

I just got laid off this morning as a Rails/Ruby Dev. What should I do? - cantbecool


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gyardley
For at least a few days, don't do anything at all that's job-related.

Getting let go unexpectedly is usually a big shock, and your instinct will
probably be to try and get back into a paying job as quickly as possible. But
while you're still recovering from the surprise of losing your job, you'll
make poor decisions - and poor employment decisions will make you miserable.
Take a little time for yourself and decompress before jumping back in with a
clear head.

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juan_juarez
File for unemployment.

Review your finances & savings. Look into cutting back on things. Figure out
how long you can hold out with just your unemployment before you have to dip
into your savings (or retirement, life insurance, whatever).

If you have student loans, now is the time to tell them you lost your job &
won't be paying. They're far friendlier about it if you tell them before than
after.

Polish up the resume. Start posting it to Dice/Monster/etc.

Go have a beer. Getting laid off sucks. Have another one because beer is good.

Depending on how evaluating your financial situation went earlier, you may
want to take a few days to relax & just not give a fuck, if you can afford it.
If you can't, time to get started...

Start looking for jobs. Depending on how much experience you have & how much
local demand there is for them, you might have to put a lot of work into this
& spam out resumes, or you might get bombarded by recruiters. Either way,
eventually, you're going to have to start working again.

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b0o
well shit, you got fired, so now of course you should apply to other places,
but that's pretty much a no brainer. I think what you really looking for is
some advice on how to cope.

When you're unemployed, you find yourself with a lot of freetime, and hence, a
lot of time to waste. If you have the financial means and are physically
capable start traveling. between now and october is one of the peak seasons
for cheap airline tickets to just about anywhere, if you don't know where to
go, hover over to <http://www.reddit.com/r/earthporn> (SFW btw, not that you
have one now, haha, j/ks) and start browsing. Get some friends (or just go by
yourself) and just go. My favorite is Zion National Park. I find that under
the starlit sky, without lights or cell reception I find it relaxing and then
you'll be able to think about why you got laid off, what you liked or didn't
like about your previous job and what you could have possibly done in the past
to prevent yourself from getting fired.

The most important thing is to just keep moving, rewrite your resume, watch
some comedies, reconnect with your family and friends and possibly, make new
ones, make a schedule and pack it with so many things to do that you're tired
each and every night starting from today. I could go on, but I hope you get
it. The second most important thing to do is to not get angry and take it out
on your friends and family, what happened to you is truly unfortunate, but
getting mad doesn't really help anyone.

So peace out, and I hope to see you in the future at another job kicking ass
at what you do best.

btw, unemployment benefits are okay, but b/c the economy is bad, plan for the
long-term, like cancelling your monthly bills, aka netflix (you don't got time
for that shit anyways), etc.

~~~
cantbecool
Thanks for your recommendations. I'll do just that. It was my first job out of
school, and it's difficult to understand that a little over 8 months ago they
paid a head hunter to find me and about 4 months ago kept me on board.

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benologist
I think you should take this opportunity to learn how to farm bees.

~~~
cantbecool
The absurdity of your comment made me laugh.

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AngeloAnolin
Take a vacation. Use the time to introspect.

I have no idea where you are right now, but I read pretty much that a software
developer with Rails/Ruby skills is pretty in hot demand in a lot of start-ups
as of the moment.

Good luck.

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RollAHardSix
Apply to 42floors? They are hiring Ruby/Rails Devs as of two hours ago.

 _Do I get a referral bonus if he gets hired?_ :D _Cough_ Hire me too, I'm
awesome and know BJJ to go with that Boxing ;)

Seriously, you need do the job-search thing now. Save your money like Scrooge,
apply to jobs, interview, get hired. The wheel keeps turning.

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tmh88j
Apply to another place? Without much information there isn't much to say. Are
you implying you were unfairly laid off, or are you just letting us know and
asking for advice? If the latter, then start applying.

How about some freelance work in the mean time?

~~~
cantbecool
I was fairly laid off. From what they told me, it wasn't anything performance
related. It was a good organization/startup, but I'm guessing they were having
some financial issues. I'm just going to start applying to new places ASAP. It
was just my first job out of college, and it was out of the blue.

I'm definitely considering some freelance work. I've never dealt with odesk or
anything right now.

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adam_lowe
Work down the list and reach out to some folks.

[https://jobs.github.com/positions?description=ruby+on+rails&...](https://jobs.github.com/positions?description=ruby+on+rails&location=)

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JimmaDaRustla
Learn Python/Django.

EDIT: But don't ever start a sentence with "In Rails, its done this way..." ;)

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smit
Look for job from angel.co

