M&Ms: Lessons From Layoffs

Learning lessons from layoffs in the 91st edition.

Jan 30, 2023

I took a job at the banks because they used to pay big bucks years ago.

But I didn't know I would learn lessons about resilience and the economy from it.

My starting salary at Bank of America Merryl Lynch, was around $150k base salary with a bonus on top. This was nothing to snub at for a kid like me, back around 2013.

And for a few months, I was happy.

We worked out of 250 Vessey St, downtown N.Y.C., formerly Four World Financial Center. We were within walking distance of Wall St., and the floor we were on was a former trading floor converted so we software engineers could do our thing.

I'd hear nostalgic stories about the trading that used to happen on our floor. But alas, that time was gone; much of that sort of trading was now automated.

So the trading pit on our floor was a relic of the past; it resembled the coliseum in Rome. Our coliseum reminded us of a time when men and women would shout at each other to trade paper. Ironically the engineers building the high-frequency trading algorithms, the things that replaced the shouting traders, were there too on that floor.

This job was cool for a while; my work felt important, the history of the place was deep, the smart people around me were great, and the money was solid.

But then, one day, I showed up to work, and an entire team on our floor was cleaning up their space.

It turned out that an entire operations team was no longer needed; even the technical people on the team had all been let go. One of the people on that team helped me a lot. Let's call him Sahil, although that wasn't his actual name. Sahil helped me wrap my head around this massive Portal Product that the bank had. Ran me through the architecture, the databases, and so on. That team being cut that way was a shock because I knew individuals like Sahil on it who were good at their job and, more importantly, helpful.

Seeing people laid off who in no shape or form deserved it, even someone like Sahil, whom I admired, is exactly the sort of thing that makes you lose faith in your firm. And many software engineers are seeing this for the first time. A decade-long run-up of just hiring, with no layoffs, had many engineers believing that companies like Google cared about them and would take care of them.

But I needed to see reality for what it was. I went to coffee with Sahil, and the layoffs were a total shock to him and the team too. Those firsthand emotions were a prerequisite for the internalization that the firm did not give a shit about me either. It never did. Until then, I'd only heard stories that we were cogs. Many software engineers today are seeing the same thing firsthand.

Firms need cogs, and up until that layoff, Sahil and I were fine cogs. But no longer. The firm found a way to compress the machinery, so it used fewer cogs and decided Sahil was no longer needed. That wasn't Sahil's fault. And just like it isn't anyone's fault laid off today. That layoff made me realize that it could've easily been people on my team and me.

Then every day after, the trading pit became a reminder that if I did nothing and stayed in the same role, it was almost guaranteed that I, as a software engineer, would eventually be automated too. But not before they asked me to automate everyone else away first. For a little while, it was depressing. I even thought of quitting the bank without anything lined up. I had completely lost faith.

Nothing puts the true nature of capitalism on display like the Big Banks. Banks are a true transaction business, and that's all a job is. And in many ways, that was a very good thing to see firsthand.

Because like Puff Daddy says, nothing lasts forever, not even the Sun.

Yo, the sun don't shine forever
But as long as it's here, then we might as well shine together
Better now than never, business before pleasure
....
So the only thing left now is God for these cats
And B.I.G., you know we too hard for these cats
I'ma win 'cause I'm too smart for these cats
While they makin' up facts (Uh), we raking up plaques
—Puff Daddy, Victory

As Daniel points out masking reality does not make it go away.

The bank helped me realize that I can't just sit on my laurels. That led me to have a healthier relationship with my future employers. Thanks to the banks, I always understood that no matter how much I loved the job, it could and would eventually disappear, given a long enough time horizon. It taught me never to make my job my identity. It taught me that I could be cut at any point in time if the firm needed to survive. And it taught me to never kill myself for the firm because it will never kill itself for me. Working hard is fine, but you need to make sure you are rewarded for it.

These are all basic lessons, but the big banks also taught me some things that only some people seem to internalize.

First, you've got to keep learning and stay ahead of the curve because it is one of the few ways to remain useful. Things will happen; even the Roman Empire collapsed. And as 250 Vessey reminded me for a while, even Wall Street traders collapsed.

Second, the only security you can get in today's world is diversifying out of a single point of failure and out of needing your employer.

Ironically, doing more of these things helped make me a better employee.

These lessons led me to take all kinds of classes and have all kinds of side projects. These are the same lessons that led me to take world-class courses like Write of Passage and Small Bets, which have done wonders for me over the last year. Not worrying about getting fired also led me to have a higher risk tolerance at work, stick to my principles, and push back on stupid ideas. All of that helped me climb faster at work.

But back to my friend Sahil, I talked to him a few years later; he became a consultant.

Sahil said that firing helped him realize that the security he thought he had in full-time employment was just a facade. And being a consultant allowed him to have several engagements at once and earn far more, all while working on some of his own things too.

Ironically, Sahil said that layoff was the best thing that happened to him financially. He said he was billing the same banks he had worked for as a full-time employee, for years, four to five times as much now.

Three Tweets: Speak freely, the Office Chair, Parents

We will get some good stories from all of these recently laid off engineers.

Yet another signal that Work From Home is here to stay in a big way.

What I love about this tweet from Sahil is that inspires me to spend time with my parents. Keep them close to me. And it makes me feel fortunate and glad I live close to them.

And reminds me to never let a job or any of that other stuff get in the way of being close to family.