Checklist

Give yourself a day or two before you do anything drastic — don't fire off a hundred panicked applications. Roles are eliminated for budget and org reasons that have nothing to do with how good you are. Tell one or two people you trust; you don't have to carry it alone.

Add up your cash, savings, and any severance, then subtract your essential monthly expenses (rent, food, insurance, minimum debt payments). That gives you how many months of runway you have. Knowing the number — even if it's tight — replaces vague anxiety with a real deadline you can plan to.

Go through your subscriptions and discretionary spending and cut or pause anything non-essential for now. Then call your lenders and providers — many have hardship or deferral programs for mortgages, car loans, and credit cards. Small cuts made early can add months to your runway and take real pressure off the search.

Check the agreement for the severance amount, payout of unused PTO, the exact date benefits end, and any non-disparagement or non-compete clauses. Severance is sometimes negotiable, and you usually have time to review — you don't have to sign on the spot. For a large package, consider having an employment lawyer take a look.

If you were laid off through no fault of your own, you can usually claim benefits. File in the state where you worked, ideally the same week you're let go (many states don't backdate). Have your employment dates and last paycheck handy. Severance can affect timing in some states — file anyway and let them sort eligibility.

Find your state's office ↗

Employer coverage usually ends at the end of the month. Your options: COBRA (keep the same plan, but you pay the full premium — you get a 60-day window and it's retroactive, so you can wait and elect only if you need it), a spouse or partner's plan, or the ACA marketplace (losing your job is a qualifying event, so you get a special enrollment period and may qualify for subsidies).

Explore marketplace coverage ↗

Save copies of your recent pay stubs, the layoff and severance letters, and any performance reviews or work samples you're allowed to keep (nothing confidential or proprietary). Write down the personal contact info for your manager and the coworkers you'd want as references or to stay in touch with — work email and chat access usually disappear immediately, and these are exactly the people you'll lean on next.

Keep a daily routine, move your body, and stay connected to people — isolation makes everything heavier. If your old plan included an EAP (employee assistance program), you may still have a few free counseling sessions. Many therapists offer sliding-scale rates, and apps like Headspace or Insight Timer help with the day-to-day. Your job search will be better for it too.

Before mass-applying, get clear on the role, the kind of company, your must-haves vs. nice-to-haves, and your comp floor. This isn't just soul-searching — it's the input the job finder uses to filter. The sharper you are here, the less noise you'll wade through later.

Do you need to stay where you are, or are you open to other cities or countries? Widening your geography widens your options. Remote roles widen them the most, but they're also far more competitive — you're up against applicants from everywhere, not just your city. Decide your radius now so the tool can weight roles the way you want.

Capture your recent accomplishments now, while you still remember the details and numbers. Lead with impact and metrics rather than duties, keep it tight, and plan to tailor it per role. (Per-job resume tailoring is on the roadmap for this tool.)

Turn on "Open to work", refresh your headline and About section, and add your most recent role with its highlights. Then send connection requests to former coworkers you haven't added yet — they're your warmest leads, and it's far easier to reach them now than in a year.

Open LinkedIn ↗

Reach out to a few former managers and close colleagues and ask if they'd be willing to be a reference or write you a LinkedIn recommendation. People are most willing right after working with you — and most generous when you're upfront. Confirm the email or phone they'd like used so you're ready the moment an employer asks.

A job hunt with no shape is exhausting, so give it some: set rough working hours, a weekly target for applications and outreach, and one place to track where you've applied (this tool's pipeline does that). Protect your evenings and weekends — burnout doesn't help anyone. Small, steady effort beats frantic bursts.

Your network is your single best job-search asset — a large share of roles are filled through referrals. Go through old coworkers, note where they've moved, and flag the people you'd feel comfortable asking for a referral. Add those companies to the tool as referral companies and it'll surface and boost their roles for you.

