Why do layoffs suck? What happens after a layoff ?

.. you’re more than just an SDE at Amazon .. you’re a human!

“.. you’re more than just an SDE at Amazon .. you’re a human!”

Layoffs are brutal, let's address that first. There is no way layoffs can be easy.

1. My personal story — Brief
2. Why do layoffs happen?
3. Why layoffs are tough?
4. How to mitigate the effects?
5. What happens a year after layoff?
6. Conclusion

My personal story — Brief

I was a TPM at Expedia. I had a great experience as a Data Engineer and a Software Developer at Expedia. Within 9months of becoming a TPM, I was laid off.

It sucks because…

1. With 9 months of experience, I don’t have much experience as a TPM to go into the market and demand a good salary
2. and I cannot go back to a Data engineer role again as I lost touch with it as its already been 9months.
3. I moved from the US to India and I don't want to start as a novice TPM and start with a basic novice salary in Indian rupees

What I did?

I did my own startup, and went from there. That’s a different journey that is not relevant to this blog.

But let’s look at ..