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

As your being made redundant, there's nothing untoward about their reason.

1 month for each year served is fairly normal so again, nothing untoward.

Signing a release is also fairly standard. Under these circumstances I would always recommend showing the release to an employment lawyer. For me, peace of mind is worth a couple of hundred dollars but YMMV.

Also, in the UK at least, there are tax breaks on some of the redundancy package so it's worth looking into.

Otherwise, what you do next depends a lot on what your financial situation is. I was made redundant a number of years ago and it worked out great. I was married and had a child at the time but we had enough money for me not to work for a few months. I had a bit of a break, in hindsight I was quite burned out, then got a job at a startup, refreshed and raring to go.

Obviously, it's not always a positive experience but it's not always negative either.

Good luck. Hope things work out.

It also depends on what the labor law in your country says. Are you in the US?

Sounds a little more than coincidental that were you planning on quitting anyway. Can you explain further?

Depending on OP's country, the employer may not be obligated to pay any severance at all, and this document may be part of the agreement.

A lot of good advice here. Whenever I was laid off, I tried to send out a minimum of ten new contact emails a day. (Longest layoff, two months. Shortest was 14 days.)

Make sure that you sign up for unemployment compensation immediately--sign up before you need it. If you're in the US, there's (often?) a waiting-week period you won't be compensated for; if you sign up immediately, you can get that out of the way first thing. Good luck!