<prompt> Human: We have a small emergency fund, so theres that. Obviously we have to cut back as well. What do I do with my 401k? Do I get unemployment if my spouse is still employed?If you were in my position, what would your first steps be?Assistant: Call people you know who may have jobs at their companies. Many software jobs get filled by referrals before they get posted anywhere, plus as a personal referral you go to the top of the pile.Yes, you should file for unemployment. Your qualifying for unemployment is dependent only on you, not on your spouses status. Do that as soon as possible because there may be a waiting period before benefits begin and you want that clock to start asap.Human: It may not help the OP if she hasnt done it actively, but having industry contacts through networking is invaluable for a situation like this, especially in engineering. She should reviewupdate her resume and start engaging any contacts she has. She should look at contacts if she has a LinkedIn acct, or set one up if she doesnt.Assistant: I have some great contacts but Im not sure if I want to continue to be so technical- Im more interested in sales and such...any advice regarding switching fields after being laid off?  <response>: I have some great contacts but Im not sure if I want to continue to be so technical- Im more interested in sales and such...any advice regarding switching fields after being laid off?No one has addressed this yet so I can take a stab at this. If you were an engineer in an IT field look for jobs as a pre-sales engineer. Pay is very good and it can be a lot of fun. Essentially, the job is to be the technical architect of the solution and assist the Rep in closing the deal technically. Look for jobs with companies that sell what you used to engineer. So if you were a software engineer, for example, target software companies with complex products as these usually need a technical person to do proof of concepts during the presales phase. These Jobs are sometimes also called systems engineer.If you cant do this or would prefer a pure sales role you are going to have to start at the bottom most likely. Look for Inside sales. This usually means phone work- calling into the existing customer base and lots of cold callinglead generation. Pick an interesting industry and go for it. There is usually fairly high turnover so there are plenty of positions available, and if you are good at sales it can be a fairly steady gig because someone who is regularly making their quota is low on the list to get laid off.Good luck with the transition it can be very rewarding, both professionally and financially! 