"Here's my resume. Know of any roles?"
This is the weakest message you can send after a layoff.
All ask. No conversation.
People ignore it the second they read it.
Curious beats impressive every time.
What's the worst networking DM you've ever gotten?
Tech layoffs are running at over 1,100 cuts a day in 2026, almost double last year’s pace. And a Gartner study of 350 companies found the heaviest cutters saw no better returns for it. So who’s actually benefiting from this? Genuinely asking.
“I’m between jobs” is the most damaging sentence laid off professionals say about themselves.
It says you’re in a waiting room and someone else holds the door.
Change the words. Change the mindset.
You still calling yourself “between jobs”? Be honest.
Tried out an experiment yesterday to see how hard job market is
Applied to 1150 jobs/cold mails yesterday
1149 ghosted
1 rejected
(in 24hrs)
We're so cooked.
Getting rehired fast isn’t about effort.
200 applications, same resume, nothing.
12 applications, sharp focus, hired in 3 weeks.
Panic makes you cast wide. Wide feels productive.
It isn’t.
Most people are still spraying.
Fight me on this.
Nobody tells you this part of getting laid off:
The silence is louder than the news.
No call. No closure. Just a calendar invite that says “company update.”
You deserve better than finding out your career changed in a 15 minute Zoom.
Most people search for a job the same way they did 10 years ago.
Cold apply. Wait. Hope.
The market changed. The strategy didn’t.
That gap is why good people stay unemployed longer than they should.
Layoffs don’t feel personal.
Until you’re the one who got picked.
Then it’s the most personal thing that’s ever happened to you.
Stop pretending you’re “fine.” You’re not supposed to be. Not yet.
Everyone obsesses over the resume after a layoff.
Nobody fixes the actual problem.
3 things that get you hired faster than a resume rewrite:
1. A specific story for “why did you leave”
2. Proof you can do the next role, not the last one
Most laid-off Directors and VPs I work with don’t have a skills problem. They have a positioning problem.
Twenty years of “let your work speak for itself” never prepared anyone for a market that requires you to speak for it yourself.
Strongest counterargument you’ve got?
Tenure used to be your safety net. Now it’s the line item that makes you the most expensive person on the team. Agree or disagree: staying loyal to one company is now the riskier career move.
Layoffs used to spike in downturns and ease off after. Now they’re just… constant. Tech, finance, retail, media, all year, regardless of how the economy’s doing. Are we still calling this a cycle, or is it just how work works now?
There's a specific kind of self-shrinking that happens after a layoff.
- You stop mentioning your old job title.
- You round your ask down.
- You apply to roles a level below what you've actually done.
Anyone else notice themselves doing this without meaning to?
Tech layoffs are running at over 1,100 cuts a day in 2026, almost double last year’s pace. And a Gartner study of 350 companies found the heaviest cutters saw no better returns for it. So who’s actually benefiting from this? Genuinely asking.