Tech Layoffs Survival Guide: From Fired to Hired in 90 Days

The email arrived at 9:47 AM on a Tuesday. It was from HR, not my manager, and the subject line was simply "Meeting Request." I knew what it meant before I even opened it. Twenty minutes later, I was sitting in a conference room listening to words that felt like they were coming from underwater. "Position eliminated." "Business restructuring." "Not a reflection of your performance."

By 10:30 AM, my laptop was wiped, my badge was deactivated, and I was standing outside the building I had walked into every day for three years, holding a cardboard box with a plant and a coffee mug. Just like that, I was no longer a software engineer at a company I had believed in. I was unemployed.

If you are reading this, there is a good chance something similar has happened to you. Maybe it was yesterday. Maybe it was last week. Maybe you are still in shock, refreshing LinkedIn and wondering how everything changed so fast. I want you to know that what you are feeling right now is completely normal, and more importantly, that you will get through this.

This guide is everything I wish someone had told me on that Tuesday morning. It is the playbook I eventually figured out through trial and error, through conversations with recruiters and hiring managers, through watching some of my laid off colleagues land amazing jobs in weeks while others struggled for months. There is a method to surviving a tech layoff and coming out stronger on the other side, and I am going to share all of it with you.

The First 48 Hours

The first two days after a layoff are crucial, but not for the reasons you might think. This is not the time to frantically apply to every job posting you can find. This is the time to take care of yourself and handle the immediate practical matters that will affect everything else.

When you get laid off, your brain goes into a kind of crisis mode. You might feel numb. You might feel angry. You might feel relieved, guilty about feeling relieved, and then angry again. All of these reactions are normal. The tech industry has spent years telling us that our jobs are our identity, that we are not just employees but "family," that our work matters. When that is suddenly taken away, it creates a psychological wound that needs attention.

Do not make major decisions in the first 48 hours. Do not send angry emails to your former manager. Do not post a bitter rant on LinkedIn. Do not accept the first job offer that comes your way out of desperation. Give yourself permission to feel whatever you are feeling without acting on it.

What you should do in these first two days is handle the logistics. Make sure you understand your severance package, if you have one. Find out when your health insurance ends and what your COBRA options are. Check your final paycheck for accuracy. If you have stock options, understand the timeline for exercising them. These details matter, and it is much easier to deal with them now than to discover problems later.

Also in these first 48 hours, tell your closest people. Not LinkedIn, not your professional network, but your actual support system. Your partner, your family, your closest friends. You need people who will listen without immediately trying to fix things, people who will let you vent and bring you food and remind you that your worth is not determined by your employment status.

Week One: Getting Your Foundation Right

Once the initial shock has passed, usually around day three or four, it is time to start building the foundation for your job search. But this foundation is not what most people think it is. It is not about blasting out resumes. It is about getting clear on what you actually want and making sure you are in the right mental state to pursue it.

The biggest mistake I see laid off developers make is immediately jumping into a panicked job search without any strategy. They apply to hundreds of positions, hear nothing back, and spiral into despair. This approach does not work, and it will make you feel worse, not better.

Instead, spend the first week doing internal work. What did you actually like about your last job? What did you hate? What kind of work energizes you, and what drains you? If you could design your ideal role, what would it look like? These questions matter because they will guide every decision you make in the coming weeks.

This is also the time to take an honest inventory of your skills. Not the skills you wish you had or the skills that were on your job description, but the things you can actually do well. What technologies do you know deeply? What problems have you solved? What projects are you genuinely proud of? Write these down. You will need them.

The financial piece needs attention during week one as well. Look at your savings and calculate how long you can sustain yourself without income. This number is important because it affects how much risk you can take. If you have six months of runway, you can be selective. If you have six weeks, you need to move faster. Neither situation is better or worse, but they require different strategies.

Create a budget for your job search period. Cut unnecessary expenses, but do not cut things that support your mental health. The gym membership that keeps you sane is worth keeping. The streaming service you barely use can go. Be ruthless about what actually matters.

The LinkedIn Post Everyone Tells You to Write

At some point in your first week, someone will tell you that you need to write a LinkedIn post announcing your layoff. They will tell you it is the best way to activate your network and that posts about layoffs get huge engagement. They are not wrong, but there is a right way and a wrong way to do this.

The wrong way is to write something bitter, defensive, or desperate. Posts that trash your former employer, even if they deserve it, make you look bad, not them. Posts that beg for help make hiring managers uncomfortable. Posts that are clearly fishing for sympathy without offering anything of value get scrolled past.

