Hard truths I learned when I got laid off from my SWE job
My advice: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.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.Side projects are also a good way to get hired. You meet people.You also learn stuff, and stuff of the type you can't learn in a job.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?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."