adamstober

Thanks bkfunk. All — I launched layoff-aid.com for SF tech talent in 2017. Love the initiative here and happy to help push it forward or do whatever else I can to better solve the problem. Email is Adam@ , mention HN

I agree high profile shouldn’t matter, but it helps to grab the attention of recruiters who often pay attention to high-profile consumer companies like “Uber” but not to smaller, more enterprise-facing startups. It’s not necessarily a logical disconnect, but it is real.

Great questions.

Yes. The job seekers are more desirable to sourcing teams if they are systematically filtered to be sincere about taking a new role, local, and experienced in a given role. Layoffs tend to produce a gold mine in that respect from a talent acquisition perspective.

Good point on fragmentation seeming counterproductive. It certainly is, but that’s the way it is since different candidates and different employers have different preferences (e.g. an engineer might prefer maintaining GitHub over LinkedIn, so sourcers can’t just use LinkedIn). Also, people who have been laid off tend to value a specific package of help — not just job leads, but also resume reviews, fast-track processes, and sometimes creative (non-traditional / part-time) leads that fill any potential gap.

Layoffs are "more normal" at more tech companies at more lifecycle stages than many people realize.

If you're interested in tech layoff data covering people who work in the San Francisco Bay Area, read an analysis that I published: https://medium.com/layoff-aid-blog/tech-layoffs-are-surprisi...

Founder here. Technically speaking we are the modern version of what "outplacement" service should be, rather than another recruiting platform.

I'm in Product Management by day (when I'm not in between jobs because I got downsized!), and I help to build out Layoff-Aid on my nights and weekends. More on my story here: https://www.layoff-aid.com/team

Layoff-Aid is my passion project that just hit the one-year mark: https://medium.com/layoff-aid-blog/layoff-aid-busts-4-startu...

Our first market is SF Bay Area tech talent -- anyone who has work experience in tech and is seeking employment in the SF Bay Area. Our candidates are roughly one-third business, / product & design / technical; basically the same distribution you'd find at a typical tech company that slashes headcount in a downsize event.

We do want to expand to anyone who gets laid off, in any industry, in any location, but we need to figure out how to sustainably generate revenue from our SF tech industry niche before we expand. Until then, I've somehow avoided burning a hole in my pocket as we figure things out, but we still have a lot of work to do to monetize effectively.

Our mission matters more than making money, but we need to make money to execute on our mission.

Sorry to hear. While I'm not over 50, I went through something similar at one point and took the opportunity to spend some time on a passion project before going back into the workforce.

Despite the frustrating situation, you'll end up better off. And if you're looking to get back to the tech workforce, here are some tips that I hope might help: https://medium.com/layoff-aid-blog/how-to-hack-the-tech-job-...

As always, happy to help good SF people who were affected and are now job-searching via https://www.layoff-aid.com

As always, happy to help good SF people who were affected and are now job-searching via https://www.layoff-aid.com

Deployed

We'll triage at http://www.layoff-aid.com starting with SF, where we launched last week.

We've been building a solid list of hiring companies for several months already. Our mission is to help people affected by layoffs and we're now ready with a network of local companies specifically hiring SF tech talent affected by layoffs.

May expand to NYC pretty soon given demand. NYC/SF/Boston Hiring companies can sign up now to get people from the next SoundCloud, Etsy, Twitter, etc

Awesome. Haven't used them. Curious to hear how long it took you from signup to signing, and whether or not you were employed while you were searching.

Thank you

Second time today we see reporting on SF tech startup woes (see SoundCloud as well).

In case it's helpful, http://www.layoff-aid.com is avaiiable for SF tech talent affected by downsizing in both cases.

What an epidemic.

Would love to have ClassPass join our network, so candidates can find great new homes quickly and easily whenever they're ready: http://www.layoff-aid.com/hiring

Feel free to apply yourself, forward to recruiting, or give me a shout with questions.

Even if you don't join, very much appreciate you posting here and making yourself available.

Would love to have you join our network, so candidates can find great new homes quickly and easily whenever they're ready http://www.layoff-aid.com/hiring

Flexport is great, and we're proud to have your team as one of our awesome http://www.Layoff-Aid.com startups that are already on our hiring network in SF.

Thank you for posting here, for making yourself available directly.

Tough news. And it's great to see posts from people who are in hiring in SF, offering to take a look at affected employees.

We built http://www.layoff-aid.com/ specifically to help candidates and companies find each other, with the main goal of helping candidates find new homes quickly.

More on HN last week: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14647365

Here's today's example of an "entire department" layoff at SoundCloud: https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/06/soundcloud-the-youtube-for...

There's also the "entire department" (often post-acquisition) rationale. In any case, your perception is pretty common, and that creates a hiring opportunity for savvy recruiters who know better and don't pre-judge.

Would love to learn from data if you have any to back that up. From what we've seen, top reasons that determine who gets laid off include those who: 1) get paid well (the layoff is a desperate cost-cutting measure) 2) are randomly selected (the company is acknowledging that layoffs are not performance-related) 3) either got hired most recently or have most tenure (an attempt to reward longtime employees or respect those who just joined)

Thank you for asking. We Googled "layoffs vs firing", and got the following from Susan P. Joyce on Job-Hunt.org:

"Being laid off is NOT the same as being fired because it is not considered to be the fault of the employee. It is, actually, the fault of the employer. A layoff is often called a "reduction in force" or "down-sizing." ... This is often the reason that more highly-paid employees seem to be on the layoff candidate list."

Here's an article from Jan 2016 listing many VC-backed startups that laid employees off: https://techcrunch.com/2016/01/08/burn-slower-or-vaporize/

Here's a newer article from this year that also lists different VC-backed startups that laid people off: https://venturebeat.com/2017/01/14/early-layoffs-and-closure...

All the while, the tech scene and general economy have been growing. Layoffs in tech are a byproduct of the accelerated lifecycle of VC-fueled startups, leaving unsuspecting employees to unexpectedly look for a new job without having one, wasting valuable time and earning potential.

Existing job-search processes usually take months from kickoff to signing, as it takes time to both find the right fit and move through a company's various interview steps. Our platform will address the first problem by broadly circulating candidates to hiring startups that want to know about newly-available talent, and we address the second problem by incentivizing employers to compete on speed of interview process. If they don't, they'll simply lose these local, experienced candidates to some other firm.

Layoff-Aid only accepts candidates affected by layoffs from SF tech startups.

Let me know how I can clarify further.

Founder here. We don't deal with fired. We connect people from SF startups affected by layoffs with local startups that can hire quickly. Getting laid off != getting fired. Recruiters want our candidates, but don't otherwise know how to snag them.

Thanks for the feedback. Agree that there needs to be some exploration to making it work, and I think the idea of asking for contingent pledges is an interesting one! In one form or another, I don't see why free online services (dating or otherwise) don't periodically and methodically prompt users for contributions a little more often.

Wikipedia outright asks for donations, and certain mobile apps already ask highly engaged users to rate the app. Extending that to the next level would simply shift the prompt from "Donate to our non-profit" (Wikipedia) or "Rate this app?" (free iOS or Android app) to "Support our (free, for-profit) service with $?"

Interesting! I presume this has a cost? And how would attendance work? Would I get to go as many times as I want during a given week/month?

Adding a "live" component could be a great addition to nanodegrees. When trying to complete these online courses, self-motivation is often as big a challenge as the content, if not more. A mentor and/or "study buddies" could solve that problem.

(Note: I'm currently enrolled in Udacity's Full Stack Web Dev nanodegree)