The right way is to be honest, professional, and specific about what you are looking for. Acknowledge what happened without dwelling on it. Share what kind of role you want and what value you bring. Make it easy for people to help you by being clear about what help looks like.

A good layoff post has three parts. First, a brief acknowledgment of the situation. Second, a positive statement about what you are looking for. Third, a specific call to action. Something like: "After three great years at Company X, my position was eliminated in this week's restructuring. I'm now looking for my next role as a senior frontend engineer, ideally at a company working on developer tools or education technology. If you know of any opportunities or would be willing to connect me with someone in your network, I would really appreciate it."

That is it. No need for a ten paragraph essay about your journey. No need for inspirational quotes. Just clarity about your situation and what would help.

After you post, actually engage with the responses. Thank people who comment. Follow up on leads. The post itself is just the beginning. The real value comes from the conversations it starts.

Rebuilding Your Resume for the Current Market

Your resume from your last job search is probably outdated, not just in terms of your recent experience, but in terms of what works in today's market. The hiring landscape has changed significantly, and your resume needs to change with it.

The days of listing every technology you have ever touched are over. Hiring managers in 2026 are looking for depth, not breadth. They want to see that you have actually accomplished things, not just that you have been present while things happened. Every line on your resume should answer the question "so what?" If it does not demonstrate impact, it does not belong.

Numbers matter more than ever. "Built a React application" tells me nothing. "Built a React application that reduced page load time by 40% and increased user engagement by 25%" tells me you understand that code exists to solve business problems. You do not need to have saved the company millions of dollars. Small improvements that you can quantify are better than vague claims about large projects.

The format of your resume matters too. Applicant tracking systems are more sophisticated than they used to be, but they can still be tripped up by unusual formatting. Stick to a clean, single column layout with standard section headings. Use a normal font. Do not try to be clever with graphics or unusual layouts unless you are applying for design roles where that matters.

If you need help with this, there are resources available. A strong resume built for the current market can be the difference between getting interviews and getting ignored.

The Hidden Job Market Nobody Tells You About

Here is something that took me too long to learn: the majority of good jobs are never posted on job boards. They are filled through referrals, through internal promotions, through recruiters reaching out to people they already know. If your entire job search strategy is applying to listings on LinkedIn and Indeed, you are competing for a small fraction of the available opportunities and competing with hundreds or thousands of other applicants for each one.

The hidden job market is accessed through relationships. This does not mean you need to be a networking expert or an extrovert. It means you need to be intentional about reaching out to people who might be able to help you.

Start with the people you already know. Former colleagues, classmates from your bootcamp or university, people you have met at conferences or meetups. Many of them will be happy to help if you make it easy for them. A message like "Hey, I was recently laid off from Company X and I'm looking for senior frontend roles. Do you know anyone at your company or in your network who might be worth talking to?" is not pushy. It is direct and respectful of their time.

The people you do not know but should are also important. Look at companies you would like to work for. Find engineers there on LinkedIn. Send thoughtful connection requests with a brief note about why you are interested in the company. Not everyone will respond, but some will, and those conversations can lead to opportunities that never make it to the job boards.

Recruiters are another path to the hidden market. The good ones have relationships with hiring managers and know about roles before they are posted. Connect with recruiters who specialize in your area of expertise. Make it easy for them to help you by being clear about what you want and responsive when they reach out.

How to Actually Network Without Being Awkward

Most developers hate the word "networking" because it conjures images of awkward small talk at conferences and transactional LinkedIn messages. But networking does not have to be like that. At its core, networking is just building genuine relationships with people in your industry. You have probably been doing it your whole career without calling it networking.

The key shift is to think about how you can help others, not just how they can help you. Even while job searching, you have value to offer. You have knowledge and experience. You have your own network of connections. You have perspectives and insights. When you approach conversations from a place of mutual exchange rather than pure need, they feel different for everyone involved.

One technique that works well is to ask for advice instead of asking for jobs. People love to give advice. It makes them feel valued and expert. And advice conversations often lead to job opportunities organically. "I'm trying to figure out whether I should focus on frontend specialist roles or full stack positions in my search. Based on what you're seeing in the market, what would you recommend?" is a much better conversation starter than "Do you have any jobs available?"

Coffee chats, whether virtual or in person, are underrated. Thirty minutes talking to someone about their career path, their company, their thoughts on the industry can be incredibly valuable. Even if it does not lead directly to a job, it expands your understanding of what is out there and plants seeds for future opportunities.

