Ask HN: Laid off today for the first time, anything to be wary of? Advice?
1. You must <i>reframe</i> the situation as quick as possible. Don&#x27;t think, &#x27;shit, why me, what happened, am I not good enough?&#x27; Such thoughts bring you a vicious cycle. You must treat this situation as the best thing ever happened, you <i>must</i> be happy about it. And I promise you, heck I bet $10,000 that you&#x27;ll tell us in one year that this lay-off was the best thing ever happened and led you to x, y  and z. So, basically it&#x27;s not reframing or lying to yourself—no, what happened was really the BEST what could have happened (so, I just did the reframing for you). Change is always good and rarely gets triggered by oneself.<p>2. Reach out to as many people as possible, preferably people outside the company. Most people from the company won&#x27;t help you and even if they did, they just remind you of the company again, what happened and this brings you again to a bad state and you need to start at zero and reframe again. Just let them go, all of them, really. So, look for prior peers, old friends. Further, write applications or just plain emails to many CEOs and tell them that you are out. You don&#x27;t have to write that you look for a job. Just get into conversations with as many people as possible. It&#x27;s more about staying connected and keeping a social context (after you lost the one of the company) than finding the next job.<p>3. Work on a pet project with a technology you always wanted to work with, get into flow and put it online. This will be the most fun and will give you tons of self-confidence in a very short time.<p>You should spend 30% of your day on 2 and 70% on 3 and 0% on thinking about the past.<p>Sounds good?