Surviving Your Layoff

All right. So, well, let's get going. So, anyways, this we've got 90 slides in this presentation. We're going to race through a lot of them, but don't worry, you can download it. In fact, you can download it right now. If Anitra jumps to the next screen and you fire up your phone and uh use the QR code, you can get the slides and there are additional notes in the speaker notes. So, all kinds of extra all kinds of extra stuff and links including one to a full article that I wrote last year uh on which this presentation is based. >> See? Oh, yeah. Let's let people and we'll show the QR code again. >> Yeah, the QR code will be there at the

end. So, I'm an ETRAVA, four-time layoff survivor. Have formerly worked in cyber security. Not right now. Um have done written for a lot of different places. Wrote a little bit for O'Reilly. Done tech editing including for O'Reilly. Currently, um outside of work, I'm on the board of the Glazer Children's Museum. I also do a lot with organizing meetups in the area. And uh, of course, uh, all my opinions are my own. The the usual disclaimer of it does not reflect on any past, current, or future employers. >> All right. >> And I'm Joey, fivetime layoff survivor. Last layoff was in 2024 from Octa. Uh, currently, uh, running my own LLC. And yeah, if you hear an accordion, it's

probably me. So, you're at this presentation for one of two reasons. You've either been laid off or you want to be prepared. >> And it's good to pre be prepared. You want to think like Batman. Batman with enough prep time can take on anybody, even Superman. And uh Batman also wishes that his parents were more prepared. >> And there usually are signs that layoffs are coming. Sometimes it's the financials. Sometimes it's there's less work coming in or leaders are starting to exit and more work keeps piling up on some people or there becomes a lot less communication, a lot less transparency, but there's always typically signs brewing that there's something slightly off. And the blind app is your friend uh or

friendnemy. So, the blind app is uh anonymous where people can post what they think about their employer, their prospects, and it's it's like a more toxic version of a glass door. >> And in fact, blind is like that Panera lemonade, that hypercaffeinated one. In small doses, it will keep you awake and alert. In large doses, it is toxic. So, use it carefully. >> Yes. and you will always be cordially invited to your layoff meeting. Nobody expects the layoff meeting. There are some little signs. So, you'll see something show up at the last minute. It'll be a very short meeting. It'll have your manager. There'll be no agenda, a vague, super vague title. And of course, the Bobs will be there, the

HR people. So, your manager and the HR person or people, that's usually the dead giveaway. All right. And layoff culture is now been entrenched in uh American uh business for about 50 years now. So there is a standard set of practices. And if you could jump to the next screen. Yeah. Basically one they are brief. They try and keep them as short as possible. It exposes the company to very little liability. The Sith rule of two always applies. Always one master, one apprentice or in this case your manager and someone from HR. And then finally, no matter how cool or family-like your company was, the layoff meeting is always cold and corporate and it that is by design. Go ahead.

>> And you'll want to be as professional as possible. Try to keep your poker face. Try to hold it together. Again, it's a short meeting, so you don't have to do it very long. And you'll want to cover some basic questions. things around money, benefits, what to do with your equipment, what to do with the work that was in progress or your files. Uh, and then of course asking for things like, can I get a letter that I was laid off and I wasn't fired or can I get a letter of recommendation and use you as a reference in the future? So, these are all really important key questions. And of course uh at the layoff meeting

they have a lot of advantages over you. The power dynamic is big in their favor. And some employers will actually try and pressure you to sign the layoff docu document even saying uh you know what you can't leave this meeting until you sign this agreement. One that is not true. And two, if you are over 50, at least in a few states, including Florida, you have 21 full days to review the layoff agreement before you have to sign it. Never sign anything off at the meeting. Emotions are high. You're under pressure. They are holding all the cards at the moment. They know that and they think they can con you into it. Don't do it. Uh, basically, take a moment after

