A central hub for employers, employees, and people who've been recently laid off. We hope each of you can find helpful resources about handling or recovering from layoffs during a pandemic.
- About
- Getting Started
- Understanding Benefits
- Next Job
- Employers - How You Can Help
- Employees - How You Can Help
We got laid off in early March 2020, just as America's (and to our eye, the tech industry's) wave of layoffs was building. Our company asked us to stay another month to be an information conduit and to help our former colleagues-- also laid-off-- get connected to job opportunities.
During that month, many more people were laid off and the spreadsheets, LinkedIn and Twitter postings, articles, forms, lists, and more kept piling up. The signal to noise ratio was becoming unmanageable, data about who was hiring was becoming stale day by day.
It's ebbed and flowed over the years (!) but we're still seeing layoff news every week. We didn't want all the internal work we did to go to waste, so what you see started from that effort. We also kept finding resources in corners we didn't know about and wondered if there couldn't be a more community-supported, centralized way to share information.
And thus, Effective Immediately was born.
Your core maintainers here are Eben Dower, Kevin Landucci, and Krista Lane, all former Senior Talent Managers at Triplebyte. We've also started a casual video series about all things interviewing, called Triangulation Station.
Prior significant contributors from 2020:
Milena Souto was a maintainer, focusing on US Visas/immigration-related matters.
Jordan Helsloot was a valued contributor to Effective Immediately and former Head of Talent Management at Triplebyte.
Trent Krupp, Triplebyte's former VP of Operations, lent fundamental support and encouragement to enable this project to exist beyond Triplebyte.
Although our origins began with Triplebyte, Effective Immediately has no remaining affiliation (in any legally binding manner, at least) to it. We will not comment specifically about Triplebyte or its layoffs.
Lastly, a brief disclaimer: the three of us are not perfect. We chose an open-sourced model for this project because we know communities are better together. But 2/3 of us are new to Github, and we know our perspective can be siloed when we came from the same company in the same location. We're mostly assuming this will be consumed by people based in the United States, perhaps especially in California from which most of our professional networks originate.
We are heavily inspired by how jlevy organized his open source Guide to Equity Compensation (we'd been sharing this with candidates for a while-- thank you!) and so our current approach is for this readme to be comprehensive, well-organized, searchable and community-supported.
See contributing file for more detail and full attributions list.
Have you found other resources useful that you don't see here?
Do you have feedback on topics we should cover more deeply (or broadly), want to submit original contributions, or other suggestions?
We welcome input (and give full credit for information we add or update) in two ways:
- File an issue or pull request if you're familiar with Github
- Email us at effectiveimmediately3@gmail.com
Let's get to it.
This section contains resources people who've been laid off may find useful right off the bat, before or while figuring out next steps.
Getting laid off under any circumstance is no walk in the park, but during a pandemic is really hard. Be kind to yourself and give yourself a moment (or a few, whatever you need) to breathe and feel however you feel about it.
If HR doesn't answer these 7 questions for you, find out. HBR: 7 questions to raise after you're laid off. Although worth reading for the context, since it's paywalled, the basic questions are:
- When do I receive my last paycheck?
- Will I receive severance pay?
- How long will I have to exercise my stock options?
- Does the company offer healthcare coverage after my last day, and if so for how long?
- Will you provide a reference for me?
- How can I get copies of my performance reviews, and by when?
- What will happen to my 401(k)?
We'd add:
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Will I be able to keep my computer/related equipment? If the answer is no, and you don't have a personal machine, ask if it's possible to keep it at least on loan until you find your next job. This may be particularly important in areas where public access to computer facilities (like the library) may be restricted or services not restored, and many of your interviews will be conducted remotely using a computer that can connect to videoconferencing software. In general, it's worth asking for what would help make transitioning out easier (or otherwise be impactful for you), even if the answer is no.
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Depending on your situation (i.e. company size, layoff group size within 30-90 days, state, reason for layoff), you may be entitled to minimum standard severance benefits from your company after a layoff, such as 60 or 90-day notice (or equivalent pay), or from your state government in the form of additional unemployment benefits. We're not legal experts on any of the details, and in California at least, there may still be exceptions due to COVID-19 or local natural disasters. So, if you feel your severance offer is lighter than it should be, you might ask whether the HR team has confirmed if your company meets those requirements. See: CA WARN act FAQ, and Coronavirus and the WARN act.
