Amazon just announced that they will cut 30,000 corporate jobs. During my 6.5 years at AWS, and 20+ years in IT, I witnessed several layoff rounds. Most employees don’t have the kind of impact that could stop such layoffs, but there are some things that can help.  I will go over the effective tips that helped me survive layoff rounds. Deliver what's important to the project and leadership. You may think a certain architecture will cement your name in the great SA Wall of Fame, but if that is not aligned with the priorities of your org, then you will come under scrutiny when times are tough. When I was an SA at Verizon, I had the task to modernize an architecture using Serverless. I really, really wanted to implement the design with API Gateway, Lambda, Dynamo - you know, the whole jazz. However, we didn't have enough time to implement API Gateway. So even though, in my opinion, I would have liked to implement the "perfect" serverless architecture, I had to pivot and ship the project with existing API solution; Apigee, and Lambda, and RDS Oracle. Was I ecstatic about the design? No. Was my manager happy? Yes, and she even got me promoted for always shipping projects on time. Don't be a difficult guy to work with. There are many examples where a talented individual is axed because he/she believes he or she is always right, is not open to others' ideas, is not open to feedback, is standoffish, first to create conflict, and, as a result, is let go. If you are already delivering, just go the extra mile and be nice about it. It is always harder to fire a relationship than fire a name. ​Sometimes your whole group is cut. And often times, the decision is based on how much money your project is bringing to the table. So, this is a hard one - if you are in a group that is using technology that's not growing or legacy and in mostly maintenance mode, start upskilling, start building relationships with internal teams who are doing the future tech, and plan to switch internally or externally before it's too late. ​Be interview ready. I have gone through many interviews at other companies even though I was employed at Amazon. I do this not because I want to switch but to keep myself prepared.  Interviewing candidates is NOT the same as being interviewed. Sometimes, you can't control your management's behavior, but you can control how prepared you are in case the worst happens at your current job. This was a difficult post because I know that when I say 30,000 jobs that really means 30,000 people that now might face a lot of hardship. I don’t take that lightly, which is why I made this post. Remember, we often cannot control the larger circumstances of our lives. We may never be in the room deciding which jobs to cut and how many. But everyone can do something. If this post motivated you to look at one workplace behavior and make a shift, it might protect you someday, and I genuinely hope it does.