the one where I got laid off from my dream job

I’ve not known what day of the week it is for months now. I got laid off on the 1st of December 2022. I was having a great time at work, part of a great team, led projects, had side quests, learnt more in the 9 months there than my entire career and all that changed in one afternoon.

I’ve changed what I was going to write about quite a bit. I figured an account of my job hunt experience would be more beneficial than a detailed account of what my days looked like after that, hehe.

Now what?

I woke up on the 2nd thinking, now what? I had a whole plan for quality of life side quests to do during during Christmas break. I wasn’t taking time off that December and I was going to squeeze in lots of technical debt type work for the team.

I sent out a few messages to recruiters and previous contacts then decided to take the whole of December off. I knew companies shut down hiring after thanksgiving holiday and the most I’d do would probably be the first recruiter calls. I did not prep for interviews and wrote very little code that month.

January came with even more news about layoffs, the downturn was getting worse and I needed to decide what I wanted to do next.

I was going to be financially okay for a long time even if nothing about my income or expenses changed, this took significant pressure off and I could think about alternatives. I could either wait out the downturn, freelance+travel for a bit before getting back at it or battle it out in the worst job market I’ve ever seen.

I eventually decided to start looking again. I learnt a bit about how work was my number one dissociation tool and, like a good mentally ill person (if this is your first time meeting me on the interwebs, I take a jab at my broken mind all the time, do not be alarmed), I wasn’t ready to deal with it at time. I also figured this downturn couldn’t be reliably predicted and was worried that been out for long could hurt my chances in future so I began searching.

Remote but not remote like that. The A in EMEA is silent in this essay I will…

I wouldn’t wish this job market on my worst enemy (especially if they live anywhere other than the Americas, UK or EU).

I initially thought that global remote jobs would be easier to get because people hiring in this market probably preferred someone who could start asap rather than wait for visa processes. While this was probably true, 95% of remote jobs that I was remotely interested in required me to have work authorization in one of those 3 regions.

There’s a special place in the Bermuda Triangle for the person who decided the response to the successful pandemic WFH situation was to region lock remote work. I don’t understand why, when companies like Remote and Deel exist, this is still a thing.

I cannot be objective about this trend one bit because it factored into why I was laid off at my last job and it makes it even harder for incredibly talented folk to get a footing in this industry because of where they live/have work authorization and it’s not fair.

I eventually caved and switched strategies to find jobs that explicitly supported relocation.

The numbers and “strategy”

I set up a tracker to track my applications using this job hunt tracker template and these were my stats:

💼 Total applications: 65 (these are rookie numbers right now, I’ve seen people apply to 200+ jobs)

👻 No response: 25

🚫 Rejected at application stage (no first call): 27

✌️ Voluntary drop off mid-interviews: 6

🔁 Full interview loops: 7

💰 Offers: 3

🤝 Accepted: 1

⌛️ Total time: ~2 months

In comparison, I was job hunting at the end of 2021/early 2022. I only applied to 5 jobs and did full loops for each. It feels surreal just writing this.

It felt like the rules changed overnight and I still can’t believe these numbers. I’d approach people I knew for referrals at their current and previous companies for roles I’d be interested in only for them to come back and say that they weren’t hiring even when the listings were still up. I recently learnt about ghost jobs and I think that’s part of what was happening with those that I got no responses.

I changed strategies and decided to play the numbers game. While, before, I would carefully research companies and craft well-thought-out cover letters where one was required, I decided to brute force my way through.

I had 1 generic cover letter on my notes app that ChatGPT helped me write and one version of my CV on iCloud. I only applied to senior fullstack and senior frontend roles and applied to just about any job that remotely fit these parameters. I only provided a cover letter if it was required and let my experience speak for itself. This made it easier to send many applications at a time whether I was on phone or laptop.

I only read(skimmed through) the requirements part of job listings but made sure to save the link and full description text to the job tracker. I only took time to read through the job description and research the company after scheduling the first call and usually knew if I wanted to work there by the second or third interaction.

I primarily used LinkedIn to find jobs to apply to. Their filters made it easier to find what I was looking for. I initially started by searching for remote roles and switched that to target countries I’d be open to relocate to once I got frustrated . Within those I applied to those that specifically mentioned visa/relocation support within the job description.

I also always applied directly on the website even for listings with “Easy Apply” on LinkedIn though I don’t know if this helped much. I saw a post on a Slack channel where a recruiter ranked company website applicants last and LinkedIn applicants second to last on their hierarchy of candidates. 🥲

No method to the madness right now

I put strategy in quotes in the previous section because no one knows what they are doing right now. I was throwing things at a wall and working with what stuck. You could follow exactly what I did and still come up empty. On top of all the chaos, the usual variables of years of experience, programming languages and specialisation still apply.

I got lots of referrals and spoke to lots of recruiters I’ve become acquainted with over time and they were all a dead end because the job market is shit right now and hiring is frozen in lots of places. I ended up getting offers from companies where I knew no one and they had never heard of me before that first call.

There is no “right way” to job hunt right now. I joined all the Slack groups, added my name and contacts to spreadsheets, did everything ranked high on the said recruiter’s hierarchy of candidates list and still came up empty. This has been the case for many people.

Ignore the noise

I know this post only adds on to the noise right now and every one has gone out of their way to give their opinion about layoffs and a saturated job market but do your best to ignore the noise.

Acknowledge that it’s going to be different this time, turn on noise cancellation and find what works for you. Change things up as often as you need to.

Layoffs shmayoffs

Same way there is no right way to job hunt, there’s no right way to avoid getting laid off. No right way to prepare when the signs or rumours start. Heck no guarantee you won’t get laid off at the next job. It feels like walking in a landmine right now but it’s also true that high risks can yield great rewards.

Sulk if you need to, make financial adjustments early if you need to. Whatever you do don’t let it make you doubt your awesomeness and ability to do the work. There’s a lot of noise online right now and unnecessary takes especially in the Kenyan tech space on the bird app, a lot of it is pent up envy and misery wanting company.

Keep your head down and I wish you all the best!

Don't mind the typos! If they're really bad send me a strongly worded raven so I can fix it!