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Candor.co has a simpler guide to handle closing out with your now-former employer.
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Maintaining one's health is critical, mentally and physically. Therapy can really help. If you're on a tight budget, here are five affordable ideas courtesy of Healthline. Vox also has ideas specific to finding a therapist (including insurance-friendly telehealth options) during COVID-19 shelter-in-place. An initiave called Coronavirus Online Therapy offers pro-bono or low fee therapy for essential workers and resources to those who are not currently working, but still need support and affordable counseling services.
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Here's a list on Lavandaire of 15 quarantine-friendly ideas for self-care and relaxation.
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If relaxing isn't your speed right now, we made a Spotify playlist for being laid off in a pandemic that reads a bit like a breakup list. It's collaborative; feel free to add things that help(ed) you!
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Dealing with worry after a coronavirus layoff - from Quartz
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For many, spring 2020 is one of the most challenging times of our lives, even without a layoff involved. Adapting and building resilience will be key to moving forward, both to survive and (eventually) thrive. Here's the APA's guide to building resilience.
This section listens benefits you might entitled to while unemployed
Allegedly (we have not been able to verify this, will update if we do) CA state senate staffers are responding to constituents' concerns about problems with filing for unemployment. California residents who have trouble with filing for either state unemployment or healthcare benefits can try contacting them at Senator.[lastname]@senate.ca.gov. Even if they can't help you individually, it may not hurt to voice the pressing issues that probably a lot of people are facing. You can find your senator at findyourrep.legislature.ca.gov.
In most cases, if you were a full-time employee at the time of a layoff (and had been working full-time >12 months), you qualify for unemployment benefits.
There are new, broader conditions (such as gig workers, part-timers and contractors) specifically during the state of emergency caused by COVID-19. Some benefits apply to everyone affected, and some apply only to those who lost jobs directly because of COVID-19.
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Mento has a free COVID-19 benefit-finder tool to help you determine (after a short quiz) which benefits you may qualify to receive for your situation. They also offer free or low-cost customized career coaching and guidance on many of the topics covered in this guide.
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Your specific unemployment benefits will vary depending on your state, situation, etc. Gusto offers a list of all COVID-19 unemployment benefits for every US state. If you're in California, you can start with edd.ca.gov. The federal government also has info at usa.gov/unemployment.
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Career One Stop, a U.S. Department of Labor website has an Unemployment Benefits Finder tool to help you find your state-specific unemployment programs and websites.
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In most cases you can apply for unemployment benefits as soon as you're no longer on company payroll. Beware of a common gotcha: if you learn you're laid off on Tuesday, but your company plans to call your "official last day" Friday, you can't apply for unemployment until Saturday.
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Take care to complete your application as accurately as possible. One typo (for example, incorrectly filing your last day) can cause delays in getting paid, and the unemployment benefits providers are overwhelmed right now.
People laid off are typically entitled to COBRA (your existing health coverage plan, but paid by you instead of your employer), but it is usually pretty expensive. If you have alternative healthcare options (such as a spouse's plan-- by the way, losing your job is a qualifying event to join outside of open enrollment) that may be your best route.
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Covered California (for CA residents) may be another option.
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You may find this article more helpful to compare COBRA to Covered California in detail.
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Jennie Ellis has recommended Stride Health to help find the most cost-effective insurance options. If you've exhausted your federal COBRA eligibility, you might be eligible for more months of Cal-COBRA coverage. H/t to mejarc for this tip.
The following resources are specifically for those terminated or furloughed AND on US work visas. Some may also be useful context for candidates currently interviewing, such as adjusted expectations for visa applications/transfers and interview/onboarding processes. Many thanks to Milena Souto for researching and writing this section.
Disclaimer: We are neither immigration attorneys nor compliance experts. We recommend consulting an immigration attorney. (Many offer pro-bono/free consultations. Some free clinics are listed below.) If you’re furloughed or still have access to your employer’s Human Resources team or HR Immigration Coordinator, these might be good resources to consult on your specific visa and work authorization situation.