the meeting to just unwind because you've just been in a terrible situation. uh do not make any decisions. Then read over the separation agreement as carefully as possible and if possible get an employment lawyer to look it over. If you belong to a team or a group of people who got the same layoff agreement, what you can do and this is what uh me and my uh team did at uh at the Ozero part of Octa is we just pitched in and we got we all pitched in like 30 of us for one employment lawyer to review and uh that turned out to be quite cheap. I think my piece was 25 bucks. So it's good if you can do it, do

it. >> Yeah. And yes, uh oftentimes, especially if you're in a larger company, uh they will offer resources for free, including career couns uh career counseling and mental health counseling. If they're available and they're free and you need them, use them. That's what they're there for. >> And you got to take into account the emotional impact. This is on the life events inventory. This is ranked number seven as far as stressful events in your life. So, you've just been through a major thing. And if you wanted to know the other top 10, I mean, this is this is a serious list. It involves death, serious illness, your family breaking apart, jail time, homelessness. Like, this ranks up in the

top 10. This is how impactful it is. >> And uh you should not feel any stigma or shame from being laid off. It is a big thing right now. Uh we are at Yeah. Yeah. We're uh basically Yeah. Just this year alone, we're at almost 62,000. I'm in the 2024 layoffs. They are 150,000. Uh generally, just doing the math, one in 19 tech workers has been laid off in the past couple of years. You either know someone who's been laid off or you are one. >> Yeah. It's just an occupational hazard. >> Yeah. And uh remember, a lot of it is due to finances. If you have been laid off, chances are you are paying for somebody

else's mistake, not yours. Uh it it's called comfort, but you should know you should not feel guilty about being laid off. That's the important thing. >> And of course, one of the big steps is assessing your finances. You really need to consider what money do you have right now. Hopefully, you have some type of emergency savings fund. Uh if not, that is definitely a goal to have. Um, but this is the time and place to use that emergency money and to hopefully stretch it out as far as you can. So, you want to review your finances and expenses. Look at what's essential. Look at what you cannot cut because you need a place to live. You need to stay healthy. You

need to be able to manage debt. You need to be able to take care of yourself. Really look at those non-essential discretionary spending. What you can do to reduce that to really stretch things a bit further. And if you don't have an emergency fund, definitely start one now. And uh if you could jump to the next slide really quick. I have to make a grand theft auto here. You need a bigger stash. If you could jump to the next slide again. Basically uh that old recommendation about three months worth of emergency money. Uh I can't remember the Matthew McConnA movie, but the line is those are amateur numbers. Actually, you need about 6 to 12 months in today's current

layoff environment. Here's a slide from Investopedia suggesting that 35K is good for an in uh emergency fund. I know that's a lot of money, but it is good to have it. Uh I've got a link in the notes for this uh slide to more about this figure. >> And the housing and utilities is actually on the low side for what's pretty common in Tampa Bay because that's really increased a It's good for Tampa Bay 10 years ago. >> Yeah. So again, >> insurance in Tampa Bay. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. And this might seem really ambitious, but the important thing is start start where you are. So just the important thing is to start small

amounts over time, whatever you can do because it will add up and reduce or defer expenses whenever possible. When in doubt, file for unemployment. Even if you're not 100% sure you qualify, go ahead and file. You cannot claim weeks in the past that you have not already gone and filed for. So, that's where time is of the essence. File as soon as you can. It's going to be a pain. I swear they've intentionally made it hard. So, jump through the hoops. get it started because even if you only get a small amount of money each week for the unemployment, it'll still help out in the long run, >> you know, and maybe write a strongly

worded letter to Ron Ron. >> And if you rent, look into your options for what you can do. Talk to your landlord, property manager. So, really look into um assistance if you think you might need it. There are different avenues. It's good to know what your options are before you get down to the point where you're desperate. >> And if you have a mortgage, there are structured ways to uh stretch out your mortgage payments. There is such a thing as mortgage forbearance uh uh yeah forbearance and there is also loan modification but uh banks have structured ways for dealing with this and because of kov that co they actually have practice doing this. So if you have

mortgage, look into these options and then stretching your money. Uh basically it's all about uh you are now operating on what's limited financial oxygen. Stretch it out as much as you can. There are some practices here. There's some links there as well. I just remind everybody that uh Magic the Gathering is not an essential expense. Says you >> have a student mindset. Think about when or if you even are a student, how everything free is suddenly much more appealing and you're so good at finding stuff that's free. >> And again, looking at services that are available, even things like through the library where there's lots of interesting things you can get for free through that.

