Big Tech Layoffs: Surviving Job Cuts & Navigating the New Job Market | Career Advice 2024

Big tech is dying. And why do I say that? Well, even giants like Dropbox are laying off 20% of their people. Let's go over Dropbox. This just in five hours ago, Dropbox cut its workforce by 20% in the latest rounds of layoff. These cuts come after Dropbox laid off 500 people in 2023, and now they're laying off some more people. And I think it's absolutely crazy. And this is what we're seeing with any field right now. Everybody's trying to be efficient. When you're looking at what these huge, huge corporations like Zuckerberg, like Tesla, like Elon Musk's company X and everybody else is doing, they're saying that we need to be efficient. And so, and they're like, hey, we're, we're firing you. And it is absolutely brutal for these people. So I got some videos prepared. And some of these people are getting laid off. And it is absolutely brutal. So hi, everyone. I'm Amanda. And this is my series where I talk about my personal financial journey since being laid off wanted to answer this question. And the short answer is, yes, I would definitely accept a job that pays significantly less than what I was making before. This hasn't always been the case in my job search. But I unfortunately have significantly lowered my standards just to adapt to the current job market right now. So to be transparent, I was making $125,000 a year before getting laid off. And now I would probably accept a job. Like my threshold right now is like 85,000. That's where I feel like is the most realistic for me. My stretch goal is I would love to make at least 100k. Best case, I would make the same amount I was making before. And I feel like there's no way I could land a job making more than what I was like making before at this point. Unfortunately, this hasn't always been the case, though. Like when I first started my job search, I had pretty high standards for myself and actually was turning down job offers with lower than 100k, which I definitely regret. But I feel like this, at least for me this is just my reality. I've been laid off for a very long time and I'm more open to just getting into a company that I really like and accepting a lower salary than trying to get to the salary I was before, even though I do live in a very high cost of living area. I live in Seattle, but this Come to 2024, 2025 and 2026. So now let's look at the comments and some of them are absolutely brutal and then we'll talk about it. Some of them said, with respect, tech salaries were overinflated a few years ago. I was making six figures as a tech recruiters with three years experience. We were offering buku bucks for tech roles. This wasn't normal. And then somebody actually said, do doordash or nanny until you find something reasonable or good. Oh man, with a decent or something with a decent salary. So we're seeing all this crazy, crazy stuff going on in the market. And that's why I've been telling you guys, you need to do two things. If you're employed right now, this is two things that you got to look for saving money or make the company money. If you're doing that, you are most likely good. Because if you can showcase that, then all of a sudden you will not have an issue of getting hired to the next company. And I just had somebody in career catalyst, that's Ali's coaching program, where she helps people find jobs, had somebody actually get two job offers in one of them is actually double what she's been making before. So it is absolutely crazy. There's still offers out there. You just need to showcase them. And then we're helping somebody else out that actually has an impressive, huge resume that sold a company, did all that. And now he's looking for roles too. So you're competing with some of the best people now. And the more that there's tech layoffs, as more as this is happening, the bigger the pond is with the more fish in it, right? So all of a sudden you need to start competing. A few years ago, you could just do whatever you wanted. You can just be, hey, I don't feel like it. Let me just send this half ass resume and most likely got an interview. But now all of a sudden when you get just a flood of resumes, and I have these recruiters that talked to me, that said, hey, I got like 800 resumes in two hours. And I was like, how did that happen? It's like, well, they just send it. They monitor it. And now we got to pick and we're getting flooded with all these resumes. And a few years ago, they were trash. Now they're semi-decent. And actually you got to put way more effort in because how are you going to stand out when everybody else is raising the bar? That's the problem now, right? So when there's so many people and you're trying to compete, how are you going to stand out? So you got to raise the bar a little bit. The same goes in every scenario, right? If you're the only one selling your house, you can ask for whatever you want, right? But if everybody's selling their house, you got to make compromises, right? And now we're in a market where you just got to be above average, or you got to showcase that you can do things so you can actually get the job. And now let's watch another video of somebody else explaining something similar. That's actually kind of crazy. I