If you can, negotiate your new job just before the layoff. Then stay around for the severance package. I was lucky enough to have done that when Kaleida shut do

If you can, negotiate your new job just before the layoff. Then stay around for the severance package. I was lucky enough to have done that when Kaleida shut down, so I didn't have to compete with everybody else I was working with for a new job in the same field at the same time. (A bunch of them went to Netscape, and I'm sure glad I avoided that trap!)