What do you do if you need guidance in finding new career opportunities after a layoff?

First, be confident that you will find a job that suits you. Even if you're looking for a job in your same field, you need to assess your current skills and expertise. Assess your strengths and weaknesses. Also, consider what kind of a job you're looking for. With the help of a coach or mentor, you can do this phase of effortlessly. They guide you to find your core values, skills, passion and give you options to choose from the job market.

I can imagine lay-off can be the most difficult situation to deal with. In such situations, we often tend to venture into too many things at a time, not knowing where to start or what to do. So, firstly, it is important to declutter our mind inorder to think in a logical manner. Self reflection woks best here. Take time to reflect on your strengths and weaknesses in your career so far. This exercise gives you a clear direction and often sets a path for you to pursue. It helps you to identify your niche, purpose/ calling. Based on which you may revisit your career goals as need be. It then becomes easy to move on to the next steps like building your resume, upscaling yourself throug a learning program, netwroking and so on.

Turning a Layoff into an Opportunity: How to Find Your Next Career Move. Evaluate your skills, interests, and values to identify potential career paths that align with your strengths. Consider working with a career coach or counselor who can provide personalized guidance and support in exploring new opportunities. By assessing your skills and seeking professional guidance, confidently navigate the post-layoff period and find a rewarding new career path.

I was laid off last year, and I understand the pressure, confusion, grief, and numerous other feelings that come with this type of forced transition. Sometimes you know it is coming (I had some warning), and other times you barely get notice. The first thing I did was take stock of my current skills. - I'm expert level - I know, but don't always put on my resume - I would like to know - What will help me to support and level up my existing skills. Then I had a starting point when finding a new job or creating my own company. When I looked at a job description, there was no guessing if I was a match. And if I noticed a certain skill on the description that I didn't have, I planned a way to acquire it.

Being good just with your job role isn't good enough in the ever evolving world. You will need Growth mindset + Nework + Personal branding Growth mindset will to keep you at par with the ever evolving market. Growth mindset will not allow one to stay just good to your job profile. Your network and your personal branding is also important

Update your resume and your social media profiles (esp. LinkedIn). They should be consistent. Then, 1) Craft a professional narrative. It's good to work with a career coach on this. You want to explain coherently and confidently your motivations (or what's behind the decisions) for changing jobs, push/pull factors, what drives you etc. 2) Have a profile summary. 3-4 lines max. This can be slightly tailored to each job. 3) A segment to list 15-20 hard and soft skills. This helps recruiters to have a quick understanding of your skills or AI to pick up your resume. 4) Work experience. No more than 4-5 bullet points for roles and responsibilities, and 2-3 points for achievements. Quantify. Brevity is your friend. Hope they help!

It's important to understand how resumes are processed since most go through ATS before a human sees them. Learn the technical writing and formatting aspects of a resume. Tip, Canva is not your answer. If it feels overwhelming a coach is the way to go. Talking to a coach can help you find the key elements of you to put on your resume. I teach a resume class to college students. During conversations, we uncover more experience and skills to add to their resume as well for their portfolios and interview prep. It can make a different of sending 100s of resumes with no response to sending a few, landing an interview for a well paying/benefit job.

You can't just get a job without an outstanding resume. This should be your first priority- updating your resume with your top skills and experiences. If you're working with a career coach, they will guide you to update your resume as per industry standards. Since many companies are now using ATS, you should pass them. Your mentor will help you tailor your resume with the exact details hiring managers looking for.

Resume writing and formatting is such a confusing arena that candidates often agonized for days and look all around for the perfect format and perfect text. The thing to know is that given each candidates and roles uniqueness there is no "perfect resume". With a lot more automated screening there is obvious need to clearly highlight one's skills and levels of expertise and relevant to role experience. But beyond that each resume must speak about you and your individuality and tell your career and ambition story in the way you feel best fit.

Your network is your net worth. Building and nurturing relationships should be a part of your career journey, growth and development. If you find yourself without a job and without a strong network that you can tap into, it is still not too late to start building one. The key is to find out how the relationship can be mutually beneficial, and to not act out of desperation. Though you may feel disadvantaged because you need a job, try to get over that by thinking of the other person first. Everyone needs or wants something. Find out what that is and offer it. People appreciate it when you are generous with your time or talent.

This is a tricky one, most candidates build and expand networks while in stable roles and in case of a layoff much of this network might no longer be of any use or might want to keep a distance for fear of their own layoffs. This is where building diversity in your networks (during stable times) could be of use and help. I always encourage my clients to look at networks outside their company, industry and geographical comfort zone.