>> Next up, you really want to be able to tell your story. You got to think about who you are. You got to think about that question, tell me about yourself. So the question you're going to inter answer in interviews the question even you need to know for yourself you want to think about what your interests are your hobbies what do you like to do what do you not like to do write it down really have it in front of you so that way you it makes it easier to look for patterns to look for commonality because that will help you to think about well are there certain types of jobs that appeal to you are there certain industries that

appeal to you uh do you prefer to uh work certain areas? So, it's really again by writing this all down and getting it in front of you, it makes it easier to see what stands out and what's important. >> And of course, uh an important thing is to know what you have done. Now, all of this is in preparation for uh your job applications, the resumes and cover letters you'll be um you'll be uh creating. And one of the most important things is you want to capture uh what the kids today call their W's. Basically their wins. Where have you succeeded? And uh I go there's more in detail on the next slide. And basically the idea

is that you want uh to create a list of successes that you can then use as material for your interviews, for your resumes. And this isn't just completed projects. This is also um coming up with uh solutions to problems that work. anything that you've a any uh new project that you started or any new practice that you brought because it was a good idea or making difficult decisions. This is also good for when you need to write pre-prepare your answers for behavioral interview questions and they lean very heavily on those these days. And by behavioral interview, I'm talking about uh where the uh recruiter's going, "Tell me about a time when you had a conflict with a

member of your team." Yeah. >> And uh yeah, and get used to the uh frameworks here, Star and Carl. Uh they basically are frameworks for answering behavioral uh questions where star is situation, task, action, result. So, and then Carl, uh it's not one I've seen, uh not one I've used very much. I've only seen it recently. Context, action, result, learning. But basically, it's a framework for answering those behavioral questions. It really gives you that structure to help you tell your story in a succinct way. >> Yeah. And interviewers are actually looking for that structure now. >> Yeah. And uh sometimes it's actually easier to think about it from almost that negative point of view, what you

don't want to do. So it could be you you're thinking back and you're like, "Okay, I never want to do that thing again that I did." Or you something you saw someone else go through and you're like, "I never want to deal with that." So this really also gives you that structure to say okay I want to avoid these things in the future. >> And of course the thing about what you don't want to do is um it's a good idea to kind of capture the things that you don't want to do. So you just don't end up applying for those jobs. So for instance I personally do not uh apply for blockchain or Bitcoin. I find them

kind of suspect. They're usually kind of scammy. And Bitcoin, in my opinion, breaks the three rules of money. By the way, the three rules of money are more money is better than less money, money now is better than money later, and real money is better than fake money. And it's the third rule that Bitcoin breaks. But anyways, knowing the line in the sand that you will not cross is very important in figuring out what you're going to do next. >> And you also want to think about what you want to do. So this is an opportunity to explore and kind of understand what your options are. Do you want to work for yourself? Do you want

to work for an employer? If it's an employer, what size? Small companies, startups, big established companies. Really think about, you know, what you want to do from your previous job that you would like to repeat or if there's new things you want to do, maybe what skills you need to be able to move into that. So really, you want to think about all these possible options. And then >> yeah, that's me. Yeah, that's okay. But anyways, uh the other things you may want to and these are larger questions including yeah, climbing the corporate ladder. How important is that to you? How important is the title to you? Uh do you want to work with customers? Do you

want to do sales and marketing? Or would you rather be in the back working and building stuff? Uh there's also, you know, do you prefer working alone? uh or do you want to come into the office at least part-time and hang out with people or do you like the full-time office environment? Um and how much flexibility do you have in your daily schedule or do you have kids that you need to pick up after school or an aging parent that you have to take care of or is your schedule really flexible? And then an important one is how much business travel uh is fine with you? Some jobs, especially in my developer relations job, there's more

travel. I like that thing. But if that doesn't work for you, you need to you need to be able to answer these questions. >> Again, other questions, big ones. Where do you want to live? Do you want to stay where you are? Would you have other opportunities if you move to another area? Are you at a different point in your career? Are you very, very early? Are you midcareer, late career, near retirement? These are all going to factor into what options you want to consider. Um, also again risk. Are you okay with startups? Do you need that more established company instead? Do you need something that's fulfilling or are you really just in it for the money?