If you're on garden leave, in a transition period, or your company has a redeployment process, check for internal transfers before the door fully closes. A different team or a contract-to-hire bridge can be the quickest path back to a paycheck.

Point the tool at the companies you care about and the titles you want. It watches their job boards directly, surfaces only new matches, and ignores anything you've already applied to — so your search becomes a short daily triage instead of endless refreshing.

Being laid off is common and carries no stigma, so say it plainly: your role or team was eliminated, and you're proud of the work you did. Then prepare a few stories that show your impact (situation → what you did → result) and rehearse them out loud or with a friend. Confidence in interviews comes from practice, not luck.

Be wary of "recruiters" who pitch vague but too-good offers, ask for payment or your bank/SSN up front, insist on chatting only over Telegram or WhatsApp, or want you to buy equipment for a "reimbursement." Legitimate employers never charge you to apply. Verify the company and the person independently before you share anything sensitive.

Short-term contract, freelance, or consulting work can cover the gap, keep your skills sharp, and grow your network — and contracts often convert to full-time roles. Even part-time keeps your momentum up and reads far better than a long, unexplained gap. Just check how it interacts with your unemployment benefits before you start.

An honest "I've been laid off and I'm open to work" post activates your entire network at once, and people genuinely want to help. Keep it short and forward-looking: a line on what happened, what you're great at, and exactly the kind of role you're after so people know how to help.

You generally have four choices: leave it in your old employer's plan, roll it into a new employer's plan later, roll it into an IRA, or cash out — which is usually a bad idea (income tax plus a 10% early-withdrawal penalty if you're under 59½). There's no rush, so avoid cashing out to cover short-term bills if you possibly can. If you had a loan against your 401(k), check when it comes due.

File any outstanding expense reports before your accounts close, and check for balances you can still use or cash out — unused commuter benefits, an FSA (often use-it-or-lose-it), an HSA (yours to keep), and accrued PTO if it wasn't already paid out. A few minutes here can be worth real money.

Make a quick pass for personal logins, subscriptions, two-factor codes, and password-manager entries that route through your work email or SSO — move them to a personal account before access is cut. Don't forget recovery emails on important personal accounts.

Severance is taxed like income, and unemployment benefits are taxable too — but taxes often aren't withheld from them by default, so it's easy to get a surprise bill. Consider setting a little aside or opting into withholding, and keep all your documents (final pay, severance, 1099-G) together for filing season.

Pick up a skill or certification that kept showing up in the job descriptions you actually want. A focused course or cert is a concrete thing to put on your resume and talk about in interviews — and it keeps your brain in motion while you search.

A little project that solves a real problem sharpens your skills, gives you something to show, and makes for a genuinely interesting interview story. It doesn't have to be big — done and demonstrable beats ambitious and unfinished.

Open source, a nonprofit, or pro-bono work for someone who needs it keeps your skills warm, grows your network, and fills the gap on your timeline with something meaningful. It's also a low-pressure way to work alongside new people who may think of you later.

A short blog post, a talk, or a LinkedIn article about something you've learned builds visibility and reminds your network what you're great at — without ever feeling like self-promotion. Teaching is also one of the best ways to sharpen your own understanding before interviews.

Before you dive into the grind, take a few genuine days off — no laptop, no doomscrolling job boards. Burnout makes for a worse search, not a more dedicated one. A rested, steady you will out-interview an exhausted, anxious one every time.

A daily walk, a hike, a bike ride, the gym — whatever you'll actually do. It does more for your headspace and your sleep than almost anything, it gives shape to days that suddenly have none, and it costs nothing.

Reach out to the friends and family you went quiet on while you were heads-down at work. Real connection is good for you — and, with zero agenda, these are often the conversations that surface an unexpected lead anyway.

The trip, the hobby, the instrument, the half-built project in the garage — pick the thing 'someday' always pointed at and actually start it. You may never again have this much uninterrupted time; spend a little of it on something that's just yours.