got laid off on Monday. Can you please explain to me how someone gets laid off on maternity leave? Not once in their lifetime, but twice. Yeah, you heard that right. Twice. In 2022, I got laid off on maternity leave because they dissolved my whole team. And then now it's 2024. I'm on my second maternity leave for my second child. And I got laid off again from a different company because they dissolved my whole team. Like, what are the chances? And before you say, that's illegal. Unfortunately, it's not because I wasn't singled out. It was my whole team. But at least the first time in 2022, the company had the decency to let me know, give me a call, and then pay me a decent severance to make up for the fact that I was losing my maternity leave. This time around, the company felt like they didn't need to call me. They felt like they could do it over email. Even though I had worked hard for that company for well over a year, I didn't even get a phone call. Not even a phone call. Yep, that is happening to a bunch of people. It's not about how much they appreciate you. It's just like, hey, let's just send this email out and just be done. So this woman says, hey, they just sent me an email. Well, that is actually more courteous than I heard from other people. Other people wrote me email and just said, I drove to work an hour and then I figured out my badge wasn't working. And they send a FedEx box to my house, basically telling me that I need to put my laptop in. Let me know if you're experienced some of this. Because I know some of my viewers are already retired. Congratulations. You should type in the comments below how you did it. So some of these people that are younger of my audience actually figured out how to do it. Because not everybody, just because it's common sense, it's not common practice. And I'd love to hear from you how you retired. Because as I'm looking at it right now, it's not looking good for all of these people that are in the workforce, like millennials right now. COVID, now all these layoffs. And now I truly believe that they're fudging all these numbers with these layoffs. And now you're going to at one point need to sell your 401k, you need to sell stuff, you need to sell your assets, car repos are up, so your credit is shit and everything else. And then at one point you got to, hey, I'm 30 now, so I have another 30 years, 25 years worth of work in me. But hey, you got to make those count. Because at one point you do need to retire and kind of take something out of the money you saved up. And I know a lot of you guys have not saved because you're like, hey, I don't have any money to save. And now these are the times now where we're seeing that. And we're seeing that with car dealers too. All these car dealerships that were gouging all their customers with $20,000 over asking price, you guys took profits way, way, way too early. So you guys, instead of pacing it out over the years, you said, let me take it now and let me rob customers down the road. And now you basically ruined the industry. And so you guys are just the same as all these big tech companies that are firing people now and saying, ha ha, too bad, still making record breaking profits. But hey, it's just how life is, right? You try to adapt, you try to move on, and you kind of find the situation where you can kind of cope with it and find a good solution. And this is where you got to be smart with your money. If you're getting laid off, you need to have a strategy. And I always see people that are so, I don't know what it is, but a lot of people that I'm in contact with, that I coach on how to get another job, that I do stuff, is they always think it never happens to you. It's always like, ha ha, it happens to my neighbor, ha ha, it happens to the guy over there, but it never ever happens to you. And then it does happen to you. And you're going to stand at the door of your company trying to badge in, and they're not going to let you in. And so when that happens, all of a sudden, you're like, oh, shit, that did happen. And then it's going to have like a mental crisis, where you're like, oh, shit, this did happen to me. And so it's better that you start networking and start being proactive. And start like, hey, let me contribute on LinkedIn. And let me just start to contribute to some articles. Let me connect with somebody. So go on LinkedIn and connect with me. And we'll see what you can do. But yeah, it is absolutely brutal. Because all these people that are in the layoff world, that are in the layoff realm, are having issues and trying to find a job now. It's tough. And I used to think, oh, you just stay in your area and try to get another one. Now, I would just widen the search. If you are really, really needing a job, open it up. And if you need a six-figure job, and that's what you want to do, don't take a salary cut. Just open up your range. Maybe it's in New York. Maybe it's somewhere else. And just see what happens. Put on your resume that you're willing to relocate and see what happens. But a lot of people, I noticed, even though you guys want to move, and I haven't understood why not. Why not move for a job? So let me know in the comments below. Because if somebody offered me a super sweet gig, I would leave. Unless my