10 Tips to Survive Tech Layoffs

I had two readers reach out to me recently asking essentially the same question:

"How do you navigate the current environment in tech where layoffs seem to happen every year now?"

It's a fair question.

Recently, Cisco and LinkedIn reportedly laid off thousands of employees. Meanwhile, more cuts are constantly rumored across the industry, including at Meta. At this point, layoffs no longer feel like isolated events. Since late 2022, they've become part of the background noise of the tech industry.

I do think the reasons behind each wave are different. Some companies overhired during the zero-interest-rate era. Some are restructuring around AI. Some are cutting projects that no longer make strategic sense. But regardless of the reason, the effect on employees is the same: uncertainty.

And I can speak from experience here because I got laid off in late 2022 too.

The timing honestly could not have felt worse. I had just moved to Texas to work remotely. We had just had our third child. I had just bought a new house. Meanwhile, the stock market — especially tech stocks — was getting obliterated.

At one point, I remember being down around $1.6 million from my all-time-high net worth.

That combination hits differently when it all happens simultaneously. Even when I logically know most of it was "paper losses," it still affected me psychologically. Watching my near 7-figure income go to zero while the assets were dropping was uncomfortable to say the least.

But I was still incredibly fortunate.

I had prepared for years without fully realizing what I was preparing for. I had built up liquidity. I had avoided overleveraging myself. And maybe most importantly, I still felt mentally sharp and highly employable.

That last part matters a lot.

In my case, I wasn't trying to maximize compensation anymore. I wasn't trying to chase the next rocket ship startup or climb another ladder. Financially, my situation was different from earlier in my career. What I really needed was a bridge between full-time grinding and eventual retirement.

So instead of optimizing for prestige or maximum upside, I optimized for stability and quality of life. I ended up taking a relatively relaxed role at a mid-tier tech company. The work was manageable, expectations were reasonable, and it gave me breathing room to think clearly about what I wanted the next phase of life to look like.

Ironically, getting laid off probably clarified a lot for me.

It made me realize that the point of wealth-building was never to "win" some imaginary game. The point was to create optionality. To reduce fear. To give yourself room to make rational decisions when things get unstable.

(Quick spoiler before we dive in: that $1.6M drawdown has more than recovered. I'll share where I am vs. my original FIRE projection at the end of this post.)

So with that context, here are the things I personally think matter most in this environment.

1. Move toward teams that matter to the company's current strategy

Layoffs rarely happen randomly. They usually happen by org, initiative, or business unit.

You want to be attached to work that leadership can clearly explain during an earnings call.

If your team's mission feels fuzzy, disconnected from revenue, or constantly changing, pay attention to that. It doesn't necessarily mean disaster is coming tomorrow, but it does mean your position may become harder to justify during a cost-cutting cycle.

A lot of engineers stay on teams because they like the people, the tech stack, or the comfort. I understand that. But during unstable periods, alignment with company priorities matters more than comfort.

2. Become a prolific IC

Middle management tends to get squeezed during layoffs, especially smaller management layers.

If you manage a small team, you may unfortunately be sitting in an awkward spot organizationally. Companies often decide they can flatten structures and redistribute reports.

Strong individual contributors, on the other hand, are usually easier to justify keeping.

You do not need to become some mythical "10x engineer." But you do want to become someone who consistently ships useful work, solves problems independently, and creates leverage for others.

The people who survive layoffs are often not the loudest people in the room. They're the people others quietly depend on.

3. Become extremely proficient with AI

This one is unavoidable now.

You do not need to become an AI researcher, but you probably do need to become extremely comfortable using AI tools in your daily workflow.

The engineers who use AI effectively are already operating faster than the ones who don't. That gap will likely continue widening.

More importantly, leadership notices it.

If your company is aggressively pivoting toward AI initiatives, becoming one of the most AI-native people in your org is probably a very smart career move.

4. Be flexible about the kind of work you do

One thing I've noticed over the years is that people sometimes become too attached to their specialization.

Someone identifies as "a frontend engineer" or "a mobile engineer," and eventually that identity becomes rigid.

