6 ms·

I would like to offer some tips for those faced with the potential of layoffs that I have compiled. I understand much of these come too late for those already a

I would like to offer some tips for those faced with the potential of layoffs that I have compiled. I understand much of these come too late for those already affected, but for those worried about the prospect, these can help to ease the pain if it does happen: • Check if your company pays out unused PTO, sick days, etc as cash. If they do, do not use any of the applicable type(s) unless you are going to lose it. • Have a LinkedIn, fill out all the fields, add 500+ random people in your field. Once you have done all this, you get ranked way higher in the algo for recruiters who are searching (you will be granted a visible "All-Star" status, so you will know when you've reached this). After that, go add every recruiter in your field/industry you can find (ideally 500+). Internal recruiters are better than external recruiters / headhunters, but don't neglect the headhunters, especially the "rockstar" ones from more prestigious staffing firms. Finally, add a bunch (500+) of people in your field (who you should now have mutuals with, via the recruiters). Always respond politely to all recruiters even if you're happily employed. Try to be friendly with them, not strictly professional. Build up a rolodex of recruiters. You now have a list of people you can ask for work if you do get laid off. Recruiter-sourced candidates have MUCH better odds of being hired than cold applicants, provided you're not a known name in your industry. If you do this, you'll be able to schedule 40+ interviews in about 3 days, which take place over the following week or two, if you really want to pack them together. • Don't neglect contract work completely. Many companies have a surprisingly large hiring pipeline of contract -> FTE, provided you do a good job. • How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie. • Corporate Confidential by Cynthia Shapiro, if you're in an enterprise / corporate environment.

