> Have you ever been laid off from a job for reasons that were not related to your performance?
Yes
> Did this affect your job search / career afterwards?
No
> Do you feel that being laid off from a job prevented you from recovering due to social stigma around being under / unemployed?
No
Now is the time to skim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_life-cycle_management_.... (FYI: If you're making big bucks, you're only "worth it" in the growth stage and the early maturity stage. You're not "worth it" in the "Saturation and Decline" stage, unless you can figure out how to move within your company.)
Basically, I was laid off when the product I worked on was transitioning from "Maturity" to "Saturation and Decline." The startup I joined 9 years earlier was bought and sold a few times, and I wasn't crazy about the company that finally purchased us. I smelt that severance packages were available, dropped a big hint, and was laid off about a month or two later. (The details are confidential, but let's just say that I was on severance at the beginning of Covid! It was wonderful because I had very young children.)
Initially I had so many interviews that I thought I was going to get a job before the severance ran out. If it wasn't for Covid, I probably would have too.
The bigger issue with a layoff isn't employability; it's how you approach looking for a job. What I realized by the time that I found my job was that:
1: Most companies hiring don't want to match my expected salary as a mid-career highly experience engineer that shipped industry leading products. They'd rather take a chance on cheaper, inexperienced engineers.
2: I don't have the patience for poorly-run companies. (Because I've seen it all and have very high standards.)
3: I needed to apply to about 50+ jobs.
4: The bar is much, much higher when you're experienced. It's much harder to try a new technology entering a job if you're coming in as experienced. (I have 20 years of C#, and I couldn't get into a Rust job that I wanted with the pay I wanted.)
5: The "stigma" of a layoff only hurts your chances with poorly-run companies. As long as you discuss it in terms of the product lifecycle and imply a "happy ending," no one will care.
After a false start with one company (see item #2,) I found my current job, which is awesome.
The very important thing to realize is that you're going to have to apply to a lot of jobs. I personally don't believe that ageism is real; but if you're mid career, the expectation is that you can perform at a mid-career level. If you're performing on-par with an early-career engineer, then you need to "pivot" and direct yourself to take advantage of your strengths.
As someone else mentioned, it's a lot easier to search for a job when you don't have to juggle a full-time job. I took a "relaxed" pace of waiting for the monthly "Who wants to be hired" thread, jumping on it, and riding out the interviews, ect, for the rest of the month. If I was desperate, I would have taken the "your job is finding a job" approach.
However, as I mentioned that I had to apply to 50+ jobs... It's really, really hard to do that while having a full time job. I wouldn't have the bandwidth to do that and a full-time job, because I probably put 100+ hours into my job search. I don't get to put 100 hours a year into my hobbies!
Yes
> Did this affect your job search / career afterwards?
No
> Do you feel that being laid off from a job prevented you from recovering due to social stigma around being under / unemployed?
No
Now is the time to skim https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_life-cycle_management_.... (FYI: If you're making big bucks, you're only "worth it" in the growth stage and the early maturity stage. You're not "worth it" in the "Saturation and Decline" stage, unless you can figure out how to move within your company.)
Basically, I was laid off when the product I worked on was transitioning from "Maturity" to "Saturation and Decline." The startup I joined 9 years earlier was bought and sold a few times, and I wasn't crazy about the company that finally purchased us. I smelt that severance packages were available, dropped a big hint, and was laid off about a month or two later. (The details are confidential, but let's just say that I was on severance at the beginning of Covid! It was wonderful because I had very young children.)
Initially I had so many interviews that I thought I was going to get a job before the severance ran out. If it wasn't for Covid, I probably would have too.
The bigger issue with a layoff isn't employability; it's how you approach looking for a job. What I realized by the time that I found my job was that:
1: Most companies hiring don't want to match my expected salary as a mid-career highly experience engineer that shipped industry leading products. They'd rather take a chance on cheaper, inexperienced engineers.
2: I don't have the patience for poorly-run companies. (Because I've seen it all and have very high standards.)
3: I needed to apply to about 50+ jobs.
4: The bar is much, much higher when you're experienced. It's much harder to try a new technology entering a job if you're coming in as experienced. (I have 20 years of C#, and I couldn't get into a Rust job that I wanted with the pay I wanted.)
5: The "stigma" of a layoff only hurts your chances with poorly-run companies. As long as you discuss it in terms of the product lifecycle and imply a "happy ending," no one will care.
After a false start with one company (see item #2,) I found my current job, which is awesome.
The very important thing to realize is that you're going to have to apply to a lot of jobs. I personally don't believe that ageism is real; but if you're mid career, the expectation is that you can perform at a mid-career level. If you're performing on-par with an early-career engineer, then you need to "pivot" and direct yourself to take advantage of your strengths.