At the end of 2022 I was laid off and it took me 8 months and most of my savings to find a new job. Somehow I actually found a job that paid more than the one I was laid off from. Fast forward 8 months and it happened again. I saw the signs. It was a shitty little startup with a sociopathic solo founder who laid off multiple people including his childhood best friend before he got to me. Now Im back to where I was last year. Thankfully I saved until it hurt and I actually got a severance but Ive started applying again and its sooooo bad. So fucking bad. I made a spreadsheet and so far I have applied to 140 jobs. 5 have gotten back. 2 closed the role or hired internally, 1 rejected after the hiring manager call, 1 is in limbo and 1 is ongoing. I want to be done with startups so had my friends at Google and Amazon refer me and nothing. Its really fucked up. Even last year I had multiple recruiters reaching out to me in a week and thats actually how I eventually landed a job. Now nothing. Have not had a message from a recruiter in months. Its wild. All I can say is if you still have a job don’t get comfortable. Save until it hurts and always be interviewing. Now is not the time to get comfortable. #layoff #deisgn
As an anxious person, this is the day I dread. If you don't mind. - How many YOE do you have? - Was your experience in big tech / startups / smaller companies? - How much did you save vs bills to make it through? - Is there any advice you would give to someone for both preparing prior to losing job (incase), or after losing job?
I have about 8 yoe. Most of my experience is startups. But varies between early and late stage. At the time startups made sense for me to focus on as you usually are given more responsibility and get more experience quickly and with equity there is always a chance of an successful exit. In this market its really hard to say if startups or big tech is safer. Startups are shutting down left and right but big tech is laying off left and right. Perhaps big tech is better as there is a better chance of a nice severance package. When it comes to saving I budgeted out the absolute minimum of what I needed each month for bills and expenses and put everything else into savings. Besides an IRA, I have long term savings that put into Bonds and high yield CDs and short term(at least a 3 month runway) I put into a money market and a savings account so I can access it quickly if needed. Early in my career one of the best pieces of advice I got from a seasoned designer was to always have your resume and portfolio up to date and always be interviewing. I dont know a designer who likes maintaining their portfolio but its a necessary evil. While employed periodically download your work from figma. Your figma account is usually the first account revoked and loosing examples of all of your work would be a huge loss. When it comes to interviewing while employed this does not need to take up much of your time. But its good to do an interview or two a month to keep your interview skills sharp. And the moment you at a sense that a layoff, pip or firing is coming ramp up those interviews. Additionally, always try to have a side gig going. Whether its a part time contract position or just another job. Last year I was able to secure a 15 hour a week design job that was invaluable when it came to savings and peace of mind. Unfortunately that ended in November. Lastly leverage your network. See who is hiring and who you know that could offer a referral. Its not how good you are but who you know in this market.
Im 0/2 with referals converting to interviews haha
I assume youre not entry level? 5/140 is not bad. I'm probably at 5/300+ and have been constantly applying over the past 6 months. 3/5 have been from small startups that probably wont survive for long. Recently something inside of me broke and I am too brunt out to grind leetcode or apply to jobs anymore so I am learning a bit of game dev for fun. Recently have seen a small uptick in responses at least 🙃
It's rough man, ghosting halfway through the process, company has layoffs while you're interviewing, one mistake and they move on, and getting stuck in team matching Interviewing these days is brutal. Hang in there man
Recession incoming. It’s about to get brutal
Yep, I have been looking for job for last 4months, few interviews but nothing concrete
idk how im getting so many callbacks relative to applications tbh
Are you super senior or worked at FANNG etc?
I have a FT design job and a PT design job and I’m saving like crazy. Layoffs will hit every single person in tech at some point.
Keep going. I'm getting fired next week but from being in a pip to getting a new offer was 32 days for me. You can survive this.