A software engineer at Google has described his recent layoff from the internet giant as the "worst nightmare" one can imagine for a tech immigrant. The man, originally from China, is in the United States on an H-1B visa, and spent two years at the company.
The techie, who has worked at Amazon too in the past, took to LinkedIn to share how he prepared himself to "embrace" being laid off. He shared his learnings after facing the impact of a layoff in 2019 too.
The employee said that when Google began its job cuts over two years ago, during the mass tech layoffs that saw other tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Meta and X (formerly Twitter) too shed jobs, he realised that he too could be in line sooner or later.
"Instead of getting hit totally off guard, I better prepare for it ahead of time to 'embrace' the layoffs," he wrote, sharing five things he did to make the blow of a sudden job loss less hard.
Here are 5 tips the Google techie shared, especially applicable to H-1B visa holders:
- First, the engineer educated himself with the rules that apply to people on H-1B visa who are laid off. He read up on stories of how immigrants lost their jobs and what they did to buy themselves more time in the US. "I've had myself mentally prepared for the upcoming grinds that everything will be happening in a fast pace, I will have many bad sleeps, lots of difficult Leetcode and system design questions, and back and forth communications with recruiters, all in a few weeks," he wrote.
- The Google employee's second step was "do not YOLO (you only live once)". He consciously became conservative in his spending in the last year and postponed the plan to upgrade his apartment or get a new car. He ensured that he had enough savings for a year. "For me I always had at least 12 months of living expenses in my checking account and also get mentally prepared to use them up in one day," he said.
- Thirdly, he said it is important to have a backup of one's colleagues' contact details and work documents as companies can quickly revoke access to these once an employee has been laid off. "I kept a work journal on what I have worked on every week since last year, it would help me greatly in interviews," he said.
- Similarly, he wrote down the passwords of all his accounts, including payroll account, insurance account, 401k account and HSA account. He saved all the login details on his personal email.
- Lastly, the Google techie urged people to help others in need of a job and amplify their messages.
- First, the engineer educated himself with the rules that apply to people on H-1B visa who are laid off. He read up on stories of how immigrants lost their jobs and what they did to buy themselves more time in the US. "I've had myself mentally prepared for the upcoming grinds that everything will be happening in a fast pace, I will have many bad sleeps, lots of difficult Leetcode and system design questions, and back and forth communications with recruiters, all in a few weeks," he wrote.
- The Google employee's second step was "do not YOLO (you only live once)". He consciously became conservative in his spending in the last year and postponed the plan to upgrade his apartment or get a new car. He ensured that he had enough savings for a year. "For me I always had at least 12 months of living expenses in my checking account and also get mentally prepared to use them up in one day," he said.
- Thirdly, he said it is important to have a backup of one's colleagues' contact details and work documents as companies can quickly revoke access to these once an employee has been laid off. "I kept a work journal on what I have worked on every week since last year, it would help me greatly in interviews," he said.
- Similarly, he wrote down the passwords of all his accounts, including payroll account, insurance account, 401k account and HSA account. He saved all the login details on his personal email.
- Lastly, the Google techie urged people to help others in need of a job and amplify their messages.
"The party is over. Better refuse another Tequila shot, get your credit card and be ready to head to your car early, than pass out at the end of the show," he said.
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