Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?

I had a similar situation back in 2009. I gave my resignation to my boss on a Friday and he said I should hold off until Monday. Monday came around and they laid off most the the dev staff. Instead of having to work for 2 more weeks I got 6 weeks severance and got to leave that day. I already had a job lined up to start 2 weeks later so I booked a week in Cancun in the interim.

They make you sign a paper that says you resigned, so you can't claim unemployment, but the severance sounds better than unemployment since you were leaving anyway. Negotiate that severance, too...they offered me 4 weeks at first but I asked for 2 more and got it.

1. You must reframe the situation as quick as possible. Don't think, 'shit, why me, what happened, am I not good enough?' Such thoughts bring you a vicious cycle. You must treat this situation as the best thing ever happened, you must be happy about it. And I promise you, heck I bet $10,000 that you'll tell us in one year that this lay-off was the best thing ever happened and led you to x, y and z. So, basically it's not reframing or lying to yourself—no, what happened was really the BEST what could have happened (so, I just did the reframing for you). Change is always good and rarely gets triggered by oneself.

2. Reach out to as many people as possible, preferably people outside the company. Most people from the company won't help you and even if they did, they just remind you of the company again, what happened and this brings you again to a bad state and you need to start at zero and reframe again. Just let them go, all of them, really. So, look for prior peers, old friends. Further, write applications or just plain emails to many CEOs and tell them that you are out. You don't have to write that you look for a job. Just get into conversations with as many people as possible. It's more about staying connected and keeping a social context (after you lost the one of the company) than finding the next job.

3. Work on a pet project with a technology you always wanted to work with, get into flow and put it online. This will be the most fun and will give you tons of self-confidence in a very short time.

You should spend 30% of your day on 2 and 70% on 3 and 0% on thinking about the past.

Sounds good?

Looking for a job is a full time job in itself. Start looking immediately, get up early as if you were going to work and keep looking until it's time to "go home".

The release you've signed is pretty normal, nothing to really worry about (Unless they've done anything illegal, in which case you're not obliged to adhere to the release but I don't think that's the case).

Just get back on the horse. This happens to the best of us.

Pretty lecture-y but correct sentiments.

> Looking for a job is a full time job in itself.

I agree, it can be a full time job and you should take the job search seriously. BUT it puts you also a very needy state if you are not careful. If you apply 24/7 30 days in a row, I am not sure if you will get that more job offers than if you just spend, let's say 2-4 hours every other day. It's more about being efficient and creating many job opportunities while spending little time on the actual job hunt.

Reason: If you are in a needy state everybody can feel, smell and see that you are needy. Actually, they don't need to see you in person, your voice and the chosen words on a phone call disclose your level of neediness already. If you spend 24/7 for job hunt, you MUST be needy or you will get needy at some point. And who wants to hire a needy guy (who just got fired)? Nobody.

Besides, the activity of applying (writing always the same emails, doing minor tweaks on your CV again and again, doing interviews with HR folks asking about your weaknesses, getting rejections or no responses) is not really fulfilling at all, therefore I suggest in the other answer to spend also some time on personal projects, they give you back your state and let you be perceived less needy.