dehrmann 4y ago
> unused PTO This is required in California.
- kodah 4y ago
  We shouldn't assume everyone lives in California. They're giving general advice.
- anonym29 4y ago
  Good to know! But it's not required in every state in the US, let alone around the world, that's why I suggest people should check.
- bluesroo 4y ago
  Which is also why a vast majority of software companies have "unlimited" PTO. It allows them to have no PTO on the books.
jeffbee 4y ago
Most important bullet point whenever you are leaving a company: * Never sign anything! Unless there is a substantial check attached, you have no reason to sign any agreement with the employer you are leaving. Politely refuse, and if they insist, ask for compensation.
- anonym29 4y ago
  I had to drop off equipment once towards the end of a contract while the usual people responsible for accepting the return were out of office. I found the head of IT, typed up a paper saying "Anonym29 returned their equipment to Mr. Head of IT on [date] at [time]", put my signature on it, got his signature on it, made a copy for him, and kept the original - I didn't want the risk of the chain of custody getting mixed up and possibly have the company come after me for the cost of the equipment. So maybe not "never sign anything" so much as "exercise good judgement in deciding what to sign, after carefully evaluating whether it will help you or hurt you to sign it"? Just a thought.
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    That’s just a receipt, isn’t it? Always get a receipt.
    - anonym29 4y ago
      "Never sign anything, but always get a receipt." Love it!
- pm90 4y ago
  You need to sign a separation agreement to get severance and other such benefits.
fermentation 4y ago
Is it really just as simple as adding random SWEs and recruiters?
- anonym29 4y ago
  I went from no degree and zero paid experience to six figure income in about 1 year, and big tech by 3 years, utilizing this strategy. The only job I ever cold applied for my first one. Recruiters (internal and external) have basically driven my entire career since then :) I think job hunting is kind of like dating, in that the "match" between parties has significance, but it also largely a numbers game. Increasing your numbers == increasing your opportunities.
TideAd 4y ago
You say 40+ interviews. Is this something you've done? I did 10 last time I was on the market that was about my limit. 40 sounds like it would take inhuman stamina.
- neivin 4y ago
  Doing even 10 on-site interviews is incredibly draining, especially if you're actually contributing at your full time job. I interviewed around 2 years ago at about 10 places as well. 10 days of interviewing for 6-7 hours was so mentally exhausting that I just took a week of vacation after all the interviews were done. I had my 10 interviews in a span of 3 consecutive weeks.
- bluesroo 4y ago
  If you're not employed and you want the best comp you can get, you should treat it as a full time job. My last job hunt was probably ~40-50 hours a week for a month between wrangling recruiters, hiring managers, and the interviews themselves... But I was absolutely haggard by the end of it and made sure that the hiring managers knew early that I'd need a few weeks between when I accept my offer and when I could begin. I had direct contact with 31 companies. Of those, 16 made it past the recruiter+tech screens. We're about 2 weeks into the job hunt and at that point I needed to start pruning. I had frank conversations with the hiring managers and recruiters about comp, work/life balance, and how tight scheduling would need to be for the following interviews. This narrowed it down to ~8 companies. I also told them all they'd need to wait for ~2 weeks so that I could finish up all of my on-sites before I'd accept or reject their offers. I scheduled on-sites over the following 2 weeks. Because all of the hiring managers and recruiters knew I was in 8 on-sites, they all tried to give me quick and good first offers hoping that I'd take it and drop my following interviews. A few tried to pressure me into a 2 day decision window (surprise, these offers were the lowest by far). Of the 8, I received 6 offers. I failed the Google on-site and I turned down another company because of work/life stuff that came up during the interview. As offers came in I could decline ones that were clearly too low. The very last company that I interviewed with had the best offer, so I was pretty happy that I stuck it out... But the only time I was more exhausted was when we had a newborn in the house. Depending on how you count "interview", these was easily in excess of 40. Each on-site was 3-6 interviews back to back.
dangerwill 4y ago
"Build up a rolodex of recruiters." - Given the sheer amount of LinkedIn spam I get from all over the world and for all kinds of roles, I doubt that most recruiters see any individual SWE on LinkedIn as anything other than a cell in a spreadsheet, no matter how friendly you are to them over email.
- anonym29 4y ago
  I can personally attest otherwise. There are many like this, and many of those aren't even open to building a real relationship with their recruitees, but that seems to become apparent pretty quickly when trying to establish a friendly relationship. I have found that I get better placements and better rates of follow-up interview rounds with the ones I do have a stronger connection with, which is why I mention this. You don't have to send them Christmas cards or anything - just name and number/email of the ones you didn't hate, and maybe a star next to the ones you got along really well with :)
  - bambataa 4y ago
    How do you recommend identifying the good ones? I know to look for the more experienced ones and avoid people who’ve been bouncing around various sales roles. Also the ones hanging out on dev discords or mailing lists tend to be better. But it’s very hard to tell on LinkedIn.
- xeromal 4y ago
  I've worked with a handful of botique recruitment firms that have < 10 employees. They can be really handy in a pinch.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

dehrmann 4y ago

> unused PTO This is required in California.

kodah 4y ago
We shouldn't assume everyone lives in California. They're giving general advice.
anonym29 4y ago
Good to know! But it's not required in every state in the US, let alone around the world, that's why I suggest people should check.
bluesroo 4y ago
Which is also why a vast majority of software companies have "unlimited" PTO. It allows them to have no PTO on the books.

jeffbee 4y ago

Most important bullet point whenever you are leaving a company: * Never sign anything! Unless there is a substantial check attached, you have no reason to sign any agreement with the employer you are leaving. Politely refuse, and if they insist, ask for compensation.

anonym29 4y ago
I had to drop off equipment once towards the end of a contract while the usual people responsible for accepting the return were out of office. I found the head of IT, typed up a paper saying "Anonym29 returned their equipment to Mr. Head of IT on [date] at [time]", put my signature on it, got his signature on it, made a copy for him, and kept the original - I didn't want the risk of the chain of custody getting mixed up and possibly have the company come after me for the cost of the equipment. So maybe not "never sign anything" so much as "exercise good judgement in deciding what to sign, after carefully evaluating whether it will help you or hurt you to sign it"? Just a thought.
- jeffbee 4y ago
  That’s just a receipt, isn’t it? Always get a receipt.
  - anonym29 4y ago
    "Never sign anything, but always get a receipt." Love it!
pm90 4y ago
You need to sign a separation agreement to get severance and other such benefits.

