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Comment by alex_lav | Hacker News Reader

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.

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One of my old classmates is plugging away making apps for a city gov. Not making as much as possible but he’s not getting laid off and he’ll have a pension coming his way.

I worked for city government once. I hated it. I had zero autonomy and thus zero impact.

The team I worked for struggled to accomplish the most basic software tasks. They didn't even use source control. Everybody just zipped project files and emailed them to each other.

When I worked for government the team I was on lost members every couple of weeks. Eventually I was the last developer on the team joined by 4 managers. I also gave notice and on my last day they held sprint planning talking about the devolpment work they wanted to complete in the next sprint, they shuffled the tickets around asking me how long I think they will take, after a while I asked "As you all know, today is my last day, wouldn't it be better to look at this once you've hired someone?" and the presenter of the meeting got red faced and quiet and started typing rapidly and loudly. After an awkward silence the meeting abruptly ended and I never heard another word.

A friend works with software for the city. Took him a year of part-time work to get a basic web app made and deployed on Azure. He’d always complain that all his colleagues were incompetent save a few. I asked him why he doesn’t get a more ambitious job, but he likes how little results he can get away with delivering.

I wish government jobs paid better.

Yeah that's the tradeoff. I like working with very competent people but it's effort every day to stay on top of things.

Yeah, people seem to want to nitpick that it's possible for a large, boring, stable company to have layoffs too, which is technically true, but it doesn't take a ton of logic or reasoning skills to conclude that companies that turn a profit will suffer less than companies that don't.

Large, stable, boring companies lay people off as well. Sadly, there's no escape anymore in the United States.

I think it is important to keep a reserve in cash because layoffs are just a part of reality at this point.

They say always keeping $10k in cash is recommended.

6 months of expenses is a better target. $10k won’t last long in NYC/LA.

The general guideline isn't actually an amount: it's 3 - 6 months worth of living expenses. That is, what it takes to cover housing, transportation, food & utilities. If you're "living paycheck to paycheck" that's a problem, because it means 3-6 months worth of paychecks.

Personally, If you're living below your means, I would try to target 6 months to 1 year. Then again, the past 3 years have made me paranoid as hell. Your mileage may vary.

FWIW - I sleep a LOT better knowing I've got a year worth of expenses sitting in a high yield savings account. If I lost my job tomorrow? I'd say fuck it and take at least 4-6 weeks off before bothering to look for a job.

> Large, stable, boring companies lay people off as well.

Yep! But if you're looking for a company that has a better chance at surviving (or thriving) through a downturn, picking a company that actually makes money is generally a better take. See Hashicorp's recent layoffs and recent earnings statements as an example.

I did the same thing. Found a boring company literally 3 weeks before layoffs started. I saw it from a mile away. So far my job has been stable, but incredibly boring. I could be earning a lot more elsewhere, but given the market, I won't be switching unless there's good reason. WLB is the best I ever had.

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