I was laid off in 2001. In the second of 4 waves. Prior to the first wave one of the co-founders flew over on Concorde to tell us that each of us could save $5/

I was laid off in 2001. In the second of 4 waves. Prior to the first wave one of the co-founders flew over on Concorde to tell us that each of us could save $5/day there would be no layoffs! I got a reasonable package, 3 months salary, and 2 weeks later joined a new startup (which a few years later was acquired). I actually saw an increase in salary. Those two factors compensated somewhat for the layoff trauma. People who had solid skills like C++ were fine, generally. It was those with only HTML who had made good money in the 90s and never upgraded to real programming that suffered the most.