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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.

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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?

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.

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