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

>Staying in Cleveland depends on if you like Cleveland or not.

This. I have no experience myself living in Cleveland, so I have no opinion on it, but from the outside it doesn't seem to have a lot to recommend it. In fact it's sometimes used as an example of a generic city. [1]

BUT if you [OP] have a strong network of friends there, that alone could be reason to stay.

If you're at all considering starting something new instead of just looking for another job, there are advantages to staying away from the coasts. With Google and others offering developers $200k+/year in compensation, it's hard to find good people to work with -- and you'd be farther from your network if it's primarily located in Cleveland.

But look at your network and figure out where it's concentrated. If you do know a lot of people in another location, it's a prime opportunity to move there.

And if you are looking for a new job, the coasts are great for that. I know I could have my choice of job if I were willing to work on the coasts. I'm in the Boulder area now, though, and I'm not leaving -- though I'm working remotely for a company on the coasts. [2]

For me, I decided to move to Boulder because Boulder is awesome. I grew up in California, but hated the congestion and insane housing market. The K-12 schooling system left a lot to be desired as well (again, if you're looking at kids as an eventuality).

But Boulder was partly an attraction because I have family here; take your own situation into account and figure out what you want. There is a lot of tech in the Boulder/Denver area, so that's one option, but there are fewer big companies offering crazy salaries (Google has a Boulder office, but it's not nearly as huge of a presence here).

Good luck!

[1] e.g. “America has only three cities: New York, San Francisco, and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.” -- Tennessee Williams

[2] Full details of my working arrangements are more complicated than that, but not relevant.

To add to this, figure out insurance and freelance taxes. Those two nearly came back to bite me when I first went independent.

> 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

Skills have very little baring on success as a freelancer. 99.99% of clients will not care what language, framework, algorithm or pattern you use to create their product.

The biggest issue as a freelancer is clients. Clients are absolute hell.

First, this is common and it's not a big deal.

Layoffs happen, even to great developers. Ask about severance, but don't get pushy or threatening if not offered it (you don't want an extortion rap). Ask about a guaranteed positive reference (by contract, and with LinkedIn recommendations) and do be pushy or threatening if not offered it. Have your references checked in any case by a third party. Don't sign non-disparagement for less than 3 months' severance, although you should almost never disparage an ex-employer. Do sign non-litigation if offered a positive reference and a cash severance you can accept (which may be zero, if you have savings and confidence).

Take a week or two to recover, emotionally, but no more. Being unemployed on dwindling savings is no fun, so get yourself in the game immediately before you start getting depressed or moody or whatever. Work so hard that you don't have time to get moody. Looking for work is your new job. Job searches have a lot of latency and you can work on your side projects while you wait for emails and calls to get returned (otherwise, you'll go fucking nuts refreshing your email client).

Describe your situation as a layoff for economic reasons (even if it wasn't) and say that your performance reviews were excellent (even if they weren't) and don't say anything negative about former colleagues, managers, or employers except in a you-or-them situation (such as a 6-month job, where someone will come off looking bad and your job is to make sure that it's not you... but even then, minimize what you say.)

What would you do in my situation (would you stay in a smaller city?)

Take your job search national. It's not about "leaving Cleveland". A good company will give you at least $5k post-tax for relocation. (Add $4-5k for NYC because rental brokers collect 15% on tenant side.) It's about going where the jobs are. Obviously some locales are better than others. Seattle, Boulder, Austin, and Chicago have strong tech markets and (relative to SF or NYC) moderate cost of living. NYC is an option if you don't need a lot of space and you're willing to downsize on furniture. If you choose NYC, include the broker fee (again, 15% of a year's rent) and loss-on-sale for your car (you'll be getting rid of it) in your relo calculations. San Francisco... some love it, some hate it, and I doubt I'd move there without a stellar offer (I'm 31) but if you find something out there, give it a go.

if you could start over in web development, what would you focus on?

Don't fret about starting over. You can't and that's a good thing. The knowledge you've gained is more transferrable than you think. But if I were to start over, I'd jump either into the Python or the Clojure stack (and maybe move to Haskell after 2+ years if I really wanted to build extremely robust, large systems).

Please be aware that if you do (1) and also do (3) you may be committing Unemployment Insurance Fraud. Most states require you to not only be actively searching for work, but to be "Able and Available" to work and frequently investigations and audits turn up fraudulent UI claims on this basis. Even though much of job searching is online and can be done anywhere, the assumption is that if you are out of state, you weren't available to work in your home state that week.

Source: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/collecting-unemployme...