People held “pink slip parties” to make the most of the situation, and begin networking in search of the next job, but it soon became apparent to many that there were far too few jobs to be had. Stories appeared in the newspaper of net outmigration from the Bay Area for the first time in living memory; there was a U-Haul shortage (no joke) as people rented them for one-way moves back to Vegas or Dallas or wherever the economy was healthier to get a regular job. Enterprising promoters held raves in the abandoned former headquarters of failed dot-coms.
This is a really entertaining and well-written personal account of the dot-com/dot-bomb transition. I guess I should count myself lucky that, at the time, I didn’t think I was “good” enough to work at one of those dotcoms and instead stayed at my boring defense contractor job for another 6 years.