But companies do not need the same things forever.

I've seen web engineers transition into infrastructure, distributed systems, video engineering, security, internal tooling, and AI-related work — and do extremely well afterward.

Your long-term value is not just your current domain knowledge. It's your ability to learn new domains quickly.

The people who adapt tend to survive.

5. Optimize for impact, not prestige

A surprising number of people stay in low-impact roles because the brand name on LinkedIn looks impressive.

Meanwhile, someone else at a smaller company is doing critical work, learning rapidly, and becoming indispensable.

During unstable periods, impact matters more than prestige.

If you are solving painful problems for the business, your odds improve significantly.

6. Consider returning to major tech hubs

This may be controversial, but I still think proximity matters.

Moving to remote-friendly locations can absolutely improve quality of life. I literally did it myself. But one thing I underestimated was how much harder it becomes to stay connected to the broader tech ecosystem when you physically leave it.

The Bay Area still concentrates an enormous amount of opportunity, talent, founders, and capital into one region.

Remote work is real, but networks still matter immensely — especially during downturns.

When layoffs happen, many of the best opportunities come through relationships, not job applications.

7. Avoid oversized financial commitments

This is probably the least exciting advice here, but maybe the most important.

Do not trap yourself with massive fixed monthly expenses during unstable times.

When I got laid off, I had just bought a house and just expanded my family. That timing definitely added psychological pressure, even though I was financially okay overall.

You never want to be in a situation where losing your job immediately creates panic because your burn rate is too high.

A huge mortgage, expensive cars, luxury lifestyles, and constant lifestyle inflation all reduce flexibility.

One of the most underrated forms of wealth is simply having low mandatory expenses.

8. Build a larger emergency fund than you think you need

I used to think six months was plenty.

I'm less convinced now.

The market for experienced tech workers has become much more uneven than people realize. Some people recover quickly. Others spend close to a year searching despite strong resumes.

Having substantial liquidity changes the emotional experience completely. It allows you to think clearly instead of desperately.

In my own case, one reason I stayed calm during the layoff was because I had enough cash and investments to know I wasn't in immediate danger. That psychological stability matters a lot more than people think.

9. Keep your network warm before you need it

Most people wait until after they're laid off to reconnect with everyone.

That's backwards.

The best time to maintain relationships is when you don't urgently need anything.

Check in with former coworkers. Help people when you can. Stay visible. Stay friendly.

A huge percentage of strong opportunities never become public job postings.

10. Remember that layoffs are often not personal

This is maybe the hardest part.

People naturally interpret layoffs as a statement about their worth or competence. Sometimes it simply isn't.

Entire high-performing teams get eliminated because priorities change. Strong engineers get caught inside org reshuffles. Finance teams make percentage-based cuts. New executives come in and reorganize everything.

Obviously performance matters. But layoffs are often far more structural and political than people want to admit.

Try not to internalize every outcome as a verdict on your value.

FIRE Update

Quick update on where things stand.

I'm currently $2,552,458.66 ahead of my original FIRE projection.

For context, my original plan had me retiring at 35 with $4M and hitting $10M by age 50. I'm 38 now and nearly at the decamillionaire mark.

Honestly, I don't really index on the absolute number anymore. Markets can flip in a hurry, and I've watched the same balance look very different just a few months apart. What I keep doing is tracking actual vs. expected. That's the lens I find more useful — not the headline figure, but where I am relative to the path I projected for myself years ago.

Things get turbulent. At work, in the market, in your own professional development. Through all of it, the one habit I've held onto is just not letting the tracking die. I still check in. And I fully expect the line to revert back to the mean eventually.

Final thoughts

I don't think the era of guaranteed stability in tech is coming back anytime soon.

The industry is still attractive. Compensation is still strong. There is still enormous opportunity. But the environment is clearly more volatile than it was five or ten years ago.

That means the strategy has to evolve too.

The people who do well over the next decade will probably be the ones who stay adaptable, financially flexible, technically sharp, and emotionally resilient.

Not the people who assume the good times will continue forever.