The layoff playbook. Your first 30 days.

Your first 30 days.

Getting laid off is disorienting. Having a plan for the first month makes the difference between spinning out and landing on your feet. Layoffs 6 min read · February 2026

The first thing a layoff takes from you isn’t the paycheck. It’s the structure. The calendar clears, the Slack goes quiet, and suddenly every hour is unscheduled. For most people, that’s the hardest part to navigate.

This is a practical guide for the first 30 days. Not motivational advice. Just the things to do, roughly in order, so you’re making progress instead of just feeling busy.

Day one: before you do anything else

Give yourself 24 hours before you start sending messages or updating your resume. Not because you need to sit with it, but because decisions made in the first few hours are often the ones you regret. That said, a few things need to happen quickly.

Read your severance agreement carefully. You likely have time before you need to sign. Know what you’re agreeing to, especially any non-compete or non-disparagement clauses.
Download what’s yours. Personal files, portfolio work, contact lists you’re entitled to keep. Once access is cut, it’s cut.
File for unemployment. Do it now. There’s a waiting period in most states and the sooner you file, the sooner the clock starts.
Understand your health coverage timeline. When does it end? COBRA is available but expensive. Know your window before you need it.

Don’t sign anything under pressure. Most severance agreements give you 21 days to review (sometimes 45 if you’re over 40, under the OWBPA). A company pushing you to sign same-day is a red flag. Take the time.

Week one: get the financial picture clear

You don’t need to panic. You do need to know your numbers. A lot of anxiety in a job search comes from vague dread, from not knowing how long you can actually sustain the search. Getting specific is the antidote.

Calculate your monthly burn rate. Fixed expenses first: rent or mortgage, utilities, insurance, subscriptions. Then variable. Know the real number.
Calculate your runway. Savings plus severance plus unemployment equals how many months you have. Most people have more breathing room than they think once they actually do the math.
Pause non-essential spending. Not forever. Just until you have a clearer picture. Subscriptions you don’t use, recurring purchases you won’t miss.
Roll over your 401(k). If you had one, you’ll need to move it. An IRA rollover is usually the cleanest option. Don’t leave it sitting with the old plan indefinitely.

The goal of week one financially is not to cut everything. It’s to replace vague anxiety with a concrete number. “I have 7 months of runway” is a very different mental state than “I don’t know how long I can do this.”

Week two: get your story straight

Before you talk to anyone about a new role, you need a clear and confident answer to the question every recruiter and hiring manager will ask: what happened? Layoffs carry zero stigma in 2025, but a fumbling or apologetic answer does.

Keep it short and factual. The company went through a reduction, your role was eliminated, and you’re now focused on finding the right next thing. That’s it. No over-explaining, no badmouthing, no long story.

Update your LinkedIn, but don’t rush it Mark your role as ended. Update your headline to reflect what you’re looking for, not just your last title. Turn on the “Open to Work” signal if you’re comfortable with it. Recruiters do search for it.
Refresh your resume with this role in mind Don’t send the same resume you had three years ago. Update your most recent role with concrete outcomes: numbers, scope, impact. If you’re targeting a specific kind of role, tailor the framing toward it.
Write down your target criteria before you start applying Company size, stage, industry, role scope, remote vs. hybrid, compensation floor. Getting specific now prevents you from wasting weeks on roles that were never right. It also makes it easier to filter the noise, which is most of what’s out there.

While it’s still fresh: document your wins

Most people undersell themselves in interviews not because they lack accomplishments, but because they waited too long to write them down. Memory fades faster than you think. Three months from now you will struggle to remember the specific numbers, the context, and the details that make an achievement actually land.

Do this now, while it’s all still fresh.

Open a doc and brain-dump everything you can think of across a few categories. Processes you created or overhauled. Workflows you optimized and what that actually meant for the team or the business. Projects you led or contributed to significantly. Cost savings, revenue impact, speed improvements, headcount scaled, incidents resolved. Anything where you can attach a number, do it. Even rough ones are better than none.

Don’t filter while you’re writing. Get it all down first. You’ll shape it into resume bullets and interview stories later, but the raw material needs to exist first.

If you’re struggling to remember, work backwards with the most recent. If you’re part of a software org think in terms of Epics and business outcomes. Look at your end of year reviews or promotion documents.

This doc becomes the source of truth for your resume refresh, your LinkedIn updates, and every “tell me about a time when…” question you’ll face in interviews. The people who answer those questions with confidence and specificity aren’t necessarily the ones who did the most. They’re the ones who wrote it down.

Weeks three and four: start moving

By now the immediate shock has settled and you have the foundation in place. This is when the actual search begins. The key is doing it with intention, not volume.

Reach out to your network directly. Not a broadcast “I’m looking” post. Personal messages to people you’ve actually worked with. Tell them what you’re targeting and ask if they know anyone worth talking to. If you need a better model for that, start with Most great roles never get posted.
Take recruiter calls. Even for roles that aren’t quite right. You’re building relationships and gathering market intelligence. Both matter.
Apply selectively, not broadly. Ten well-matched applications beats a hundred spray-and-pray submissions. Your time and energy are finite. Spend them on roles where you’re a real fit, then do your due diligence before you apply.
Build a simple tracking system. A spreadsheet is fine. Company, role, where you are in the process, next step, date. Without it, things fall through the cracks fast.

Protect your energy. Job searching is a job. Set hours for it and stop when those hours are up. The people who burn out mid-search almost always made it all-consuming from day one.

Thirty days in, you should have your finances mapped, your materials sharp, your story clear, and a handful of real conversations in motion. That’s a strong position. Better than most people reach in the first month.

The search that follows will have its own rhythm. Getting the foundation right in the first 30 days means you’re building from solid ground, not scrambling to catch up.