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I was laid off in Aug 2009. I negotiated 3 months of continued employment to start and finish a project I knew they would want to do (cost savings measure to mo

by secos 11y ago

I was laid off in Aug 2009. I negotiated 3 months of continued employment to start and finish a project I knew they would want to do (cost savings measure to move to the cloud). Tech at the time: rails. I had (part-time contract) work within 15 minutes of leaving the layoff meeting. It pays to network before you need it. Before my extra 3 months ended, I reached out to the individual investors in the company and asked if they knew if any of their portfolio companies had any work. I ended up taking a contract in February (there were 2 months where I did odd gigs, but was essentially out of work and living off savings - again it pays to plan ahead) that paid way better than I was making before and positionally a better spot. (titles matter too, though less than the work at hand - depending on what you want to be doing)

mooreds 11y ago
> It pays to network before you need it. This is very very true. Go to those meetups, have those lunch meetings, do good things for others. My second favorite action is to send an article I know will be of interest to an acquaintance or former colleague. My favorite thing to action is to introduce a possible employee to an acquaintance or former colleague.
civilian 11y ago
> Before my extra 3 months ended, I reached out to the individual investors in the company and asked if they knew if any of their portfolio companies had any work. That's genius. Of course the investors would want the software talent to stay "in their neighborhood", and secondly it helps b/c there's one less disgruntled unemployed ex-employee.