Ask HN: I got let go this morning. What should I do next?

I went in to work this morning, in downtown Cleveland, ordered a BLT for our free lunch friday, and got called into a meeting. I was told my position was being removed (probably to cut costs, although they did not say), and I needed to clean off my desk. I'm a javascript developer. I built a large angular application while there, but it is now built and there are other developers who can support it.

As far as I see it, I have this great opportunity to break out of the regular 9-5 job world, which I have always wanted to do. I have been working weekends on pearmarket.co, which is a website for small farmers to more easily promote their products online (I have recently open sourced the core of the project at https://github.com/thecolorblue/beetpress). Unfortunately, it is not currently in a place where I can dedicate all of my time to it and see any income. I would say I am 3 months of solid work away from having a good beta. I do not see this as an option as it would clear out most of my savings, and leave me in mostly the same position I am in now.

I have looked into doing freelance work, but as I am self taught my CS skills are not as solid as other developers, and my design skills are just about average. I am more product focused, I try to work as closely to the end user as possible and clearly define what they need. There does not seem to be a need for freelance product people (is this a good assumption?). It's also important to note that I am 28 and just got engaged. Moving is an option, but living on a spare couch for a couple months is not.

So I really have two questions. What would you do in my situation (would you stay in a smaller city?), and if you could start over in web development, what would you focus on?

First, sorry to hear it, that sucks but it seems like you get that it isn't necessarily about you which is good. Sometimes people take it too personally, and usually it isn't personal, just business, but that doesn't mean it won't still sting some.

Second, javascript is a great skill to have and it is looked for quite a bit. Remote work isn't out of the question just because you aren't a degreed CS person. You said you have some savings. So take 1-2 weeks, polish up the resume, take it easy and start sending out resumes locally if you can find anything and also to remote positions. You might feel more comfortable starting to send out resumes right away and then taking a couple of weeks before you start a new gig, but either way, take a couple of weeks to decompress between jobs. I have skipped that in the past too many times and regretted it later. Also use that time to reassure your bride-to-be that all is good and will work out, tech is a great place to be.

Just a side note, I live in a small city and almost every client, job or thing I have done has been remote or outside my city, so it is very doable. If you go into freelancing, there is a thread from the other day on here about it, look it up under Ask HN, it has some good points from a lot of people.

1. Realize that as a developer you will be in high demand in the workforce, surely you will find something better in no time.

2. Work on your startup idea / prototype during this downtime. It doesn't have to be perfect, just hacked together well enough to provide value to someone.

3. Brush up your skills on sites like Codeacademy, W3C, Tutsplus, etc. Take a few free online university / MOOC courses.

4. Sift through projects on Odesk / Elance. You may find some part time work that may provide some supplemental income while at the same time improving your dev skills.

5. Hustle. Knock on doors. Be proactive. Let your passions shine through. Don't take no for an answer.

File for unemployment, yes. Clean up your resume and LinkedIn, fine.

Enjoy some time off? Not so much.

If I understand correctly, he (she?) said that he only had a 3 month runway of money. In that situation, finding a job had better be your full-time job.

I mean, look, take a day off. Take two days. Take even a week. Breathe. Look around. Do a couple things you've wanted to do and haven't had time for.

But don't take a month off. You don't have that kind of time. After your bit of down time, work at hunting for a job as seriously as you would work at a full time job.

We're a LAMP shop that is doing more and more angular. I contract with many HNers. Please email johnny d0t goodman @ cpap d07 com if interested in discussing further and setting up a fizzbuzz.