Find updated information about USCIS office closures in response to COVID-19. You can find their contact information and detailed instructions on applying for an extension of stay and change of status in case you need to remain in the U.S. beyond authorized stay. As of April, USCIS plans to begin reopening offices on or after June 4. Although in-person appointments were cancelled, USCIS continues to perform duties that do not involve contact with the public.
The Department of State has suspended routine visa processing at consulates and embassies abroad.
National Law Review’s Immigration Q&A for the COVID-19 Pandemic covers questions related to H-1B, working remotely, permanent layoff/termination and unemployment benefits. Two important items on termination are highlighted below:
- What happens to foreign national workers if they are terminated?
- The standard grace period of up to 60 days is granted to the following visas under federal regulations: E-1, E-2, E-3, H-1B, H-1B1, L-1, O-1 or TN.
- Length of the grace period: “is either 60 consecutive days or until the end of the worker’s current authorized validity period, whichever is shorter.”
- Grace period allows foreign national workers to:
- “find other employment with an employer who can file an extension or change of status within the 60-day period.”
- “potentially change to some other status on his or her own during the grace period, such as to F-1, after enrolling in a school.”
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Law firm Husch Blackwell wrote Additional Resource on H-1B Visa Rules. This provides information on H-1B regulations for employers seeking to retain H-1B workers. It might also be helpful for individuals seeking employment and visa transfers to better-understand remote hiring, WFH policies, non-productive status, and reduced hours.
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Immigration Nerds and the Erickson Immigration Group is a podcast typically more employer-focused, but covers information on notifying USCIS about working remotely, LCA filings, and right to work verification through I-9 and document verification processes. The episode Addressing Employer's Immigration Concerns and Best Recommendations is available on Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.
If you’re an international student, we also suggest looking into your university’s international and student resource centers.
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Universities such as Johns Hopkins University and Columbia University have International Student Offices where you can find support and resources on decision-making process involved in leaving/returning to the US and maintaining eligibility for J-1 and F-1 OPT visas. These universities' FAQs linked might be helpful.
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The Immigration Nerds podcast released another episode on the Outlook for F-1 Students in a Covid Era: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. It interviews Marcelo Barros, founder of the International Advantage, who provides insight on the job search process for international students.
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A non-profit legal services organization called Legal Aid At Work released a FAQ on COVID-19 and its impact in employers. It also has virtual free clinics and helpline services in Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, and other languages.
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The Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN) also provides immigation legal services in the Bay Area through a general immigration legal clinic and immigrant Q&A hotline.
These cover some or all of the above (and below):
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Kevin Landucci made a 30-day plan. The focus here is, "if you do nothing else in the first month post-layoff, do these things." Many additional resources linked within.
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Jordan Helsloot assembled a guide he's calling "Getting a job in the coronapocalypse" for our former Triplebyte colleagues from resources collected and shared by all of us over March/April.
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Helen Wang assembled this guide for their former Yelp colleagues, but it's broadly applicable. Covers basic details re: filing for unemployment, stimulus info at a glance, and maintaining some income while you job-search, etc.
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Patricia Mou compiled and regularly adds community-sourced resources into a central job-searching list. Every job board and talent list we've seen in the last month is on her list.
Insert Intro Section
We cannot recommend highly enough staying organized in this process. Don't trust yourself to remember everywhere you've applied in your head while so much is going on. At a minimum, track who you're talking to, from where, about which role, anticipated next steps, and how you feel about that opportunity.
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Here's a basic sample job search tracker you can adapt for yourself, courtesy of Jordan Helsloot.
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Here's a slightly more complex tracking system if you could benefit from comparing job titles and interview conversion rates, courtesy of Matthew Broberg.
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Huntr.co website-ifies this concept if you like pretty things.
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Simplify Jobs has a browser extension that will automatically track your applications in a central dashboard no matter where you apply!
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Some people write daily schedules to keep themselves on track for their job search. If that works for you, awesome!
