Where would you go in this environment? Most of the top-name companies have had layoffs themselves, or at the very least are at the hiring freeze stage of the layoff routine.

There’s tons of very profitable companies hiring right now - the “top-name” companies doing layoffs were all “growth-first, profit-never” types. We’re not in an industry-wide downturn and there’s a hell of a lot more out there than FAANG or MANGA or whatever we’re calling it now.

> the “top-name” companies doing layoffs were all “growth-first, profit-never” types

What companies specifically are you referring to? In the last few months we've seen layoffs from Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon. These rank among the most profitable tech companies in the world. https://companiesmarketcap.com/tech/most-profitable-tech-com...

Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon have made an absolute shitload of money. They are among the most profitable companies in the history of humanity. Definitely not "profit-never."

The "we're in a hiring freeze" press releases all have fairly broad asterisks. New people are being onboarded daily in all of the companies that announced layoffs.

That’s true, but those same companies still wound up doing layoffs later on. So if your criteria is not to work at a company without layoffs then you’re still SOL.

I'd rather join a company post-layoff than pre-layoff.

Say you're at company A. Company A and B do layoffs of similar size. Why is switching to company B after the layoffs your preferred action?

Of course. But in a recession there can be multiple rounds of layoffs.

In my case, I did the math on my savings and I’m taking 1-3 years working on side projects, by myself and with groups of collaborators

Wow, good on you. I wish you all the best. I wish I had such financial safety net to change jobs

I have that kind of cushion and I am considering taking a few months off working on side projects. But 1-3 years? I would need a very, very, very solid project to consider doing that!

You’ll laugh but bear with me,

Meta recruiter just reached out to me this week, so even parts of Facebook are hiring, and my relevant skill set. Of course I don’t care about VR goggles, but you just had large layoffs, why would I work for you? (Plus ok Zuck is ruining your core business, but that aside)

Layoffs hurt inside and outside too.

If meta is hiring for VR, they are probably taking advantage of the recent Microsoft layoff anyways to pick up talent.

Do you mean the Microsoft VR layoffs literally announced only 1 or 2 days ago? That's giving BigCo a lot of credit in the agility department, skirting over the edge into conspiracy theory territory.

If they were still hiring for VR, why would the recruiters wait? It’s not like they are very busy.

This role's been open for a while, probably just recruiting getting re-organized after being cut to the bone.

Hire to fire is fairly common.

If a layoff is inevitable, It is common in many set ups for managers to hire people new people whom they would want to let go instead of their top dogs who've been rocking their projects for years.

Nah, this role has been open to long, survived recruiting cuts, and it appears even layoffs. I wonder if FB will get so desperate they even stop trying to downlevel.

Reading a bunch of responses, I feel like I should qualify my initial comment slightly - I really meant it as being specific to these circumstances, in which the largest/most successful companies are doing layoffs.

I generally work at early-stage startups, and I 100% agree with you - at those, if layoffs start, barring some extraordinary circumstances, it's time to get the hell out because your options are about to be worth bupkis.

When it's FAANG, etc. I don't think that's true. Amazon and Microsoft can lay off swathes of people and still have plausible outcomes in which their stock prices are higher in a year or two (perhaps even more plausible than they were pre-layoff).

Not if you are at a top company. Also it’s not like any company gets to cut 10% from what it offers new hires… it’s hard enough recruiting at market rates, will be harder 10% below market rates.

bail off to... where? Every single big tech has done layoff except Apple. Which fair you could go to Apple but then you have to deal with Cupertino and inflated bay area housing.