what to do if you were laid off today w/ will king, design engineer
guest: will king, design engineer at snowflake
- if you get laid off, pick a few target companies and build something that shows you can do the job day one instead of mass applying
- hiring is a trust exercise so your goal is to make yourself the least risky choice a company can make
- use ai to speed up research and prep, not to generate your resume or project for you since that is easy to spot
- contributing real fixes to open source tools you actually use heavily can be a stronger signal than a cold application
- say yes to ambitious side projects while still employed since those unexpected efforts tend to open the most career doors