my thoughts on your question and my feedback to you.

> How can I stay positive and avoid falling into a funk? Remind yourself that you did not fail. You weren't fired because you didn't work hard enough or do well enough. Being laid off doesn't mean you're less valuable or can't find a great job in the future. You can still use others from your previous job as references and put them on your resume. You don't have to worry about recruiters and managers asking why you're no longer with the company.

> How can I justify the high cost of COBRA health insurance with limited funds so my high school teacher wife isn't burdened by my potential medical debt while being our sole provider?' Three words, "Qualifying life event". Because you're losing your current existing health coverage from your employer. Your wife's insurance can open a special enrollment period for her to sign up your family. You don't have much time, so you should start looking into that right away.

> How do I fall asleep at night? This one I can't help much with this. The stress of all of this is high, and that's valid. But being tired the next day won't help you make the right decisions, and at 10pm, there's little you can do. Get some sleep, get up, and enjoy the time with your kids or go for a walk. Find an outlet. It could be returning to college, working on your degree, or collecting rocks. Just something to take your mind off everything. > Regarding Living In Rural Indiana and trying to find remote work. There are still quite a few remote jobs out there. Update your resume, and start applying through the myriad of job search sites. Reach out to your network and see if there's anyone hiring. I've found some of my favorite jobs through previous co-workers who have made it into hiring roles. I landed a job working remotely as a developer with only an associate's degree. Some of the smartest, most successful people have no degree. Our industry does favor a newly minted college student over a person who's maybe a year into their career with no degree but I feel with 20+ years of experience you're not going to be beat out by a brand new college student for a lot of jobs. Also, don't sell yourself short. Apply for the jobs you deserve, or might want to try. This is an opportunity for you to try something new, and if your options are make $15/hr at Taco Bell or $40/hr in a technical job that you might have otherwise not gone for because you were comfortable, this is a good opportunity. In the meantime look into unemployment to help cushion the financial blow.

Good Luck!

get a remote job. seriously... i would NEVER go into an office again.

https://remote.co/remote-jobs/

You got one job, you'll get another.

This was posted elsewhere but I thought it was excellent:

"Having been through a few layoffs, I'm just highlighting how I dealt with it and my route to finding a new job. Of course my circumstances may be different from yours, but this is just my perspective and experience which I'm reposting to help folks out.

Here goes:

1) Take a deep breath, you're alive. Heart's beating. You'll live and you'll figure this thing out, just like you've figured every single other thing out up until now. Not your fault, poor leadership decisions.

2) Figure out finances. Find out how much severance you'll receive and if there's any other benefits coming with your package. How many months are you looking at to be able to find your next job? Message HR if there's anything missing from your next steps. Even if you get minimal severance: you just got laid off. Ask HR if you could get reimbursed for any career preparation tools and services. Don't be afraid to do this. There's a reason they won't do it in bulk, but one off they can accommodate.

3) Watch a movie, relax! For a few days. Don't let the news eat up your mind. Keep your spirits up and enjoy funemployment.

4) Grind time. Brush up your resume, and start warming up your LinkedIn and other profiles. As an engineer, I started LeetCoding and got my company to reimburse the subscription especially given my severance was only for 2 weeks.

5) I created a list of companies I wanted to apply to ordered by preference. Compensation was a big deal for me given my family, so I used levels a lot. I started applying to these companies while I was still preparing, but in reverse order with my least preference first, so I can use them as practice interviews. Even if you don't know anyone at these companies, reach out to people on LinkedIn and mention that you got laid off to try and get a referral. People will be willing to help.

6) Once you're more ready for actual interviews and depending on your comfort level, post publicly about how you got laid off. Avoid mentioning anything negative about your previous employer, it can come back to bite you. Stay positive, but mention that you're excited for your next opportunity and open to intros. You can attract a lot of attention and get a lot of inbound reach outs which can help a lot. I was really surprised how effective a simple LinkedIn post was.

7) Go into your interviews confidently and practice communicating clearly. Put energy into your conversations with everyone you meet on the team. A lot of people are getting laid off, and not as many companies are hiring right now. You really have to differentiate yourself by being more excited, demonstrating your skills as best as possible, and ensuring that you are a fit at the company. (Companies will almost never nick you for being laid off, but they can nick you for not being a culture fit)

8) All this said, don't forego your preferences for where to work just because you're out of a job. Keep applying and select the flavors you want to work with, don't just apply to everything and be desperate. You know your value and skills, intelligently apply to where your interests, skills, and other factors align the best. Once again, start from the bottom of the list and go up.

9) You'll land some offers Trust yourself, you WILL get them! I thought I wouldn't and I did, so just trust the process. Once you do, don't get too excited and just sign the first thing you get. Think about things, be patient and use the allotted time they give you. Negotiate your offer too, just because you don't have a job right now doesn't mean you can't command your worth. Worst case, they don't budge on numbers.

10) Sign the best offer. Congrats, you've made it all the way through once you're here. And trust me, it's not that far away. You just need to put in the effort, and you WILL get to the next opportunity.

Remember everything happens for a reason. What's meant for you will never miss you and what missed you was never meant for you.

Hope this helps, and good luck out there folks "

From the Levels.fyi Community: https://www.levels.fyi/community/thread/t62Pnf/how-i-d-navig...

1. If you've been working for 26 years, no one will care about your degree. Finish it if you want, but it's safe to say it isn't going to matter for your job search.

2. A job is just a thing you do to get money. You won't be the only person who does something else for a while as you job hunt.

3. Retrain. This is a great time to adopt new sills. We have probably seen the end of the CRUD era, and a lot of folks will be learning this the hard way.