To be or not to be

I don't know why everyone is making a big deal out of layoffs. Even the ones who laid off are not that concerned than the ones who comment. Laid off employees literally get free money upwards of 10 lakhs in many cases of senior developers who are laid off from top tech startups. Companies pay severance equal to 3-6 months salary of laid off employees. Some even offer other benefits as well. I personally know a couple of Devs who got around ~9-10L in severance pay. So, yeah if there are layoffs happening in funded tech startups or leading tech companies, considering their pay range, laid off employees get handsome severance pay including employee benefits

I got laid off in Jan. Took 4 months to land a job finally and joined a new company in May. This new company seems to be silently laying off people now in the name of cost cutting and likely be trying to raise next round of funding although they previously raised previous round in Aug-2022. Although right now it's more of they need me (my role, I'm the only person of this role) more than I need them, I'm 70% confident that I might not be impacted, but the 30% chance is keeping me sleepless. What do I do? Pretty traumatized from the first layoff.

Last year March, I was hired as Growth & Marketing Lead in one of the companies abroad at 30LPA (Remote). Now, they are shutting the project I’m in and have received a notice. I’m a Marketer by profession with expertise in 0-1 growth in startups. I’ve 8 YOE. Now the problem is, 0-1 startups in India can’t afford me easily and other startups say I don’t have experience in series B and further kind of startups. If 0-1 have got good funding amount, they still want to hire someone who has experience of scaling Series A and further kind of startups. The basic chicken and egg problem. Although I’m trying to apply for the companies abroad, I’m super confused what should I do now. I’ve emergency funds to sustain 3 months but don’t want to rely on that.

I am working in a Pre Seed GenAI Startup (2020 Founded) as Head of Engineering (Team of 20 with 5-6 in Engineering, No CTO) It's been 3.5 years (3yrs Full Time + 6mon Internship) Previously it is in EdTech now in GenAI Space My CTC is 8 LPA + 0.45% ESOPs (10-12L in 25cr valuation). Skills: Nodejs, Nextjs, Monorepos, MongoDB, AWS, Serverless 1-2yrs ago we were thinking about scaling the tech team, etc but then that EdTech model started failing and then we went to a war time after that we pivoted currently also we are burning money revenue is there but very less (25% of the expense) I was of the view that I want to lead teams and scale products That's why I was there in the team It can be the case tomorrow if we scale but Now I am confused whether I should switch my job and or stick with the startup maybe the startup grow tomorrow or a big VC fund us to scale (as I have ESOPs) or it will just be a waste of time or opportunity cost Please guide 🙏 Anyone with a similar startup experience would really appreciate your help 🙏

I've 3 yoe, currently working in a very small startup as full-stack dev. Company's revenue is declining from Q4 last year. Every month layoffs are happening in each team. Last week, a dev was laid off from my team. No hike till now, working here from last 1.5 years. Although, got performance bonus twice. I want to work on a few ideas, tried to work on weekends but it led to burn out and started affecting my health, suffered from mental fatigue. Please suggest.

which career it might be?

Worked for ~8 months as a Product analyst at my first firm. Interviewed and recieved a Product Analyst offer from my dream company in my industry of choice and an APM offer from a startup. Took up the APM role planning of switching to the dream company as a PM at a later point of time. 2 months into the job, recieved a text from the SVP that they'd be happy to offer an APM role at the dream company. Coincidentally, current firm has paused all appraisals and there's a small chance of layoffs as well. Do I make the switch? Pros of switching: Higher Pay, Higher quality of work & Product, No risk of layoff (Since dream company is bootstrapped+ highly profitable), much better exit opportunities Come of Switching: 2 switches within a year so would have to stay for atleast 2 years irrespective of the work environment, higher work load, no wfh (currently working in a good hybrid system) If I decide to stay here longer and the SVP leaves the dream company, I'd be stranded as well. Please suggest.

I was working at a Start-up more than a year back. We were required to either raise funds or do something else, against what we wanted to do, to move forward. One day, the co founders got us on a call (<10 people team), and explained the situation to us. Either an acquisition or a round of funding was the only chance. We hadn't raised any round up until then. Unfortunately, we had to bid goodbye to something that we were passionately working on. Lay-offs! But, we got 2 months notice. And on top of that, we were encouraged to prepare for interviews throughout those 2 months (while giving minimal importance to work). I literally cried multiple times because of the thought of having to leave the amazing team. The founders helped us with all the support, and made use of their network to help us get through as well. We're still in touch with the team, and all of us are at relatively good positions now. (Although anonymous, just wanted to share this out there with all of you folks. And I try to 'help it forward' as much as possible)

Trying to see companies that people here have had the dream to join, but didn’t ultimately work out. Have you now grown over it?

Yoe: 2 years Tc:32 lpa fixed. Bg: top 5 IIT, 2 years of PM experience where I led two major 0-1 products to completion independently and had a direct revenue impact of around 25 Cr. At a crossroad in my career where a top partner in a tier 1/2 VC firm wants me join his investment team (nothing concrete, just expressed his interest in a gathering). Was curious as to how the VC career ladder looks like! I was always interested in a VC career. Just afraid, whether there will be any exit options say 5 years down the line if I want to move out or get stuck. All advice, opinion, help will be appreciated. Thanks!