Aftermath
I've been laid off twice before and it's miserable. I was lucky each time and had only a short period of unemployment - but biotech was doing well each of those times. The industry is in a serious slump right now, with many companies cutting back and some closing altogether. Even large companies are slashing away - Takeda is setting free over 600 employees here in Boston - perhaps some are remnants of the Millennium acquisition. Far too few companies are being created.
So if you have leads on open positions, I am listening. You can leave comments, email me (keith.e.robison on Gmail), connect on LinkedIn, DM on Twitter, etc. I've never received a message by carrier pigeon, but if that's you're style I won't object. All will be passed on to a Ginkgo alumni community.
As a meme I saw put it "this too shall pass - perhaps pass like a kidney stone, but it shall pass". The long-term societal upside from biotechnology is too great for this to be anything but a temporary dip - but temporary can be a very long time.