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Others find goal-setting within a wider time frame to be more effective for them. An example: rather than spending 9-11am updating resume, 2-3pm preparing applications/requesting intros, etc, you might find it easier to set achievable goals you control, such as, "by the end of day Wednesday, I will have applied to 15 jobs." Break that down into manageable tasks (research/bookmark jobs, update resume, write cover letter, update tracker, etc.) that build up to the overall goal for that time period. Find what works for you.
You aren't alone. Find others sharing what's helped them, and share what's helped you that might help others.
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Silver Lining is a site for candidates and companies. It includes a talent dashboard for candidates to get discovered, job boards to browse, their own collection of resources, and a growing Slack community offering support by career coaches and peers. Companies can browse candidates if they're hiring, or register their layoff to quickly connect their affected employees to support.
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HireClub is a Facebook group to help facilitate peer to peer job referrals, and it's moderated by a career coaching service aptly named HireClub.
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Elpha is a community for women in tech. Although the site as a whole is not specific to job hunting, there are tags and mini-communities within it, as well as job postings.
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Diversify Tech is a collection of resources for underrepresented people in tech, including job postings and various communities you might be interested to join.
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Hire Tech Ladies is, like Elpha, a community for women in tech, but as the name suggests is more focused on hiring/getting hired.
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Does your company (or previous companies you've worked at) have an alumni network you can connect with for support or job opportunities (or both)? What about other communities you might already be part of, like a church, club, gym, or university?
We suggest taking a moment to think about what you want to do next before you start applying to every job you see. "Beggars can't be choosers" may be ringing your ear off, but your time spent here may save you a lot of energy spinning your wheels on opportunities that aren't a good fit.
Determine how much time/savings you can budget to find a new job-- both optimistically: assuming you maintain current quality of life/this will be pretty temporary, and pessimistically: assuming things will be terrible and you'll have to cut back on your expenses to stretch further. Your comfort with risk may vary from someone else's, but with so many unknowns, it's safer to assume the worst and hope for the best.
Depending on your runway, you may decide the focus of your search is to find your next dream role to spend the next 2+ years. Or you might be looking for whatever you can do for the next year to keep the lights on.
- Simplify Jobs autofills your job applications in one-click - saving you hours from manually reentering your information on every application.
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Kevin's Light-hearted multidimensional approach for how to make a cover letter
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Krista's longform opinions on resumes.
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Anastasia Ecin & Andrew Echevarria's How to write a Kickass Resume - includes resources for students or new grads as well.
Depending how you strategize your search, you may want to "spray and pray" applications to a lot of companies, or target your search, or something in between. Some people have recommended targeting "recession-proof" businesses like food/grocery industry.
It does seem wise to at least consider the weaknesses or strengths of a business's revenue model and have questions prepared for you to assess the company's likelihood to sustain themselves (or grow responsibly to avoid triggering layoffs later when demand subsides). That said, even if you apply to hundreds of companies, a subset of your list should be companies (or roles) you'd be thrilled to work for-- your enthusiasm will shine in those interviews with much less effort than a throwaway application.
Regardless of your methods, in the current hiring climate we recommend spending some time evaluating how recently the job listing was added. As a rough guidance, if the posting is less than 2 weeks old: probably still active. 2-3 weeks old: suspicious, but could still be active. Be especially wary if that company has had layoffs during that time. 4+ weeks old: do not bother applying without confirming they are still hiring.
It seemed overwhelming to list every job board here, but you can find many of them in these docs or elsewhere in this readme (like in the communities we've linked, or the employer section):
Nearly every company you'll interview with is hoping you are singularly interested in a/the role they're hiring for which you have applicable skills.
That angle is understandably challenging to play at a time when the perfect career or corporate fit may not be your highest priority. Certainly we don't advocate being inauthentic, but it is probably in your best interest to carefully represent yourself toward the role you've applied.
We'll keep adding to these resources, but here's a list to start with:
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Jopwell’s Recap Article from their “Acing the Virtual Interview” Webinar
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Twilio Unplugged is offering a digital interview prep series (check their site for announcements on the next live event).
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Effective Immediately's own Kevin, Eben & Krista started an informal interview series called Triangulation Station. Episode 1 is about Kevin's job search process.
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Pathrise offers interview prep guides for specific companies.
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The STAR method summarized, and sample behavioral interview questions, courtesy of VA Wizard.
