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The hero's journey of getting laid off

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Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#61

Post by Clubber »

colechristensen wrote: post #55
shortstuffsushi wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Calling it a "predictable eventuality" implies the victim is at fault for not preparing. I have a number of friends (of course, not software devs) who are aware that their company may at any point dump them (one company goes even so far as to say regularly "everyone is replaceable," and I have not been able to talk said friend out of leaving...). Due to a variety of reasons / excuses, they can't or won't leave these…

I really am blaming the "victim" of a layoff of an upper class engineering job if they suffer the consequences of setting up their lives as though they will always be employed without gaps. It is not a lot to ask for someone in the top x% of earners to set aside a few months' expenses instead of spending every dollar on housing/food/entertainment/etc. There are situations where employers do mistreat employees, but fa…

It depends. I got laid off during the dot bomb (contract not renewed) and I had 4 months of money saved up. I was out of work for 6 and had to move to a new city. The dot bomb + 9/11 was pretty devastating for the area I had worked in. I had only been in the biz for a few years and didn't make that much as a tech person. It was also a techie college town, so there was lots of labor supply.

I got laid off again about 3 years ago. It was nice. I got an immediate offer from someone I had worked with before. I wished I could have taken more time off. I currently have several years of expenses available to me.

It really depends on where you are in your career. Money really is freedom in the US, try not to spend it carelessly.

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#62

Post by diob »

aetherson wrote: post #59
diob wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think actual numbers are hard to come by, but I would say it's like a "go do it then" sort of thing. It's easy for well off folks to offer thoughts / advice. Go accept a $67k job (which is actually higher than each of my non tech friends, but whatever), and then go live somewhere on that (renting too!). After a few years, show me how much you've saved. I have zero doubt you'll find it's been eaten up by emergencies…

I think actual numbers aren't at all hard to come by, this is extremely well-studied and easily available to anyone by Googling. But I see that now we're going to go, "Well, the anecdotes of my friends trump actual data."

As I said, go do it! Most studies I've seen state that it's hard to know because paycheck to paycheck is such a loaded word. And it's easy to access that the majority of Americans end up in medical debt in their lifetime.

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#63

Post by r_hoods_ghost »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #58

Over the coming months, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands will be laid off. This event will be the call to adventure for those that were disillusioned but hadn’t considered changing their professions. (Or even just changing their job/company within the same profession.) The layoffs in tech have started. It won't be as bad as the 2001-2004 dot com debacle. Possibly not as bad as the 2008-2012 period was (which wasn'…

I suspect it will be much, much worse, for USAians anyway. So many companies have now moved almost fully remote and are looking at their payroll thinking - "Why am I paying an American dev $100,000+ when I can pay a European $50,000, or someone from the developing world $25,000?" Great for devs in the rest of the world of course.

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#64

Post by snapetom »

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #63
UncleOxidant wrote: post #58

Over the coming months, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands will be laid off. This event will be the call to adventure for those that were disillusioned but hadn’t considered changing their professions. (Or even just changing their job/company within the same profession.) The layoffs in tech have started. It won't be as bad as the 2001-2004 dot com debacle. Possibly not as bad as the 2008-2012 period was (which wasn'…

I suspect it will be much, much worse, for USAians anyway. So many companies have now moved almost fully remote and are looking at their payroll thinking - "Why am I paying an American dev $100,000+ when I can pay a European $50,000, or someone from the developing world $25,000?" Great for devs in the rest of the world of course.

You're going to be shocked at prices these days. Paying some poor soul from some poverty stricken developing country, and expect them to be grateful for just a job, is an archaic notion. In Latin America, the price is near US levels thanks to companies like Amazon heavily investing there these past 5 years or so. Salary at intermediate and above prices are nearly on par with US skill levels, but you do save on employment taxes so there's that.

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#66

Post by throwkeepno »

Honestly I've been fired 6 times. And I'm thankful for each one for the same reason as the author. Grateful even.

Life is huge - humongous even and you owe it to yourself to explore.

The world is a very large place. You can succeed in very different ways as long as your provide value. In a lot of situations and places that bar of value is lower than what you are accustomed to.

I've known Billionaire founders who know little about business or code, software engineers who made more money selling shoes online.

W.r.t decisions:

People seem to need these "Walls" that they need to run into to be forced to make a decision about their lives - layoffs, firings, family care issues, health issues etc.

Don't fight it- go with the flow. Use those to do what you really want to do or at least to give it a brief try.

A low cost of living is the only thing that really gives you a robust form of freedom.

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#67

Post by [deleted] »

the_af wrote: post #41
duxup wrote: post #8

I got laid off from a company after nearly 20 years of work there. I was very lucky to get a big company layoff type package of ~ 9 months of pay. I decided to take it as opportunity to do new things. It was still a worrying experience, had kids, family to take care of, but I chose to take that money and time and enroll in a coding boot camp and go in a new direction in life after age 40. I figured I wasn't going to…

Awesome that it worked out for you! That said, 9 months of pay as severance for 20 years of work seems a bit disappointing. In my country it's currently one month of pay per year worked for layoffs where the employee was not at fault.

[deleted]

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#68

Post by abrichr »

mysterydip wrote: post #18

Getting laid off was the "cold water shock" I needed to rewrite what had been drilled into me since grade school: if you work hard and do your job, you'll always have one and your hard work will eventually result in promotions. I took that experience and changed what kind of jobs I looked for, and found one I'm much happier with.

> changed what kind of jobs I looked for,

Can you please clarify? What were you looking for before and after?

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#69

Post by aetherson »

diob wrote: post #62
aetherson wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think actual numbers aren't at all hard to come by, this is extremely well-studied and easily available to anyone by Googling. But I see that now we're going to go, "Well, the anecdotes of my friends trump actual data."

As I said, go do it! Most studies I've seen state that it's hard to know because paycheck to paycheck is such a loaded word. And it's easy to access that the majority of Americans end up in medical debt in their lifetime.

Sure, yes, I'll upend my life for multiple years in order to satisfy the demands of a random HN poster. That seems highly reasonable. Quick question: how many times have you completely changed your entire life because someone on the internet told you that you weren't allowed to have a comment before you did that?

Re: The hero's journey of getting laid off

#70

Post by Apocryphon »

r_hoods_ghost wrote: post #63
UncleOxidant wrote: post #58

Over the coming months, tens (if not hundreds) of thousands will be laid off. This event will be the call to adventure for those that were disillusioned but hadn’t considered changing their professions. (Or even just changing their job/company within the same profession.) The layoffs in tech have started. It won't be as bad as the 2001-2004 dot com debacle. Possibly not as bad as the 2008-2012 period was (which wasn'…

I suspect it will be much, much worse, for USAians anyway. So many companies have now moved almost fully remote and are looking at their payroll thinking - "Why am I paying an American dev $100,000+ when I can pay a European $50,000, or someone from the developing world $25,000?" Great for devs in the rest of the world of course.

Time zones are going to be an issue, unless companies start doing nocturnal hours to stay in sync with staff in Eurasia.
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