You're just the mercenary working during your hours and then you go home and live the rest of your life. The next step is updating your documents. It's good to create a baseline document. This is going to include everything in the and the kitchen sink. So, you want to go for completeness. You want to consider all your possible achievements, everything that you've done because you're then going to customize and shorten it down based on what the job is that you're applying for. So, yes, you want to think of the CVS receipt. So every single thing, especially if it's measurable, if you have some sort of measurement to say, I improved something to a certain degree or I saved money. I

again, if there are numbers, put numbers on there because that will get people's attention. More than tasks, really looking at accomplishments. >> And then um let's see now. The important thing is of course your now former job is your most recent past job which means it's the top line on your top line in your experience on your resume. That is the one that you want to have the most details for. That is the one you want to emphasize. And for each job in your baseline resume, what you want to do is you want to you want to have the super highlights there first. So, the biggest things you did or the most successful things you

did, you want uh you you want uh you want at the top of the each item in your job. And the reason is that right now it's a 7 seconds and change that a recruiter will look at your resume for and that's it. So, >> yeah, >> if you don't get them in that first seven seconds, you've already lost them. >> Customizing your resume for every single job is going to be a burden. it's going to be a pain. And that's where AI can really help you. So, you take that giant CVS receipt length resume, you take that job description, you take information about the company, you can even use AI to pull together a profile and

information about the company, you pull it all together, and you put it into your favorite LLM. You ask it for a customized resume, a cover letter. Of course, never just send these out without looking at these because result results may vary, but it will get you a lot of work done. It will really help you out with trying to speed up and and make this a quicker process. So, we do have a portion of the prompt up here. The rest of the prompt is in the speaker notes. So, this is the sort of thing where you can put information into your favorite LLM and you feel free to play around with it. LLMs are always

changing. Feel free to pick different LLM, see which one gets you the best results for the generated resume, generated cover letter, but this really will help with the application process. >> Yeah. And it is a really long process. Now, we got to talk about LinkedIn. A lot of people are annoyed with LinkedIn. There are terrible people on LinkedIn. There's that one on the left basically saying, "Yeah, I'm look at me. I'm hardcore. I'm staying in this practically youth hostel in Singapore looking for a job. And then of course there's the crying CEO. I'm not sure you I think this is from about a year ago now. The CEO who had layoff people but to show that he had empathy shot a video

of him crying which was downright terrible. Uh yeah can we go to the next slide? But the thing is that LinkedIn is really important because recruiters use it and in fact they are using the paid version of LinkedIn. The basic version is about 1,700 bucks a year. The super pro version that larger companies paying for is 10,000 per recruiter per year. >> Uh it is a search engine for prospective candidates. And what you want to do with your LinkedIn profile is do SEO on your own LinkedIn profile. In other words, make it attractive. And um yeah, that's important. Another great way to get more people into your LinkedIn is to post regularly. That what that does is that

ranks you higher >> within LinkedIn's own search engine. >> Yeah. So again, recruiters might skim resumes, maybe 7 seconds each, but maybe because it's more social media like they linger on LinkedIn. So they'll spend a couple minutes looking over your LinkedIn profile, what you've been posting. you'll actually have more of their time and attention. So, you really want to showcase yourself well. >> And in the speaker notes, we linked to that article where they interviewed recruiters about their use of LinkedIn. >> It's also good to establish a routine, preferably a healthier routine. >> And of course, think about like what's your natural rhythm. Think about the time of day when you're at your best. you can really apply yourself um that