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viraptor's open-source list of reverse interview questions (to ask your interviewer).
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Yangshung Tay's Tech Interview Handbook covers a lot, specifically for technical interviewing. We discovered it through the Questions to Ask section, which can apply to many roles/types of interviews.
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This may feel hard to prioritize when the talent supply/demand balance is out of the candidate's favor, but Maria Campbell wrote this thoughtful post on identifying safe places to work to avoid toxic environments.
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FastCompany on tips for virtual interview prep during COVID-19 times
In this market, it may be challenging to negotiate or otherwise expect to move forward in your salary growth. You may even take a side step to something entirely different (and potentially lower-paying) to keep yourself busy or pay the bills til you figure something else out. That's OK! There's no shame in that, and since tens of millions of people have been laid off this year, good recruiters won't think twice about what you do this year.
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Jordan's Decision-making rubric-- helpful when comparing offers and you want to see the differences at the margin, but also useful to track weighted priorities/preferences between opportunities.
We're glad you're here! We hope some of this is helpful and welcome input if you'd like to share wisdom with other companies.
If you may need to lay off part of your company, consult your experts (of course), but please also read these:
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Andreessen Horowitz’s Guide to Planning and Managing Layoffs
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First Round’s How to Lead and Rally a Company through a Layoff
We're biased, but we recommend reading about our experience running an outplacement team after Triplebyte's layoffs.
- Here is our tl;dr checklist of that work, which contains links to templates you can use and documentation we wrote.
If your company is unaffected by layoffs, or if layoffs did not impact hiring needs in other departments, you can do a few things to contribute toward industry-wide solutions:
Source your candidate pipeline from layoff lists/trackers, either distributed by your investors or through sites listed below. Layoffs are currently affecting every sector (even parts of healthcare).
- ParachuteList claims to be "all the layoff lists, consolidated"
- layoffs.fyi
- Layoff-Aid
- Candor.co
- Drafted
- Awesome People List for candidates laid off from venture-backed companies.
Repost open jobs frequently. If your careers page doesn't already mention when the posting was updated, consider adding it. Stale postings (2+ weeks old, especially if your company already had a round of layoffs) are unreliable when industry hiring needs are changing weekly. If you haven't already, add your open jobs to sites/lists like the following:
This sounds obvious, but if you're in a hiring freeze or otherwise not going to review inbound applications for the foreseeable future, don't accept them. Take down job postings for which you aren't hiring.
Why? Tens of millions of people are unemployed. It's fair to say at least millions are looking for work. Leaving hopeless job postings up costs them time and energy they could spend on stronger leads.
We get the impetus to keep building the pipeline, but be honest-- do you prioritize inbound applications anyway? Besides: With that many jobseekers, there are likely to be plenty still looking (or coming back from taking a break) by the time you're actually ready to review them-- save it for the fresh leads and don't leave applicants hanging.
(If this means you have "nothing" for your recruiters to do, believe me, they probably have plenty of process improvement project ideas they've never had the chance to work on. If not, or they've already done them, you can set their skills to work on outreach-- hosting resume reviews, interview prep advice, etc that helps build your brand)
Some sound obvious, but these are pain points we've heard are still happening:
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If you're reaching out to someone unemployed, include whether your outreach is regarding a job opportunity, seeking advice, or something else. Jobseekers have to carefully prioritize time and energy (especially now). You being upfront helps them plan accordingly.
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Avoid ghosting candidates you've spoken to. Keep them posted on when you expect to get back to them, and follow through.
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If things change (it happens), communicate that as quickly and clearly as you can.
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Any feedback or advice you can offer when it doesn't work out? This will go a long way toward generating referrals for better-fit candidates and goodwill for later. You should be giving feedback anyway-- Aline Lerner has thoughts!-- but it'll be appreciated even more now.
There's a section just for you and how to help your colleagues on our recently-published blog post. We hope it's useful. The tl;dr is: amplify your colleagues-- share or like their posts, write LinkedIn Recommendations, or introduce them to recruiters from a previous job search or friends at other companies still hiring. Try to be specific with any help you offer, and avoid the overwhelming phrase "don't hesitate to reach out."