How I Found a New Tech Job in 3 Months

By Sergey Novikov Adobe Stock Photos

It might not sound all that exciting that it took me 3 months to find a new job, but word has it that tech hiring is much slower this year compared to last year. I have friends who have been out of work for close to a year at this point. I actually plan that I’ll be out of work for up to 6 months every 2–3 years, so at this point I have a routine down. It may not be the best routine, but if you’ve been laid off from a job where you’ve been for 10 years, you probably don’t have any routine, so this might help you.

Finances

Since I plan that sometimes I’ll take an involuntary vacation, I do have savings. While I have always found work within 6 months🤞, I never assume that will be the case. I don’t know how long my savings will need to last, so I take steps to stretch them as long as possible.

1. I immediately file for unemployment. Some people feel weird about taking this money. In my state, the more people from a company file for unemployment, the higher that company’s unemployment taxes go in the future. One way to look at it is that by filing for unemployment, you make it more expensive for the company to fire your ex-co-workers. Do it for them 😇.
2. I cancel any memberships and other recurring services I’m not using. If you have savings, keep the self-care memberships you do use, like gym memberships, because attitude is everything in getting a new job. Nurture your psyche.
3. I start shifting my spending from my debit card to my credit card. The reason for this is it’s even harder to get a job if you’re homeless or you don’t have transportation. If worse comes to worse, you can pay your credit cards off later or even default, but as long as you have money in your checking or savings account to pay your housing and car payment, you’re still in a decent place to look for work.
4. I keep a credit card that offers 0% balance transfers (the catch is you pay 5% on the balance at the time of transfer) for some period of time. I let my regular credit card balance get close to the transfer limit on my backup card, then I transfer it and set up automatic payments in an amount that will pay it off before the promotional period is up. This helps me avoid having too much money go to interest payments when I rack up debt. If you’re reading this…