Preparing for Interviews in a Changed Market

Technical interviews have evolved since you last went through the process, possibly significantly depending on how long you were at your last company. The good news is that the fundamental skills being tested have not changed. The challenging news is that the format and expectations have shifted.

The biggest change is the increased emphasis on system design and architectural thinking, even for roles that are not explicitly senior. Companies want to know that you can think beyond the code in front of you to understand how systems fit together. They want to see that you consider scalability, maintainability, and tradeoffs in your technical decisions.

Coding interviews are still common, but the focus has shifted somewhat from pure algorithm puzzles toward more practical problem solving. You are still likely to encounter data structures and algorithms questions, but you are also more likely to see questions that resemble real work. Building a small feature, debugging existing code, refactoring a messy function.

Behavioral interviews have become more important as companies recognize that technical skills alone do not predict success. Be prepared to talk about conflicts you have navigated, projects that failed, times you received difficult feedback, and how you have grown as an engineer. The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is still the gold standard for structuring these answers.

If you have not interviewed in a while, do not skip the preparation phase. Practice with a friend, use interviewing platforms, or work through practice problems on your own. The muscle memory of interviewing atrophies quickly, and you do not want your first real interview to be the one where you shake off the rust.

There are comprehensive guides available that cover the full interview process including system design, coding challenges, and behavioral questions.

The Emotional Rollercoaster of Job Searching

Nobody talks enough about the psychological toll of job searching after a layoff. Some days you will feel optimistic and energized. Other days you will want to stay in bed and pretend the whole situation is not happening. Both of these are normal.

The rejection is the hardest part. You will apply to roles you are perfect for and never hear back. You will have great interviews and get ghosted. You will make it to the final round and lose out to someone else. Each of these rejections can feel personal, like evidence that you are not good enough, even though rationally you know that hiring is a chaotic process with many factors outside your control.

Building resilience for this process is essential. One technique is to set activity goals rather than outcome goals. You can control how many applications you send, how many networking conversations you have, how much interview practice you do. You cannot control whether you get offers. Focus on the inputs, and trust that the outputs will follow.

Another technique is to batch your application work and then step away. Spending all day every day on job searching is a recipe for burnout. Set specific hours for job search activities and then do other things with the rest of your time. Exercise. Work on side projects. See friends. Maintain a life outside of the search.

Having at least one person you can talk to honestly about the process is invaluable. Someone who will listen when you need to vent, celebrate when you have a win, and gently push you when you are getting stuck. This could be a friend going through the same thing, a mentor, a coach, or a supportive family member.

The First 30 Days: Building Momentum

The first month of your job search is about building momentum. You are not likely to have an offer in hand by day 30, and that is fine. What you want is a pipeline of opportunities at various stages and a clear sense of what is working and what is not.

By the end of week two, your resume should be polished and your LinkedIn profile should be updated. You should have posted your announcement and started reaching out to your network. You should have a target list of companies you are interested in and a system for tracking your applications.

During weeks three and four, you should be actively applying to roles, having networking conversations, and starting to get responses. If you are sending applications and hearing nothing back, that is signal to revisit your resume or your targeting. If you are getting initial interviews but not moving forward, that is signal to work on your interview skills.

The tracking system matters more than people realize. Whether you use a spreadsheet, a Trello board, or a dedicated tool, you need a way to see all your active opportunities at a glance. Include the company name, role, application date, current stage, next steps, and any notes. This prevents things from falling through the cracks and helps you see patterns over time.

Aim to have ten to fifteen active applications at any given time. Fewer than that, and a few rejections can stall your whole search. More than that, and you risk spreading yourself too thin and not being able to give each opportunity the attention it deserves.

Days 31 to 60: The Middle Phase

The second month of a job search is often the hardest psychologically. The initial burst of energy has faded, but you probably do not have a finish line in sight yet. This is when many people lose momentum or start making poor decisions out of desperation.

The key to surviving this phase is to stay consistent while being willing to adjust your approach based on what you are learning. If a particular type of role is not getting traction, consider adjacent positions. If your applications are not converting to interviews, get feedback on your resume from people in hiring positions. If you are interviewing but not advancing, practice more or get coaching.

This is also the phase where financial pressure can start to affect decision making. If your runway is getting short, it is okay to expand your search to include roles that are not your ideal. A job that pays the bills while you keep looking for the right fit is a valid strategy. There is no shame in taking a stepping stone role.