kind of slow slump time of day, how you recharge. People will have different um times a day when they're, you know, at their brightest. Some people are are, you know, the early birds, some people are the night owls, some people are in between. But it's good to kind of build your day around that. It's also good, no matter what time you start today, your start your day, really start with a win. So something small you've accomplished. It could be as simple as making your bed, but it gets you started on the right foot. It really gets things off so that it sets you in that mindset of I'm going to keep doing these small wins

throughout the day >> and um weekday mornings. All right, this is the time you do your networking and your reaching out to prospective hires. uh particularly from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. This is when recruiters and hiring managers are most receptive and mostly on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday because Monday is generally the setup day. Friday is generally the wind uh is generally the windown day. Now you have to remember that while you are technically on vacation as a laid-off person, the business world isn't. So you've got to at least pay attention to some business hours. And then the other thing is that afternoons of break uh afternoons breaks afternoons are really good for research for sharp uh for sharpening your skills

uh and filling gaps in your technical knowledge. Uh the important thing also is to schedule some breaks throughout the day. Do not go full boore all the time. Downtime improves your uptime. >> Yeah. And when it comes to things like improving your technical knowledge, one thing that I always like to share that people aren't necessarily aware of is through the library system, if you have a like Hillsboro County Library card, you can get access to LinkedIn Learning for free. So there's things like that available as a free resource that you might not even be aware of. Of course, your evenings, you really want to keep those kind of similar to how you were doing during your work

days. as well while while you were still working. So, you want to work on personal projects, socialize, really make time to recharge to get yourself ready for the next day. So, that way when you get that job again, it feels more natural. You're in a more natural rhythm. And it's important to stay healthy, especially during this stressful, stressful time. So focus on eating well, exercise, the basics, connecting with people. It can be sometimes a little awkward. You feel nervous about talking to people about your situation, but it's so important to reach out during this time. It's also important to make sure you don't fall into um bad habits that will help you self soothe. If you need

counseling, definitely seek it. >> All right. And then insurance. Well, one of the important things you have to remember is that because insurance is tied to work and you no longer have work, the insurance that you had has a limited time uh has a limited lifeline. So, what you need to do is you need to do things like uh use that remaining insurance time to fill all your prescriptions uh as much as possible. If you have uh if you have appointments, uh try and get them scheduled sooner. get seen by the doctor, get seen by the dentist, whatever procedures you need, get them done before the insurance runs out. And of course, there is Cobra.

Cobra costs more, >> but if it is available to you and you have the money, uh, use it. Otherwise, um, there is there is the uh there is the insurance marketplace. A bit of a challenge, but there are also insurance marketplace consultants who can help you find insurance that is closest to what you had when you were working. >> Use them. And then also seek counsel uh seek counseling if you need it. Here are the signs that basically suggest that maybe you should seek counseling. It's largely about obsessing over your current status or if your current status is really dragging down the rest of your life. Mental health, I know there's a bit of a

stigma attached to it, but it's just as much it's just as important as physical health. You will not walk off a broken leg. You will also not walk off depression. Get the help you need if you need it. >> Again, it's really important to reach out. You can start with people where you might feel the safest. Close friends, family. Again, you might feel nervous bringing it up, but they're going to be the ones who will support you the most. You'll be the most sympathetic. So, they're also going to be kind of your first line of networking. reach out to previous co-workers, previous managers. So, this is another opportunity for networking. They can also act as a reference, as a resource.

They might be working somewhere else and they might be aware of maybe hiring going on at their company or at another company they're aware of. So, again, reaching out will really help you as you're trying to navigate this. >> All right. And then referrals are actually the best way to land a job. They are how I've landed more than threequarters of my jobs. And that's basically because um it it works for companies actually trust their own employees to refer other employees and they will even reward them. There are hundred if not thousand rewards for finding uh for an employee to refer another employee to the company. And if uh you know to use the Olympic

