Layoff Bounce Back: Resilience through Personal and Professional Networks with Dave Stevens

Imagine your work day starting off like any other only to find you’ve been laid off. What would you do next?

Dave Stevens lived this reality a couple of years ago and joins us this week in episode 354 to share the lessons from that experience. We’ll take you through how Dave processed the news of being laid off, the warning signs he missed, when he knew it was time to begin searching for a new role, how he thought about what to do next, and the critical importance of his personal and professional network throughout this process.

Regardless of your age or the size of your professional network, Dave shares actionable suggestions for building professional connections that we all may be overlooking.

Original Recording Date: 10-28-2025

Topics – Background and the Impact of a Layoff Event, Initial Forward Progress and Reliance on a Professional Network, Skills Gaps and Unexpected Positives, Elements of the Personal and Professional Network, Reaching Closure and Reflecting Back on the Lessons

2:27 – Background and the Impact of a Layoff Event

• Dave Stevens is a Field Solutions Architect at Pure Storage. In this role, Dave is a technical overlay for pre-sales technical personnel at Pure across North America. This is the role Dave took after he was impacted by a layoff.
• What was Dave’s role before he was impacted by a layoff event?
  • For context, the layoff event we discuss in this episode took place around 2.5 years before this recording.
  • Dave was classified as a systems engineer or pre-sales technical resource at his employer supporting multiple account reps. It was more of a solutions architect type of role, and Dave highlights his entry into this organization and role was via acquisition.
  • Was there an element of technical marketing to the role? Nick mentions that Dave often had to attend trade shows in this role.
    • Dave had a virtualization background and went to a lot of events to discuss how his company’s products integrated with those different technology ecosystems.
• The day Dave was laid off started as a normal day at his home office. His boss was based in Europe, so most 1-1 calls were usually late in the day his boss’s time (early afternoon for Dave).
  • A meeting popped up that was earlier than usual, but Dave didn’t think anything of it.
  • Right after Dave joined the remote session for the meeting, someone from HR joined followed by Dave’s boss.
  • Dave wasn’t quite sure what to expect and didn’t know what was happening. He didn’t know if it was a layoff coming or some other kind of situation happening at his company.
  • When Dave was laid off, they told him it was not for performance reasons, but there weren’t really any other details provided on why he was being laid off.
  • “So, at that point it was just like, ‘what do I do?’” – Dave Stevens, on receiving layoff news
  • After receiving the news, Dave’s access to company systems like e-mail was quickly cut off. He went downstairs and spent the rest of his day relaxing. Dave did not want to talk about what happened any further that first day.
• Did Dave struggle with separating his identity from his employer or the job he held at all when this happened?
  • Dave says he did, at least a little bit.
  • Dave wanted to be successful in whatever role he found himself, and the reason he was in the systems engineering role at the time of the layoff event is a result of his drive to be successful in the years leading up to that role.
  • “I also wanted to make sure that…the people that I worked with that I enjoyed working with. If I didn’t enjoy working with them, then there was no reason to continue staying there. So that’s part of my identity on how I interact with work.” – Dave Stevens
  • In the early days of Twitter (now X), Dave defined an identity there. He also created a personal blog. Dave says his identity was often tied to where he worked.
  • “Once this all happened, I just kind of cut that off. And I needed some time to really digest what I just went through that day.” – Dave Stevens
• Is there something Dave wishes people had done for him when this first happened?
  • Dave says he wishes he would have listened to his wife. Before experiencing the layoff event, a number of colleagues who had entered the company through acquisition like Dave were either leaving or had been laid off (including his boss being laid off). At the time, Dave didn’t think much about these events.
  • Dave’s wife had encouraged him to look for other jobs before the layoff happened, and he feels he should have listened.
  • “It’s much easier finding a job when you have a job. There’s not as much pressure on you. You