The first 30 days after a tech layoff: the actual playbook

The first thing nobody tells you is that being laid off in the first two weeks doesn't feel like a job search. It feels like the floor stopped existing. Sleep gets weird, you check LinkedIn every forty minutes, and every email that isn't a rejection feels like an invoice. It gets better. But the first thirty days is a specific problem with a specific playbook.

This is what to do — in order — from the day the meeting ends. Not the polished LinkedIn version. The version I'd have wanted handed to me.

Week 1: don't start applying yet

Your instinct will be to Apply to Fifty Roles This Weekend. Don't. You'll send a low-quality CV to good companies and burn the chance to walk in warm.

Instead, do the four unglamorous things:

1. Get your severance and paperwork in writing. Separation agreement, notice period, unused PTO payout, health insurance continuation. In the US: know your COBRA deadline (60 days). In the EU: check what's in your dismissal notice period. Get it from the company, not from a coworker who "heard" something.
2. Register for unemployment on day 1.In the US this is state-specific — most states front-load benefits so the earlier you file, the earlier your first cheque lands. In Germany: register as "arbeitssuchend" at the Arbeitsagentur within 3 days of receiving notice or you lose a week of benefits. In the UK: apply for Universal Credit online. It usually pays out ~5 weeks later, so delay = pain.
3. Update your LinkedIn headline before the "open to work" frame.Recruiters filter for "open to work" badges. Turn it on. Add your target roles + regions under Career preferences. This alone tends to double inbound messages within a week.
4. Message five people.Not fifty. Five. Past managers, ex-coworkers who liked working with you, a couple of people at companies you'd actually want to join. Tell them you're looking. Ask if they'd be a reference. Nine out of ten will offer to intro you to someone. Job searches almost always break open through weak ties, not cold applications.

The single highest-return activity in the first week is telling five specific people you're looking. Not one hundred applications.

Week 2: build the application machine

Now open the applications. But do them in batches, not one-off, and with a system:

• Two CVs, not one.Have a "primary" version (the role you actually want) and a "safety" version (a nearby role in the same market). Tailor each opening paragraph to the role. Don't rewrite the whole CV every time — recruiters read the top third and skim the rest.
• Track every application in one place.A spreadsheet, Notion, a browser extension — doesn't matter which, but pick one and stick to it. Include: company, role title, applied date, status, next action, contact person, notes. Without this you will apply to the same role twice and forget who you interviewed with.
• Batch to Tuesday/Wednesday morning. Recruiter response rates are highest for applications submitted between Tuesday and Thursday 08:00–11:00 local time. Not Sunday night. Not Friday afternoon.
• Prefer roles posted in the last 14 days.Anything older than that has been sitting because the team can't decide, the budget is unstable, or every offer they've made has been declined. See our red-flag guide for the full list.

Week 3: get interview-fit before the interviews

By week 3 you'll have a first-round or two. Interview muscle is a use-it-or-lose-it thing. Get sharp before you burn a chance with a company you actually want.

• Do two mock interviewswith people who'll be honest. Not friends. Ex-managers, or paid mock-interview services. Ask specifically for feedback on where you sound rehearsed, where you sound underprepared, and where you buried the answer.
• Rewrite your "why I left" story to be one sentence, calm, forward-looking. Recruiters are trained to filter for bitterness. "My role was cut in a company-wide restructure and I'm using the moment to be intentional about what I do next" beats every version that starts with "honestly, the culture had been declining for a while…"
• Prep two concrete metrics for every role on your CV. Not job descriptions — outcomes. "Cut deploy time from 22 minutes to 4 minutes" beats "Responsible for CI/CD improvements".

Week 4: filter harder, not softer

By the end of the first month, most people relax their filter. "It's only a phone screen, why not." This is where laid-off candidates lose the most time. Don't.

Before you agree to the fourth round with a company, ask yourself: if this exact offer landed tomorrow, would I take it?If the answer is "probably not, but" — decline the round. You're not obligated. Your time is your only remaining currency during a search.

Actively deprioritise:

1. Roles with no salary band listed. In the EU, the Pay Transparency Directive took effect 7 June 2026 — hiding the band now is a choice, not an oversight.
2. Companies where the recruiter can't answer "is this a new headcount or a replacement?" They're either not staffed or the role isn't real.
3. Startups where the last funding round was more than 18 months ago and revenue is unclear.
4. Employers with clusters of "restructure" or "pivot" mentions in the last year's Glassdoor reviews.

The four things nobody tells you

Rejections come in floods.Fifteen in a week is normal. Half of them are for roles you applied to weeks ago and forgot. Don't read the pattern in a single day's email; read it in monthly cohorts.

Your best offer usually comes after week 5. Recruiter cycles are 4–8 weeks end-to-end. The applications you send in week 2 hit final rounds in week 5–6. The first three weeks can feel like nothing is happening because, statistically, nothing yet is.

Silence isn't rejection.A recruiter who stops responding usually means the role paused internally, not that you were declined. If you haven't heard back in ten days, send one short follow-up. If they don't reply, move on and don't take it as a signal about you.

Your worst days are day 8 and day 22.Every laid-off engineer I know had a bad day at week 1.5 and another at week 3–4. That's when the adrenaline wears off and the rejections pile up in parallel. Plan a specific activity — a long walk, an evening off, a dinner with a friend — for both. If you know the wave is coming, it's much easier to ride.

Where Petalon fits in

When you're applying to twenty roles a week, you cannot afford to spend an hour per company decoding Glassdoor. That's the exact problem Petalon solves: candidates vote on companies with one icon — green flag, red flag, or ghost — and you see the verdict right on the LinkedIn job page before you click Apply.

Beta is free, no card required. If you're in the first thirty days after a layoff, install it, filter out the red-flag companies and the ghost-jobs, and spend your energy on the ones actually hiring.

Sources

1. European Commission — New EU rules on pay transparency, explained (5 June 2026)
2. Bundesagentur für Arbeit — When to register as "arbeitssuchend" after termination (accessed 2026)
3. US Department of Labor — COBRA continuation coverage (accessed 2026)
4. UK Government — Universal Credit: how to apply (accessed 2026)