fermentation 4y ago

Is it really just as simple as adding random SWEs and recruiters?

anonym29 4y ago
I went from no degree and zero paid experience to six figure income in about 1 year, and big tech by 3 years, utilizing this strategy. The only job I ever cold applied for my first one. Recruiters (internal and external) have basically driven my entire career since then :) I think job hunting is kind of like dating, in that the "match" between parties has significance, but it also largely a numbers game. Increasing your numbers == increasing your opportunities.

TideAd 4y ago

You say 40+ interviews. Is this something you've done? I did 10 last time I was on the market that was about my limit. 40 sounds like it would take inhuman stamina.

neivin 4y ago
Doing even 10 on-site interviews is incredibly draining, especially if you're actually contributing at your full time job. I interviewed around 2 years ago at about 10 places as well. 10 days of interviewing for 6-7 hours was so mentally exhausting that I just took a week of vacation after all the interviews were done. I had my 10 interviews in a span of 3 consecutive weeks.
bluesroo 4y ago
If you're not employed and you want the best comp you can get, you should treat it as a full time job. My last job hunt was probably ~40-50 hours a week for a month between wrangling recruiters, hiring managers, and the interviews themselves... But I was absolutely haggard by the end of it and made sure that the hiring managers knew early that I'd need a few weeks between when I accept my offer and when I could begin. I had direct contact with 31 companies. Of those, 16 made it past the recruiter+tech screens. We're about 2 weeks into the job hunt and at that point I needed to start pruning. I had frank conversations with the hiring managers and recruiters about comp, work/life balance, and how tight scheduling would need to be for the following interviews. This narrowed it down to ~8 companies. I also told them all they'd need to wait for ~2 weeks so that I could finish up all of my on-sites before I'd accept or reject their offers. I scheduled on-sites over the following 2 weeks. Because all of the hiring managers and recruiters knew I was in 8 on-sites, they all tried to give me quick and good first offers hoping that I'd take it and drop my following interviews. A few tried to pressure me into a 2 day decision window (surprise, these offers were the lowest by far). Of the 8, I received 6 offers. I failed the Google on-site and I turned down another company because of work/life stuff that came up during the interview. As offers came in I could decline ones that were clearly too low. The very last company that I interviewed with had the best offer, so I was pretty happy that I stuck it out... But the only time I was more exhausted was when we had a newborn in the house. Depending on how you count "interview", these was easily in excess of 40. Each on-site was 3-6 interviews back to back.

dangerwill 4y ago

"Build up a rolodex of recruiters." - Given the sheer amount of LinkedIn spam I get from all over the world and for all kinds of roles, I doubt that most recruiters see any individual SWE on LinkedIn as anything other than a cell in a spreadsheet, no matter how friendly you are to them over email.

anonym29 4y ago
I can personally attest otherwise. There are many like this, and many of those aren't even open to building a real relationship with their recruitees, but that seems to become apparent pretty quickly when trying to establish a friendly relationship. I have found that I get better placements and better rates of follow-up interview rounds with the ones I do have a stronger connection with, which is why I mention this. You don't have to send them Christmas cards or anything - just name and number/email of the ones you didn't hate, and maybe a star next to the ones you got along really well with :)
- bambataa 4y ago
  How do you recommend identifying the good ones? I know to look for the more experienced ones and avoid people who’ve been bouncing around various sales roles. Also the ones hanging out on dev discords or mailing lists tend to be better. But it’s very hard to tell on LinkedIn.
xeromal 4y ago
I've worked with a handful of botique recruitment firms that have < 10 employees. They can be really handy in a pinch.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]