So you've been laid off: a guide for mid-level and above software devs and leadership

(A quick preamble: if you’re not in software as either someone who can write code or someone who professionally makes developers more effective, this is going to come off as utterly out of touch. I wish this applied to more people in more career paths, and it doesn’t, and it’s not fair. If you’re not based in the US or Canada, you might find it unrelatable for other reasons.)

There’s been so, so many layoffs visible on LinkedIn and elsewhere recently, and it’s clear that they’re causing a lot of pain, anxiety, and uncertainty. There’s a lot of advice out there for what to do next, and the stuff that isn’t straight-up fearmongering comes down to: Résumés, references, maybe drilling on leetcode, networking, applications blah blah BLAH.

What always gets skipped when we talk about this: getting back to life fundamentals.

You’ll probably not have a full-time role for at least six weeks, which is long enough to break or form long-lasting habits. And you have more flexibility in your schedule right now. So here’s my prescription:

Get sweaty. Not anxiety-sweaty: fitness sweaty. Pick some goals and build a routine pointed towards them. It feels great to be in a healthy body, and you’ll be sharper and make better decisions.
Get enough sleep.
If it’s not already firmly front-of-mind and decided, spend some time considering what you want at this point in your life. Julian Shapiro has a [good guided exercise](https://www.julian.com/blog/life-planning) for this if you want a framework.
Invest some of that extra time and flexibility in nurturing the relationships you care about in your life.

Most fundamental habit changes are either lightweight or self-sustaining once they’re up and running, but take a fair amount of initial time and effort investment to get started. You have that available now.

Money-wise: You’re going to be fine. Yes, you have to do all those work-finding things: it’s on you to find a new job or gig or what-have-you. But there’s plenty of folks hiring and the world of software is still growing, and there’s lots of guidance on how to do these things, and credit exists if you need a couple extra weeks.

You’re going to not have a full-time job for like…2-3ish months. Unless your former employer literally ran out of money and shut down, that’s probably a bit less than how much your severance would cover without even cutting costs (which, yes, cut your spend for now; runway is good for anxiety). And once you get that new gig, you’re likely to once again be in the position of having more money than time, and it being much more challenging to invest in behavior change.

So, invest in yourself now. It’s a rare opportunity, and easy to miss in the noise.