Pink-slip parties of the dot-com bust helped laid-off tech workers land new jobs — and need to make a comeback

• Allison Hemming started "pink-slip parties" in the early aughts after the dotcom bust.
• The events helped laid-off tech pros network and land new jobs.
• Hemming, the CEO of The Hired Guns, a tech-recruiting agency, says they should make a comeback.

Gather round, ye laid-off Gen Zers and millennials, and put down your phones. For this is a tale about how people of yore — Gen Xers and younger baby boomers — found reemployment after getting the ax.

Our story begins with the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2001: Internet euphoria faded, venture capital dried up, and stocks slumped. Back then, like now, tech workers lost their jobs en masse.