site banner
PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   2955 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 21, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

3
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

I would like advice in case I am laid off this week. My tech company is likely laying off a substantial part of its workforce on Wednesday—rumors are between 10-30% of certain divisions, including mine. While I suspect I am safe because of my relatively low pay and young age, I want to be prepared in case I am affected. I have six months of living expenses in my bank account, not counting unemployment benefits.

My plan if I am laid off (in rough order):

  1. File for unemployment benefits

  2. Re-evaluate my rough budget and cut out any optional expenses (basically left with rent, food, internet, etc)

  3. Update my LinkedIn, including responding to various recruiters messages that have been sitting in my inbox

  4. Update my resume

  5. Start applying for jobs like it's my job. Market appears to be brutal. Any strategies for bypassing automated screenings or similar?

Thoughts? Additions? General advice?

If you have any friends or acquaintances who went off to get jobs in other places, prepare to drop them a line explaining the situation and ask them if they know anyone who’s hiring.

The layoffs happening sound large so it’s not your fault, just cost-cutting. People will likely be sympathetic. Worst comes to the worst, maybe you could band together with some other guys from the same company and try founding a startup.

Thanks. I've started making new connections on LinkedIn in preparation haha.

Cost cutting definitely seems to be the reason, which sucks to hear/see when everyone is on track to get our max bonus payout this year.

Cost savings seems to be the biggest one. Our 2Q demand was higher than expected but that appears to be because of tariffs, so Q3 and Q4 will likely be tough (in comparison to Q2 and YoY). They've also started pushing AI onto us in hopes of making everyone more efficient.

I have hired 10+ devs in the past few months and interviewed hundreds.

The job market is turning into tinder. We post one small add and get bombarded with a thousand applicants who haven't bothered to read the job description. The applicants are like guys on tinder swiping on thousands of profiles while treating it like a numbers game. The hot women employers are using algorithms to cleanse out most of the applications and rejecting profiles after viewing them for seconds.

My advice is to network as much as possible IRL. This can meet tech meetups but try other venues as well. Try to find people not working in tech and hang out with them. Do not spend time at home. Meet as many people IRL as possible.

As for resumes, I have to go through hundreds of them. I am not going to read through them all in detail. It has to be easy to take a quick glance and for something to catch the reader's eye. As for the competition it is easy to be better than 95%. Assuming you aren't Pakistani with broken english with a tad of frontend experience you are above average.

This is all excellent advice.

This especially:

“Do not spend time at home. Meet as many people IRL as possible.”

This, over any period of time, is high-effort, energy-sapping and will at times make you question your will to live, but if you have an ounce of personability to back up experience and skill, getting out there is exactly the right thing to do.

Noted. I'm definitely worried about getting drowned out in the noise of said swipers. I'll read up on the "application algos" and see what I can do to help get past them. Thanks!

Any strategies for bypassing automated screenings or similar?

Networking. Make a list of your Linkedin contacts and where they work today. If it's something relevant for you, and they know who you are (otherwise why would they be in your Linkedin?), send them a nice message asking for internal referral. Doesn't matter if you haven't talked to them for ages - just say something "we were colleagues once, now I am looking for job, does your company hire? Could there be something you could refer me for?" something like that. Worst thing, they would refuse or ignore and you wasted one email message. Best case, you have a good way around most initial screens.

Also, being fired is super stressful. There's no way around it. Take time to self-care and do whatever helps for you - the gym, walks, music, food, whatever it is - take time to self-care. Financial par is important, but psychological part is no less important.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll probably start adding people on LinkedIn this week in preparation.

And yeah it is! I was very young during the GFC and confused why people were freaking out about losing their jobs—isn't that a good thing? You get to stay at home all day and relax! Now I understand. I can only imagine what it's like to get laid off while having a family to support.

Networking

I don't know how common references are in your field these days, but it'd probably be good to trade non-work contact info with colleagues who would be willing to be references for each other if necessary. It's common to lose access to corporate resources immediately in these situations today, so it might be hard to get the phone number of the guy one desk over who you've worked with daily.

OP: it sucks, I've been through it. Take solace in that it's not about you as a developer, and doesn't reflect on your abilities.

This is a great idea. Thanks!

I should clarify that I'm not a developer, but an equipment and process engineer in a semiconductor fab, so tech-y but not "tech" in the traditional sense. Regardless, thanks for the kind words.

I've heard that's a tough field in terms of work-life balance. There does seem to be a lot of US interest in it of late (I guess I can't speak to the last 6 months), at least moreso than a decade or so back. I wish you the best of luck!

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats