I got a working lay off notice in mid December with my layoff date set for mid March. I started applying immediately. As everyone has said, it is a godawful job market. This was also the first time I was following up with applications I felt strongest in and it led to a few HR screenings. One even got all the way to the second interview.

However the actual job I got came from a posting on indeed. The recruiter reached out to me a month later and I had forgotten about this job. Nonetheless this was the one. The verbal offer came in the day before my layoff notice and the offer letter came in next week.

It feels like a miracle that I managed to avoid unemployment hell. I had three weeks between my layoff date and start date, with one week spent on a preplanned trip.

I wish I had some advice and all I can say is that following up does work sometimes to get to the HR screening at least. But my current job came about by sheer luck.