Laid off in December. It wasn’t my first layoff, but I was expecting this one to be considerably harder given the market at the time. Somehow, things have gone

Laid off in December. It wasn’t my first layoff, but I was expecting this one to be considerably harder given the market at the time. Somehow, things have gone even worse than I imagined. Four months later, there’s still no end in sight. Referrals from people enthusiastic about working with me again have ended either after the recruiter screen or with ghosting. I’ve had founders reach out to me after HN posts, but I’ve either failed to advance or been ghosted altogether. And of course, the usual stream of cold applications has led to the predictable stream of “thank you for your interest” emails, some after a recruiter call, most without one. As to “am I doing all right” – not really, to be honest. Financially I’m holding on despite the unpleasant hit to savings, but the hit to self-confidence has been pretty severe. I’ve really enjoyed my career in product design up to this point, and now I have this terrible, creeping worry that I’ve somehow hit my expiration date.