I lived through the previous dot bomb. I worked at Red Hat and mostly survived the initial wave of layoffs as the support team was outsourced to India, I moved

I lived through the previous dot bomb. I worked at Red Hat and mostly survived the initial wave of layoffs as the support team was outsourced to India, I moved to the QA team but I was young and unmotivated and eventually got laid off myself in 2002. Not much changed, but I wasn't married and it wasn't a problem for me to move back in with my family. I think the simplest answer is to be comfortable with living frugally. Ultimately if you work in high tech you will be fine because you can probably do OK working in a more menial job, you just need to swilling your pride a bit. Move away from the expensive city you live in and get to work. The economy will recover and you should reflect on why your role was downsized. Was it you, or your role? For me it was a bit of both. I decided to go to college and learn something new. Unfortunately I learned physics :P. I worked in a new field for six years and it was fun. As he economy recovered and crashed again then recovered again I went back into tech. For a while I did support again by now I'm doing engineering. Basically, save money, utilize your 401k, prepare for 60 not 30. Play the long game. When things turn down, live frugally, keep your options open, and be a little selfish. When they are good, save extra, and still try to live frugally.