How to increase your chances of getting hired after being laid off from a tech job

Meta, Twitter, Amazon, and almost every other tech giant in the US have undergone massive layoffs in the scale of thousands in the past few weeks. As the American economic turmoil unfolds, we can only anticipate these tech job cuts to keep getting worse. The number of tech layoffs in 2022 alone amounts to more than half of all layoffs since the start of Covid-19.

Director of service operations at Insperity, Erin Lau, says that most tech businesses are reorganizing, evaluating their expenses, and cutting off jobs. According to her, this will cause a tight labor market filled with unemployed professionals and qualified candidates. Job seekers in the tech sector will face two issues now; intense competition and the challenge of gaining adaptive skills to survive in the ever-changing industry.

Pooja Chhabria, a career expert at LinkedIn, believes that “Companies are constantly in disruption mode, so today’s requirements for a job could change tomorrow.” “Employers are therefore keen to recruit agile tech talent,” she continues. “They not only fulfill a specific need of today but have skills that are future-proof to respond to the needs of the future.”

Here are some suggestions from career experts for those of you who are struggling to get your footing back in the tech industry:

Invest time and money in skill development

Employers are on the lookout for the best skills to fill their multiple vacancies. According to Chhabria, most recruiters have adopted a skills-first hiring approach at present. She says that 40% of recruiters on LinkedIn used skills data to search for candidates in the last year. “What is more telling is that these hirers are 60% more likely to find a successful hire due to this change in approach.”

You should divert your attention to growing fields where the investments are flowing into. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are getting increased amounts of investments. So, it is a wise choice for you to gain skills such as SQL, Python, and AWS which have high demand. Don’t lose sight of transferrable skills in the pursuit of these hard skills. Transferrable skills must play a key role in your resume for you to get hired after a career shift.

Networking is the best thing you can do to discover new opportunities

Being laid off is no easy thing to deal with on your own. You can confide in your network and seek comfort there about your situation. After the layoff, you may end up feeling that there isn’t much chance of you getting a better job in the same industry soon. However, talking to your network will open doors that you failed to consider before. Not only will your network make introductions for you and set you up with the right company, but they will also help you get the feel of the current hiring landscape.

Don’t wait until January to apply

Although the tech industry is undergoing massive layoffs, there are still tons of opportunities elsewhere for you to consider. Currently, there are more than 3.5 million open roles in Asia-Pacific in sectors such as professional services, retail, health care, and financial services. You must do your research on the necessary skills to score a job in these sectors before you apply. Also, many recruiters say that although they are actively hiring in December, there is a large drop in applications. This is because many candidates decide to wait until January to apply.

LinkedIn’s Chhabria says, “LinkedIn [data] shows you’re four times more likely to be hired for a position if you apply in the first 10 minutes, so set up job alerts to notify you as soon as a job that fits your criteria is posted and apply as soon as possible.”