Finding a New Software Developer Job
For the first time ever, I was laid off, and had to find a new software developer job. I managed to find a new one, but it took longer than I thought, and it was a lot of work. I was in contact with 30 companies, got a no from 8 companies, no reply from 6 companies, and offers from 3 companies. Here is what I learnt from the process.
At the end of October last year, I lost my job. I was completely surprised, but in retrospect, maybe I shouldn’t have been that surprised. The times were getting tougher, and many companies had been laying off people during all of 2023. If the company is not making enough money, eventually there will be layoffs. In my case, we were 17 people let go that day, including 8 developers.
A few minutes after I had the Zoom call with the CEO, my access to all company resources was cut off. Apart from not being able to finish what I was working on (I had several unpushed changes), it becomes harder to say goodbye to everybody. Many of my colleagues reached out on LinkedIn, which was great. Some even set up Zoom calls so we could talk about what had happened, and say a proper goodbye, which I really appreciated.
Being let go was a new experience for me. The closest I have been in the past is during the dot com bust, when the project I was working on at Ericsson was cut. They were not yet laying people off (that came a bit later), so we were offered other roles within Ericsson. But I decided to change to another company instead (they reached out directly to me, since I had worked with of them at Ericsson). All the other times I have changed jobs, it’s been on my own initiative, while still being employed. I typically stayed on for three months (the standard notice period in Sweden), finishing up what I was working on, before starting at the new company.