shooter meme, there are basically two ways to land a job. You can do it the super high-tech way. I'd rather do it the Turkish shooter way knowing a guy at the company. That's still better. That's still more badass. Uh, next one, please. Yes. Okay. And yeah, the beauty of referrals is that yeah, current current employee uh references are considered more high. You also get to jump uh the queue of applications. I don't know if you've tried to apply a job on LinkedIn and you click on the job application, it says over a hundred people have applied and you look and you say >> that job just got posted 16 minutes ago. So it lets you jump that and the

interview process even gets fasttracked through the referral process. They tend to prioritize referrals over cold applications. So uh it is important to know people. Make sure you do some networking here. the person you meet here might help you today might help you land a job tomorrow. >> Yep. >> And then uh people who were laid off with you and we did that uh my co-workers at the Ozero part of Octa in developer relations. We're still communicating on a Slack. We refer each other for jobs. We write recommendations on LinkedIn and uh we're refer um we're character references for each other. They are very helpful and it's another set of eyes helping you look for work.

>> You also want to build your connection, your network of these weak ties. So weak ties are those casual acquaintances, people you see around all the time, people you meet at events like this. So it's important to not just show up. Showing up is really step one. Showing up and then talking to people, starting to find out what's going on in their world. what you know again try start trying start trying to make these connections so you're more likely to get a job through these weak ties than you are through your strong ties like those very close friends or immediate family members you also could even set up a job council so the book Never Search Alone

really kind of gives you that model of getting together a small group of people up to six people where you can help each other out encourage each other really is this it's like a support group as you're going through your job search together >> and they're also an accountability group because you all push each other to go, "Oh, yeah. Did you fill out a job application today?" And you guilt each other into keeping your job search active. It's very good. Yeah, highly recommend the book. >> So, other ways to reach out, there's lots of different events. Again, you're here today, so that's a good example. >> There's also u you might want to consider volunteering at conferences. So

maybe you don't have the money to pay to go to another conference. Quite often if you spend a few hours volunteering, they'll let you in for free. And then it also might get you access you wouldn't normally have as a regular attendee because you would be able to potentially, you know, talk and talk a little bit more with the speakers or the organizers. So being a volunteer might give you some other connections you wouldn't have had. >> Yeah. And the best way to be a volunteer locally is uh exhibitor hall downstairs. Go talk to the people at Computer Coach. The Computer Coach table. Suzanne from Computer Coach organizes the volunteer uh volunteer crews for most Tampa Bay

meetup uh Tampa Bay conferences. >> And she is always looking for volunteers guaranteed. >> Uh you can also join groups. There's lots of Meetup groups. There could be clubs. I mean, it could even be something that's more of a hobby. The important thing is getting out talking to people because you never know where you might stumble across that lead that would get you the job that you're going to eventually get. And you also want to reach out through social media. So again, using LinkedIn is a great way to do it. Talk about what you're doing. That will get the attention of recruiters. So have little side projects, little things you're going to practice and try on your own or

sign up for classes. uh go to workshops and the other thing is while you're talking to people ask for introductions you can say hey is there someone else I could talk to especially if they work at a company you can say hey could I talk to someone over in a different group or different department it might be a little weird especially for uh introverts amongst us or you know people who aren't more salesy but yeah definitely a lot of people want to help like they can sympathize with being laid off so it doesn't hurt to ask the worst thing that will happen is they'll say no and you could ask someone else. >> All right. Uh in the description we

talked about the forward uh term forward suggestion for success. This is it right here. Do things tell people Carl Lang and if you could jump next slide please. Carl Lang wrote this blog post. This is back in 2011 and it was titled do things tell people and he basically explains this is how he has landed every opportunity. He did something interesting technologically but it could be anything and then he told people about it and it is fantastic for that kind of thing. So let's just jump to the next slide. So one thing is creating Google results. Everybody tells you that to be a success in tech you have to know how to Google. That is actually rule

number two in my book. Rule number one is to be a success in tech create the answer that everybody is googling for. So in this particular case, I never liked well actually Apple docs have gone downhill over the past couple of years. Uh uh in the Swift programming language, there is a way of handling dates and times that is quite different from other programming languages. Their documentation is terrible. >> I wrote what I thought was a better article and it is currently either the number one or number two result when you search for date and time programming in Swift. and that having those Google results and being able to point to them is a fantastic way to either land a

