Don't disparage your former employer - regardless of how the breakup went. I feel that in retrospect these things are for the better. You didn't want to be there anyway - they just made their move first.
Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
61–70 of 95 posts
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#621. 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…
> 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.
Positivity that isn't based on logic is wrong, just like negativity that isn't based on logic is wrong.
It's better to be honest with yourself about any given situation. Accept what you could have done better at without feeling inadequate. Recognize what you did well at without feeling complacent. You grow in response to your failures, not your successes.
Recognize what was good about the job and what you'll miss, so you can factor it into your next search. And obviously avoid the bad parts. If making yourself believe the job was only bad in an effort to save face and stay positive leads you to seek out the opposite, that's likely counter-productive.
These situations are rarely black and white. Everyone has a combination of failures/micro-failures, successes/micro-successes at every job whether they get fired/laid off or not. So there's plenty of logic to refraining from beating yourself up. Seeing a situation clearly and learning lessons from it happens more easily in hindsight than when you're stuck in it. So there's a lot of value in thinking about the past, if it's for the right reasons.
Staying dispassionate is more important than staying positive.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#631. 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…
Regarding 2, should these be CEOs OP knows directly already or just cold emails? Can you give an example of what one of these emails would look like?
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#641. 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…
Regarding 2, should these be CEOs OP knows directly already or just cold emails? Can you give an example of what one of these emails would look like?
It's of course always better if you know the CEOs in person or can get in touch via intro.
If you don't know them but there is some connection to them or to their company and if it's just that you like their product or brand, just write them. People say that cold mails are bad. I think they are only bad if you could have reached the person via intro. Otherwise they are better than doing nothing. And at the end, it's just a number game.
Re the emails and how they should look like: there is really no right and wrong. The best advice I can give: Just imagine if you were writing a good friend. Then your email will be balanced: not too needy or too formal. Keep it short, tell him who you are, why you write him and suggest a next step.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#65Since you were laid off and didn't quit or were fired, you should head down to the unemployment office so you can start collecting. You don't know how long it will be before you find a new job, and the bills will keep coming in. You may have savings, but there is no need to blow through it when you've been paying into the safety net.
I cannot recommend this enough. In the dot com bomb I didn't do so at first thinking I would surely get a job and that applying for unemployment would be a huge amount of red tape.
I was wrong. It is drop dead easy. Do it before all else, it is why you have been paying for that insurance.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#66Since you were laid off and didn't quit or were fired, you should head down to the unemployment office so you can start collecting. You don't know how long it will be before you find a new job, and the bills will keep coming in. You may have savings, but there is no need to blow through it when you've been paying into the safety net.
I was laid off years ago and I didn't do this. I wish I had. I was young and no one told me I could.
I was only unemployed a month and a half but it still would have been nice to collect since I'd been paying into it.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#67Since you were laid off and didn't quit or were fired, you should head down to the unemployment office so you can start collecting. You don't know how long it will be before you find a new job, and the bills will keep coming in. You may have savings, but there is no need to blow through it when you've been paying into the safety net.
I agree with this recommendation. It's easy to do, has simple ongoing requirements (that you are applying for jobs), and while it's not going to be a lot of money, it's fairly dependable money. Set up an alarm to submit your weekly reports, and that's it.
Honestly, this would be the first thing I would do, though, since you've been there less than a year, I'm not sure if you would get the 'max' or not. In CA, that's about $450/wk.
I would recommend checking the box to take the taxes out when submitting your forms. Or however they have it set up online now.
I second the other suggestions about letting it be known that you're available for hire. I assume that you might have already been putting out feelers since you were planning on quitting anyway.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#68Hey hey. I was in the same boat last year. Loved the company but there just weren't enough contracts coming through the door to keep me fully employed.
One thing that really helps to keep me sane during tough times is to catalog every teeny tiny expense I've made over the past year. When you know exactly where your money is going, it will help alleviate lots of stress.
Before I did this, I felt a vague sense of panic. After I did it, I realized that I had already earned two times more than what I typically spend in a year. It gave me a sense of calm, knowing that I had plenty of "runway" before having to dip into my investments.
If you have any egregious expenses (I know I did), now is the time to systematically eliminate them. You might be money poor, but you are time rich now. If you treat your life like a business, now is the time to make some big cuts to ensure your longterm survival.
Just last month, I cut my phone bill in half, figured out how to cut food expenses by a few thousand a year, and reversed a bunch of b.s. charges for services I no longer use.
Make this your new job & you will thrive.
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#691. Incorporate - Create a name and make yourself a company. In the US, do your state incorporation papers (most are on-line) and get a TIN/EIN from the IRS, and open and fund a bank account in the company name. This allows you to do consulting work or even be called back by your former employer as a contractor, and it puts you in the right frame of mind for maintaining accounting and expenses while you are off work.
2. Meet people - Get out for networking events in your industry and visit a BNI chapter. Look for professional associations and groups in your area. Make networking your new job, even if you don't think you are good at it. Time to practice! The way to find better job opportunities is to be actively exploring the market. Sitting behind a screen mining the job boards is not a motivating exercise and does not make you visible.
3. Keep your schedule - There are work hours, and non-work hours, and don't let your typical work patterns fall out of sync. It's better for your brain and your emotional state.
4. Cut your expenses - Your revenues just went to 0, so time to get rid of subscriptions and habits that are costing you money. Cook at home and stop eating out, and make those rare times that you do eat out or grab a coffee be as an expense for your business.
5. Get fit - Join a gym, buy some running shoes, get out and restore your body. Fitness sharpens the mind, and a fit and trim individual finds work faster. Sad but true.
6. Keep a journal - Dump your thoughts. Capture your ideas. Get that stuff out of your head and make it real. You will find great catharsis in doing so, and some day you will re-read it from a very different perspective.
Welcome to the next chapter of your life, cheers!
Re: Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
#70>if there's anything I should be wary of Don't cave to the temptation of making an ass of yourself. You never know when you might run into someone in a future job. They'll likely make you sign some papers for the 1 month severance. Pay attention. Sometimes there are unsavory clauses, like non-competes, non-disclosure, etc. It would be helpful to know where you are located. If you're in California, for example, you ca…
I've seen developers turn down those severances because of the limitations of the agreement. One basically said you couldn't say anything negative about the company, ever.
That's something I would've asked a lawyer.
I was laid off from a firm that forced everyone to sign a non-disparagement of the CEO and company. For me, about $2000 was at stake. I was debating turning down the money but, after checking with lawyer friends, they also mentioned the lack of enforceability of those particular type of things (non-competes might be different). So I happily signed it and cashed the check.