Networking is more than DMing and sending your resume. LinkedIn is a good place to start, but your industry by be more present on another platform. Building your personal brand. Writing posts about your work, your thought processes, what's important to you can be a valuable way to attract more to your network. And many employers check out your LinkedIn profile before they consider calling you in for an interview. Networking can look different today. A big part of it is showing who you are. This goes beyond a resume and portfolio.

Without a Great network you can not reach to your goals. Your network is your career backbone in any layoff you can depend first on God then your supportive network.

In the fast changing and evolving world that we live in there is no choice but to develop an approach of "Continuous Learning & Growing". While the fourth industrial revolution has made a "learner for life" attitude mandatory, it has also simultaneously opened a wide world of learning, developmental and networking opportunities. One would be best served to continuously use these opportunities and build one's capacity and capabilities in all scenarios (and not limited to a layoff situation)

Huge value in this. You are not the “finished product” nor will you ever be… Employers are looking for humble, high potential individuals who recognise learning opportunities in any everyday opportunity. Adopt a true learning mindset. Talk about your setbacks and demonstrate how you can reflect and learn from them. Use John Driscoll’s “What, So What, Now What” framework for an easy and simple reflective structure..

This is a good idea indeed and I must acknowledge one I had not thought of before. Doing a proper mock interview on a video set-up and recording it for your playback can be of fantastic value. Even if you don't want to involve another person, you can record yourself ideally on a laptop (as that is what you will use in the interview) or on a phone if that works and go over answering the standard 10-12 questions. - Tell me something about your self. - Why are you fit for this role? - An incident where you failed at delivery and learnings from it? - Your greatest Profesisonal success. Etc. Etc.

Let's be honest, most people have their first interviews virtually. One way to practice interviewing is to do a mock interview with a coworker or friend on Zoom and record it. There are lots of subtle idiosyncracies that we do without even realizing that might be harming our chances. Maybe it's touching your hair or looking to the side of the camera, but a recording of yourself can reveal not only ways you need to reflect on your answers to quesitons but other potential problems. It's important to always consider lighting, outfit, and background as well which a video will also help show.

The value a trained coach brings is more than often can be explained. And many are willing to answer questions in their post comments. The comments of a post can be a valuable space to learn, grow, and see trends. Working with a recruiter can also be valuable. But it's important to remember that they work for the company who is doing the hiring, not you the talent. Because the company is the one paying the fee. But most recruiters are looking to make the right fit. It's worth while to meet with a few because they often give honest feedback on where you might need improvement or clarity in representing yourself. And many have connections to credible coaches.

Explore other options. In addition to working with a career coach, other ways to explore a new career path include doing volunteer work to update your skills or setting a goal of conducting informational interviews with two people a week in different fields you are interested in learning more about. Allow yourself the space to dream and to explore industries/organization types you wouldn't usually work in.

While you are considering what job may be next, you might also embrace this gift of time. Decide to take a sabbatical. Declare yourself on break, and intentionally do nothing for as short as long as you can afford. Even if it is a staycation. This space may open up new ideas and perspectives. And yes, a coach may help uncover the wisdom in you about your next adventure.

There are so many great career coaches on LinkedIn. So I would recommend hiring one ASAP so you don’t miss a beat or waste any time in securing your next position.

Though we have seen layoffs lot more in the past 5 years compared to the previous 5, it has always been a challenge for the impacted community to see what their values are in the lens of Employers and Hiring Managers or Recruiters. Why? Most professionals have been headhunted, moved seamlessly from role to role or function to function or stayed in one Organization for 10-20 years or even more! So, knowing the self capability, skills and what really makes it "aha" in a job. When the niche is known, then identify (to start with) 10 JDs of a desired role, create a spreadsheet of needed competencies find the top-3, brush your resume, build your S.O.A.R stories, get ready for interview while applying to roles. Quality of Resume matters!

I would say to seek professional coaching - particularly a coach that specialises in transitions. Coaches can offer clarity, a deep self-awareness and help you identify and leverage your unique strengths, and support you in navigating the emotional challenges of a layoff. They can also provide strategies for effective job searching, enhancing your resilience, and ensuring that your next career move aligns with your values and long-term goals.

Consider what you're actually after. I'm going through this myself, actually. I've taken the time to learn about different industries and I've taken short courses to learn more about things such as marketing and strategy consulting. You can reach out to industry professionals and or a career coach / counselor if need be. Depending on your background things can be more difficult. For me, having a background in linguistics, the music industry, ROTC, teaching, security, etc. it's quite difficult for me to make a career shift, granted I have several transferable skills and can learn anything. Either way, there's definitely hope for you, just as there's definitely hope for me. Put your best foot forward and showcase your best skills.