client if you want to go independent or land a job if you want to look for work. Another thing was uh the Tampa Bay Tech events list. I uh I publish it every Friday on my blog, Global Nerdy. This was a job search tactic that got out of hand. What happened was my plan was I was looking for a developer relations job. I wanted something to point to and I wanted to say, "See, I create this thing for the community." My original plan was to wind it down after after I landed the job. The problem was when I wound it down, everybody was going, "Where's the list?" So, I decided, okay, I'm going to write a Python script to

automate it, and the list is now published every week. Here's another trick that very few people have suggested. >> Yeah. So, maybe there isn't a social group that has the interest you have in mind. So, you can start a Meetup group on your own. So, that was something we did with Coders, Creatives, and Craft Beer. This gets you out there. This brings in people to talk to. Again, building up those weak ties. This stands out. This shows off your organizational skills. So, again, there's lots of benefits out of doing this uh socializing, work-wise. So, again, this is one of the other ways you could potentially stand out. >> And this was a really loweffort meetup.

There are no presentations. This is just getting together, add a fab beer or non-alcoholic beverage, your choice, and some pizza and talk and that is it. Okay. Uh, build a project and present it. So, this helped me land uh, my most recent client. And what I did was I took uh, Eliza, which is the original chatbot written in the '60s. It it uh, pretended to be a psychiatrist. And all it did was just take bits and pieces of your answers and kind of throw them backward back at you or ask questions like, "How does that make you feel?" Like a really hokey psychiatrist. But it is the grandmother of chat GPT. I wrote about it, presented it at a meetup, and I

ended up getting invited to do a presentation in Austin in front uh in front of hundreds of people, which was fantastic. And it's been recorded, and it is yet another feather in my cap that I can point to for future clients or prospective employers. And then finally, even if something doesn't go anywhere, tell people about it. So, I wrote a trucker, an app for truckers to find the nearest truck stop. This was a take-home assignment for a company that makes trucker apps, and they ghosted me despite the fact I wrote both an Android and an iOS version uh over two weeks. But I just turned it into a video and uh trucker video and I used the soundtrack

from the movie Convoy, the song Convoy in the background. And uh there's a link in the v there there's a link in the notes. You can watch the video. It's a lot of fun. And if I were a trucker, actually, I would use this app. It's really handy. Okay, actually we can uh skip to the next one. So this is the end of the presentation part. Once again, there's a lot I know there are a lot of slides. If you want the uh if you want the slides and there's lots of stuff in the notes. Uh the QR code is right here and we are ready to take questions and answers. >> Yes, >> I have a question.

>> Question. Go ahead. >> It's on. Let's say for those that does not have um an emergency fund or they major in phone it's too little to cover cost if they have a 401k based on your experience or someone else's right is it possible to withdraw from the 401k in case of like an extreme emergency like a layoff >> okay the question and this is for the benefit of the video recording yeah is it uh is it possible to withdraw from your 401k in the case of an extreme emergency during a layoff. It is always possible. It is almost never recommended unless it is your last unless it's your absolute last resort. >> Uh part of the problem is that uh that

401 um there are penalties >> about 35%. Yeah, there are there are penalties uh for one and the second thing of course is that uh you are now >> you are now throwing away the most powerful force in the universe and it is not love. It is compound interest, compound interest and time and uh that is um >> you you may uh you may end up jeopardizing yourself uh in the future. Uh if if it is an immediate need and there is no other avenue then yes you have to but there are going to be big consequences. >> Yeah. So while it's an option it might not be your best option. It's good to look into other possibilities. There may

also be uh the option to take a loan against your 401k. >> Yes, that's right. The 401k loan >> back and you do not lose that >> as a collateral. Uh Jean, yes. >> Tell us your personal one or two or few favorite tech happenings that actively are going on cuz I think you guys spearhead some and you guys are super active in the community. What are like maybe your top two favorites that you attend regularly or participate in? >> Uh let's see now. It's probably a tossup. Uh it's probably a toss up between Tampa Devs and Tampa Bay Techies. >> So they they have a lot Yeah. Yeah. They have a lot of events and they over they

