Last year, I was working for a biotech startup that was doing lots of interesting work but not making lots of interesting profits. Somehow the founders convinc

Last year, I was working for a biotech startup that was doing lots of interesting work but not making lots of interesting profits. Somehow the founders convinced a big company to buy us, and we spent about three months transitioning over to the new company. All of us knew the company had been in trouble, so it seemed like this buyout was the sensible thing for everybody, and all seemed well. The old owners got their millions, we lost all of our stock options (of course), but at least we still had our jobs. We spent the next three months being absorbed into the new corporate behemoth, until the Tuesday before Thanksgiving last year. I got an e-mail the day before that there was a mandatory 8 AM meeting for all of the new employees. I showed up, we all got on the call, and it was a recording informing us that all three of our offices were shut down effective immediately, and we would be informed of our separation details by personal e-mail. I got two weeks of severance and was unemployed with effectively no warning just before a major US holiday. If something comes up, you should probably take it.