Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job
My advice:<p>Have one or more side projects going all the time. If you get laid off, immediately start doing a startup, open-source project, or volunteering full time. A year of unemployment? Lonely, depressing, and not good on a resume.<p>A year of launching an unsuccessful venture? Running coding classes for the underserved? Focusing full-time on contributing to pytorch? That's a lot better, both at the time and in retrospect.<p>Side projects are also a good way to get hired. You meet people.<p>You also learn stuff, and stuff of the type you can't learn in a job.<p>You can also do the equivalent of an acquihire. If you want to work for the world's #1 drubble maker, and you spend 6 months developing a drubble startup, guess who'll come out the most knowledgeable and passionate about drubbles at the interview? And perhaps even bring in some helpful IP?<p>Your back story is "I tried to go it alone; I think I can do a lot more good with the backing of a company."