they often overlap. >> Y >> uh let's see now. >> Uh if you want to if you want to get into AI or at least have some AI credentials, um actually Anietra and I run the Tampa Bay AI meetup. >> Yep. There will be one soon. Uh, and I have just taken over the Tampa Bay Python meetup. And we are going to be we are going to be talking about some Python topics including scraping. And I'm going to redo the presentation where we write a Python app that takes uh that takes 20 job descriptions and your resume and cranks out 20 customized resumes, one for each application. Because according to the uh HR firm Pathrise, you need to apply to 20 job.

The people who've been successful have applied to 20 jobs a week. That is more than hum that that is beyond human capability. Uh especially if you have other things to do in your life. Any other questions? Yes. >> So you mentioned you used a team um like your whole team used like lawyers. Do you have any referrals for that or the lawyers that you use? Well, uh, we went with a teammate of mine in Seattle. So, we went with a Seattle lawyer. And in fact, I I I don't have that contact information for that particular lawyer. I would suggest uh a local uh a local lawyer, but lawyers know other lawyers. And I would recommend he's a friend of

mine, Brent Britain. All right? Talk to him. If you do a search for Brent Britain, you can easily find him. He's hard to miss. He's a lawyer who looks like a biker. Yes. >> Just to add on to that, uh if uh for whatever reason, say you can't find a lawyer from someone you know, uh the Florida Bar Association has actual system for this where you can find a lawyer. >> Okay. Yes, that is absolutely correct. And if you're a USF student, there is USF legal aid. They may be able to point you to an employment employment lawyer. >> Yes. >> Me? >> Yeah. >> I have two other uh healthc care options as well.

>> Sure. U Tampa Family Health offers a sliding scale >> uh for your income. >> Tampa Family Health. Okay. >> And then um nowadays there's primary uh um primary care providers and they offer like a p um subscription base where you pay $50 a month and they offer you health care services. >> All right. Fant insurance. >> Very okay. Very helpful. >> Any other questions? Yes. To >> double down on the emergency fund, I would say I had went through about $28,000 when I was out of employment for 6 months. >> I agree with that. That figure really truly >> put, you know, put that forward for you. >> 20 >> 28,000 >> 20 for 20,000 for 6 months.

>> 28. >> Yeah. 6 months. >> 30,000 over 6 months. >> All right. Yeah. It's getting expensive. Uh let's put it this way. We live in Semino Heights and there's a guy renting out a trailer in his backyard and he actually and the headline is the bathroom works >> and he was asking 1300 a month. >> Yeah. >> Oh, go ahead. >> Um, are there any specific like industries um or areas that are maybe less prone to layoffs than others that you all may have noticed? Hard hard to tell. Part of the problem is that as an employee, you are on the bad side of the great accounting equation. Assets equals liability plus owner versus equity. We are all

liabilities. >> Um the problem is because and this is actually Jack Welches, former CEO of GE. It's his fault. He introduced something called shareholder privacy which means that you are responsible to the shareholders first which means you must make number go up as number go up as far as uh uh as far as the share price goes. So and the best way to raise share prices is to fire it uh is to fire or lay off or reduce in force. >> Yeah. So um basically uh what you're try uh what yeah uh right now I cannot think of a single indust there's only one industry I think where uh you're safe and that is venture capital and you need

money >> you need money to do that in fact Mark Andre the big venture capitalist from Andre Horowitz said the only job that will never be replaced by AI because AI could never do it is being a VC which I am which is a total dick thing to say. Yeah. >> Any other questions? We've got like one minute left. >> All right. Well, hey, thank you very much for coming out and don't forget actually uh yeah, uh these are our LinkedIns and if you need the slides, yeah, just contact us on LinkedIn and we're also happy to answer questions. Thank you so much. Thanks everyone.