wife was making way more money. Or my spouse. Or it could be whoever. I'm making way more money. And you're like, ah, you know, I can't really do this. But if you have an opportunity to really, really rake in the dough, why not move? So I haven't figured that one out yet. Why people are like, I don't want to really move. I want to stay where I'm at. And then they got caretaker or something. But you can move them with you. Just move them and see where they treat you best. And I got some of you guys, I actually said in my last video, 100% agree. Go there where they treat you best. And so if a company is willing to have you relocated, do something, do it. Because what do you got to lose? You get a paycheck and you're way better off than most people are in this situation. Because these job employment numbers are not accurate. I tell you that. Because when I'm looking at all over, everybody's struggling. Everybody's struggling. Car repo lots are full. People, restaurants are empty. All these restaurant bankruptcy filings, all these filings for, you know, these small stores can't keep up. So the only company that's kind of doing good is Walmart. And Walmart, I read the other day, has now increased people that shop with 100 plus salary, $100,000 salaries. So their target market now is people with $100,000 plus salaries are shopping at Walmart. And it was used to be like, oh, it's kind of trashy, kind of stuff like that. It's kind of cheap. All of a sudden you see, hey, you're making six figures. So now I'm asking you, is six figure just has always been that? Or did just inflation and everything just got so expensive that the shitty stuff at Walmart, you just need to make $100,000 to be a Walmart shopper? And I'm just like, man, you know, you gotta, you gotta, you gotta reel them in. You gotta bring the prices down because people can't go out and keep spending, spending, spending and keep spending money. And it's going to all come due. It's all going to come due. And November 5th isn't going to save you because they'll just write you another stimulus package. They'll send you some stimulus checks. And guess what? That's going to make prices even more expensive. So something's got to change. We got to get manufacturing back. We got to get people back to work because you just can't do it. But funny enough, I read an article that said that 10% of Floridians are looking to leave the state, but that's going to create a whole bunch of opportunities in every other state for people to do housing, economy, and everything else. So we'll see if that is true. I have no idea because I'm not a fortune teller. I don't know how they gather all that data because who knows how they collect it and what they do with it. But yeah, these layoffs, brutal. I can't believe that all these companies now are just layoffs upon layoffs upon layoffs. It's just the new, just a new word. And if you're at retirement age, man, you're lucky because you can just say, if they lay me off and I'm out, I'm done. I'm going to take my bag, take my office. Hopefully they give me a nice severance package and I'll start taking retirement. You're good. But if you're not doing any of that, oh boy, you got it coming because man, it is no fun job searching right now, but you can still do it. And I have clients that get jobs every day out of the week and they get offers and they, they do it because companies, regardless of where you're at, there's always a need for good people with skills that want to work, but it's tough. Let me know what you're doing if you're applying. So yeah, it is crazy in this town, Cape Coral, that I used to live in. I went to high school, all that kind of stuff. It's just not the same as it used to be. You know, it changed. People are leaving. A few of my neighbors are saying, we're going to move everywhere besides Florida, the storms, all that. They say I'm retired. I don't have the energy to do it no more. A lot of people don't talk about that, that when you're, when you're getting older, you just don't have the energy to job search, to do things. And it's hard for me to comprehend because I'm only 30, 32 now. So it's like, man, for me, it's like, it's already like draining seeing all these people drag the, drag the stuff out of the backyard and seeing them do things. And I was like, man, how long, how many times can you do it till you're absolutely done? So this was it for this video. Please like, and subscribe. If you haven't, go give me a follow on LinkedIn. Let's connect. If you need help with job searching, let me know. Shoot me a DM on LinkedIn. I appreciate you guys. If you have any questions, also let me know. But yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. But man, look at these guys. Look at these guys. It just looks really nice. It does. Florida and Vegas. I don't know. California had these nice, nice guys, but California, I don't know. But Nevada has the skies over the desert. Amazing. And these ones over Florida, these sunsets are just on another level. Well, well, well, I appreciate you guys. And let me know what you want me to make next. So if you want to send me an email, go to the about section on my profile, and then just shoot me an email. And I appreciate you guys. You guys are amazing. And I'll see you next time.