We can all agree at this point that being laid off isn’t a mark of shame or a reflection of your quality, right? Companies making record profits just need to make record-er profits so shareholders can get $$$. It’s a cynical cash grab, and the large companies are all using each other as cover to do it while under the guise of some sort of “market contraction” or some other bullshit.

So if you have been laid off, no, it doesn’t reflect poorly on you. There is literally nothing separating you from someone who didn’t get laid off. It has nothing to do with whether they deserved it, or you didn’t. It’s just arbitrary and capricious.

When you’re applying for your next job, and someone asks you why you’re looking, my recommendation is to not hide that you were laid off. You don’t have to sugar coat it or try to evade the question. Just confront it head on.

If the company you’re interviewing with sees it as a negative, they’re so out of touch that that is in itself a red flag for *you*. But I don’t even think there are companies that are that out of it. They’ll just say, “oh,” and move on. When the folks who interviewed you talk about you later or write notes to the hiring manager, if they mention it at all, it’s definitely not going to be, “The interview went great, they were super smart, really qualified, had great questions for us… but they got laid off from their previous job. Pass.” That’s not happening.

Do not worry about having been laid off. Don’t worry about it when talking about it with your friends, don’t worry about it when interviewing for your next job. It’s just a thing that happened, and these days it could literally have happened to anyone.