What you should not do is disappear. It is tempting during the middle phase to withdraw from networking, stop posting updates, and suffer in silence. This is exactly backwards. The people in your network want to help, but they cannot help if they forget you are looking. Keep showing up. Keep having conversations. Keep being visible.

If you have skills that can be monetized on a freelance or contract basis, this might be a good time to pursue short term work. Consulting projects, contract roles, or freelance development work can extend your runway and add recent experience to your resume. Just make sure that any short term work does not consume so much time that your job search stalls.

Days 61 to 90: Closing the Deal

If you have been consistent through the first two months, the third month is often when things start coming together. Interviews that started in month one reach final stages. Networking seeds you planted earlier bear fruit. The compound effect of all your activity starts to pay off.

This phase is about conversion and negotiation. You want to turn your active opportunities into offers, and you want to make sure those offers are good ones.

When you get to final rounds, preparation becomes even more important. Research the company deeply. Understand their business model, their competitive landscape, their recent news. Prepare thoughtful questions that demonstrate your genuine interest. Practice your presentation skills if there is a presentation component.

Many developers undersell themselves in the final stages because they are so relieved to be near the finish line. Do not let exhaustion cause you to leave money on the table. Companies expect negotiation. Having a clear strategy for salary negotiation can be worth tens of thousands of dollars over the course of your tenure.

When evaluating offers, look beyond the base salary. Consider equity, especially at startups where it can be a significant portion of compensation. Consider benefits, flexibility, growth potential, and the quality of the team you would be joining. A slightly lower salary at a company that will accelerate your career might be worth more in the long run than a higher salary at a dead end.

If you have multiple offers, which is the ideal situation to be in, be honest with all parties. Let companies know you have other offers and need to make a decision by a certain date. This often accelerates their process and can lead to improved offers.

What If It Takes Longer Than 90 Days

Not everyone lands a new role in 90 days. The job market fluctuates, some specializations are more in demand than others, and sometimes the timing just does not work out. If you find yourself heading into month four or beyond, here is how to adjust.

First, assess honestly whether something needs to change. Are you targeting the right level of roles? Are you getting interviews? Are you making it to final rounds? Each of these checkpoints indicates where the problem might be.

If you are not getting interviews at all, the issue is likely your resume, your targeting, or both. Consider working with a professional resume writer or career coach. Get feedback from people who are actually in hiring positions. The issue might be something you cannot see because you are too close to it.

If you are getting interviews but not advancing, the issue is your interviewing skills. This can be fixed with practice, but it takes time. Consider a paid interview coaching service or find peers to do mock interviews with. Record yourself answering questions and watch the recordings, as painful as that can be.

If you are making it to final rounds repeatedly but not getting offers, something subtle is going wrong at the last stage. This could be references, compensation expectations, or cultural fit concerns. Try to get feedback from the companies that have declined you. Not all will provide it, but some will, and it can be incredibly valuable.

Extending your runway becomes critical if the search goes long. Consider what expenses can be reduced further. Look into unemployment benefits if you have not already. Explore contract or freelance work more seriously. The goal is to stay in the game long enough to find the right opportunity.

The Mental Health Component

I am going to be direct about something that does not get discussed enough in career advice: extended unemployment can seriously affect your mental health. The combination of rejection, financial stress, loss of routine, and loss of identity can push even mentally healthy people into depression or anxiety.

If you notice yourself sleeping too much or too little, losing interest in things you normally enjoy, withdrawing from relationships, or having persistent feelings of hopelessness, please take it seriously. These are signs that you need support beyond job search tactics.

Maintaining physical health supports mental health. Exercise, even just walking, has been shown to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety. Eating regular meals instead of stress eating or not eating at all matters. Getting outside and getting sunlight matters. These things are easy to let slide when you are in job search mode, but they are actually the foundation everything else depends on.

Stay connected to people. Isolation makes everything worse. Even if you do not feel like socializing, force yourself to maintain at least minimal contact with friends and family. A weekly phone call with a friend, a regular coffee date with a former colleague, anything that keeps you in relationship with others.

If you need professional support, seek it. Many people have access to employee assistance programs that continue for a period after layoff, or can afford a few sessions with a therapist, or can find free or low cost community mental health resources. There is no weakness in needing help during one of life's most stressful transitions.

Learning and Growing During the Gap

Time between jobs does not have to be pure job searching. It can also be an opportunity to learn, grow, and work on things you did not have time for while employed.

Side projects are valuable for several reasons. They keep your skills sharp, they give you something current to discuss in interviews, and they can demonstrate initiative to potential employers. The project does not need to be revolutionary. Even a small application that solves a real problem for you or others shows that you can ship things independently.

