Top 7-things you can do to help people who just lost their job

We have seen an astonishing number of companies laying off portions of their workforce since the start of 2022, with the most significant layoffs starting in October and November and the total for the year exceeding 238K. (See the bottom of the blog for figures.)

While there has been carnage, some good news emerged: people in tech have been rallying to help each other, including hiring managers and recruiters helping place teammates that were let go into new roles, and a variety of other people chipping in to help where they can from resume reviews, mocks, intros to companies, and network expansion. A slew of lists emerged, including companies hiring H1B holders who have 60-days to find a new role, companies actively hiring, Meta alumni seeking work, and Twitter alumni seeking work.

Due to seeing so many people being incredibly helpful on LinkedIn, I was inspired to create this guide for people on the fence about helping out. In addition to the top-7 list that follows, I have included resources on companies hiring and lists of people looking for work. If you are hiring, you are in luck.

Top-7 list

1. Reach out, listen, and be specific
2. Remember the stages of grief
3. Offer to open up your network
4. Offer to introduce them to people
5. Don't over offer
6. Be supportive
7. Be available

1. Reach out, listen, and be specific

Just being open-ended can leave people not knowing the variety of ways you can assist - which could result in them not reaching out. Reach out, listen and be specific as to how you can help. I found this from someone else's post, whom I will cite when I locate it... I have modified my outreach to the following:

Hi [insert name],

I saw you are a [insert company name] Alumni. I could help in the following ways if you are interested:

1) Expand your network

2) Provide a resume once over

3) Introduce you to companies I know hiring

4) Whatever else might be of help

Paul from Canada :)

You'll want to change the above for each person you contact since you may need to learn about companies hiring for jobs in their field. You can also ask what they need help with, but sometimes, people may not know. Providing an a-la-carte list makes it easy for folks to make requests.

Additionally, "if you know someone who's been laid off and haven't seen them in a while, offer to catch up socially or just check-in. Sometimes [you] can't help with a job immediately, but everyone appreciates an authentic connection after a tough experience like a layoff. I've heard from colleagues who've gone through layoffs that they often feel awkward reconnecting with people from past jobs as they don't want to come off as only reaching out to discuss job opportunities." ~ Spencer Perry, Microsoft PM.

2. Remember the stages of grief

Do you know what stage of grief the person is in? Does it matter? Perhaps not, but understanding the stages can help you to realize that not everyone is in a state where they need or want help.

The 5-stages of grief are the following: 1) Denial, 2) Anger, 3) Bargaining, 4) Depression, and 5) Acceptance.

People I have reached out to are mostly just figuring out what they would want to do next before applying anywhere. Some are keen to start applying immediately, especially if there is a 60-day time limit on an H1B visa. Some people may even be pleasantly surprised that they have some extra time off if they receive decent severance.

3. Offer to open up your network

With LinkedIn you have likely a few hundred, or perhaps thousands of people in your network. Allow people to connect so that they can find contacts at companies they are interested in speaking with. Hopefully they will even ask you for an introduction. If people make 10-new connections with 3rd-degree contacts who have 500 contacts each, they would expand their reach to 2nd-degree contacts by 5,000 people.

4. Offer to make introductions

If you know people at companies hiring, offer to connect people directly. You should check with the company contact as to how you should introduce people looking for jobs and if they are the right person. So far, I have found people very receptive to meeting potential candidates, given the current climate. (I didn't A/B test this one, and it is highly likely the people I reached out to are always this friendly...)

5. Don't over offer

It may sound good to offer lofty promises, but be sure to set realistic expectations on how you can help and by when. People probably don't need you to solve every problem, but you should be able to help with what you offer. You know what they say "under offer and over deliver". You also don't want to place yourself in a bind.

6. Be available

People may not be ready to take you up on your offer just yet. So let them know you are there anytime they may need a hand with what you offered. No need to push here - if people want help, they will ask. However, people may be more timid to actually say yes to some help, and this is a delicate balance to play here given the situation. If you know the person well enough, you can maneuver to allow the person to be accepting of help. If you do not know the person, it may be best to leave things at a "I am here for whenever I may be of assistance."

7. Be supportive

They may need a place to vent, and you could be that avenue. Maybe offer a coffee, a beer, lunch, or just a video call to really listen and be there for them.

8. Did I miss anything?

Please add comments on what I missed, and I'll see what I can include.

Some additional resources

Lists of roles available

• 60-day grace period -> for those in an H1B rush to get their next role
• LinkedIn Jobs -> You are on here now, just hit the jobs tab.
• Indeed -> Plenty of tech jobs listed here.
• Engineering, design, and PM roles Excel, by friends of Friends of Shreyas. (1000+ listings as of 2022-Nov-19)
• Who is still hiring software engineers and EMs -> Blog and associated Excel sheet with recent listings by Gergely Orosz. Direct Excel link here. (750+ listings as of 2022-Nov-19)

Current lists of folks seeking roles

• Meta link -> as of recently you will need to request access to the file due to spam that was occurring.
• Twitter link -> great folks looking for their next role

If I anyone can provide other sources, I am happy to list them here.

Some of the layoffs since the start of 2022

People are not alone when it comes to layoffs with some of the more recent layoffs including the following:

• Amazon 2022-Nov-tbd: around 10,000 people(about 0.7% of the global workforce). (Thompson Reuters., 2022)
• Meta, 2022-Nov-8: 11,000 people (about 13%). (Zuckerberg, M., 2022)
• Twitter, 2022-Nov-4: about 3,700 people (50%). (Dang, S., 2022)
• Microsoft, 2022-Oct-17: 1,000 people (less than 1%). (Indian Express., 2022)
• Some other notables include AirBnB (~1,900), Asana (~100-150), Chime (160), Coinbase (~1,160 in 2-rounds), Lyft (~700), Netflix (~450 in 2-rounds), Robinhood (~1,013 2-rounds), Snap (~1,200), and Stripe (~1,120). For Canadian companies, we have seen Article (216), Dapper Labs (137), Hootsuite (400+), Shopify (1,000), Thinkific (100), and Unbounce (47).

For a more complete list see layoffs.fyi.

~~~

Follow me on LinkedIn for updates to this post and a soon-to-be-released resume guide that has been 98% complete for the past 5-years... Seems timely to finally publish it.