Techie shares how he secured job with 50% hike within a month after layoff: ‘Felt like the worst…’

The techie shared his experience of being laid off. (Image credit: Representative pic from AI)

• Techie upskilled after layoff and landed a new job with a 50 percent salary hike
• He tracked interview progress and improved skills using an Excel sheet
• Reddit post inspired others facing layoffs to persist and learn from rejections

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A tech professional who was suddenly laid off in mid-December has shared how he quickly upskilled, overcame repeated rejections, and secured a new role within a month. On Reddit, he provided a roadmap for others facing layoffs in the tech sector.

The Reddit post on r/developersIndia was titled, “This is how I handled a sudden layoff and found a job within a month.”

On December 15, the techie was unexpectedly laid off and asked to resign within a week. At the time, he had been working in a support-heavy position, and the abrupt setback caused anxiety over his skill gaps.

With roughly two years of experience as a data engineer, he explained that despite his prior roles, he lacked hands-on experience with widely used tools such as Python, SQL, PySpark, AWS services, Kafka and Airflow. Consequently, he had to learn many of the concepts covered in interviews in the one to two months after his layoff.

He described the weeks after his layoff as intense, dedicating himself to both learning and job applications, completing several tutorials and lectures to build his skills while applying every day and ignoring rejections. By keeping his profile on job portals up to date, he generated job interviews and online assessments.

He said consistency made the biggest difference, as every rejection helped identify gaps to fix for future interviews.

“I was honestly just trying to survive a crisis. But somehow, things worked out better than I expected, and I ended up with an offer that was a significant step-up (50 per cent hike) from my previous role. What felt like the worst phase of my career turned into one of the most important learning periods of my life,” he said.

The user later shared specific strategies that helped him improve between interviews, including maintaining an Excel sheet to record the company, interview stage, and challenging questions. Before each new interview, he reviewed not only the questions he struggled with but also related concepts and likely follow-ups.

The Reddit post received support, with many users sharing their own experience.