Learning new skills can make sense, but be strategic about it. Do not try to learn everything or chase every new framework. Focus on skills that will make you more valuable for the types of roles you are targeting. If you are a frontend developer who wants to move into full stack work, learning a backend framework makes sense. If you are already strong across the stack, deepening your expertise in your primary area might be more valuable.

Contributing to open source is another option that can raise your profile and expand your network. Find projects you genuinely care about and start with small contributions. Documentation improvements, bug fixes, and minor features are all valuable and help you learn the codebase. As you become more involved, you build relationships with maintainers and other contributors who might be valuable connections.

Be careful not to use learning as a procrastination technique. It is easy to convince yourself that you need to complete one more course or build one more project before you are ready to apply for jobs. This is usually fear talking. The best time to be job searching is now, even if you do not feel completely ready.

Explaining the Layoff in Interviews

You will be asked about why you left your last job, and you need to have a good answer ready. The good news is that layoffs are so common in tech now that they carry much less stigma than they used to. Interviewers have been laid off themselves, or know people who have, or work at companies that have done layoffs.

The best approach is to be matter of fact and brief. "The company went through a restructuring and my position was eliminated along with about 15% of the engineering team." That is it. You do not need to justify it, apologize for it, or go into detail about the business circumstances unless asked.

What you do need to have ready is a pivot to what you are looking for and why this specific opportunity interests you. After your brief layoff explanation, transition immediately to something like: "Since then I've been focused on finding a role where I can [specific thing that matches this job], and when I saw this position I was excited because [specific thing about the company or role]."

Do not badmouth your former employer, even if you have legitimate grievances. It makes you look bitter and raises questions about whether you will badmouth your next employer too. If pressed about problems at your former company, acknowledge them briefly and neutrally: "There were some strategic decisions I disagreed with, but I learned a lot there and I'm grateful for the experience."

If the layoff was part of a major public event, like a large company doing widespread cuts that were in the news, you do not even need to explain much. Just reference the event and move on. Everyone knows what happened.

Building Your Career After the Layoff

Landing a new job is not the end of the story. The layoff experience changes you, and you get to decide how. Some people become paranoid and start treating every job as temporary, never fully engaging, always keeping one foot out the door. Others learn valuable lessons about diversification, continuous learning, and the importance of maintaining their professional network.

The healthiest response is somewhere in between. Yes, you should recognize that job security is more fragile than you might have believed. This means maintaining your skills, staying visible in your industry, and keeping your professional relationships warm even when you are happily employed. It does not mean living in constant fear or refusing to commit to your work.

One practical lesson many people take from layoffs is the importance of financial resilience. Building a larger emergency fund, living below your means, and avoiding lifestyle inflation all give you more options if it happens again. Six months of expenses in savings is a different experience than six weeks.

Another lesson is about identity. If being laid off devastated you emotionally, it might be a sign that your identity was too wrapped up in your job. Developing interests, relationships, and sources of meaning outside of work creates a more stable foundation. Your job is something you do, not something you are.

The experience also often clarifies what actually matters in a job. After going through a layoff, many people become clearer about their priorities and less willing to accept situations that do not serve them. They become better at evaluating companies, asking tough questions in interviews, and walking away from opportunities that do not feel right.

The View From the Other Side

I want to end by telling you what it looks like once you have made it through. I got laid off, went through everything I have described here, and eventually landed a role that was better than the one I lost. It took about 11 weeks, which felt like an eternity while I was in it.

What I did not expect was how much I would learn from the experience. I learned that I was more resilient than I thought. I learned who my real friends were. I learned that my skills were valued by the market, even when one company decided they did not need them anymore. I learned that the panic and fear of the early days were valid but not predictive. The catastrophe my brain was convinced was coming never actually arrived.

I also learned that the tech industry is full of people who want to help each other. Former colleagues made introductions. Strangers on LinkedIn responded to cold messages. Interviewers treated me with kindness even when they could not hire me. The same industry that had just rejected me also embraced me. Both things are true.

If you are in the middle of this right now, I know it does not feel like it will end. I know every day feels long and the future feels uncertain. But I promise you that this period is temporary. You will get through it. You will find work again. And you might even look back on this time as a turning point that led you somewhere better.

The layoff happened to you, but it does not define you. What defines you is what you do next. So take care of yourself, trust the process, and keep going. Your next opportunity is out there, and every day you spend working toward it brings you closer.

Now go make it happen.