3 years ago this November, I was laid off...

It's not part of massive layoff waves but it surely impacted me deeply. And seeing the layoff news all over LinkedIn this week, I thought of sharing my personal experiences here to encourage you.?

No BS and here goes:

1. Depression is REAL

It took me 8 months to overcome my depression after I landed a new job.?

Why? Because if you were laid off from what you considered “top companies, peak position”, you really thought your professional life is over. To add, some might have gone through personal challenges moments too; you could be the main breadwinner, you are expecting another baby, your family member is sick and you are the main caretaker, etc. The feeling of unworthiness is just creeping in.?

So, what do you do? Do exactly the opposite. Put aside your ego and go & find your “anti-depression” activities.?

For me, it was meeting friends I could not meet before now that I have got all the time to be open and have a genuine conversation, exercising my “one punch man” sets, and getting my me time to finally read some books. One of the books I read that helped me was by Ruth Saw , Clarity is Power.?

2. Choose to work with someone you know

1 month after searching for a job, I got myself 2 offers. One of the offers was from a global company and the other was from a growth company. Though the offer was much less than the first one, I chose the latter.?

Why? Just because I knew whom am I going to work with at the growth company & know the person's working style instead of going for the money. The pay cut was painful but the few years of the overall experience of growing the market, rolling up the sleeves, navigating complexity, and still getting things done was astounding.?

The best part was the overall payout I received amounted to more than when I was laid off. If you are impacted, perhaps this moment is a redirection to something better.?

3. Go pursue new things

The layoff was a wake-up call and so I started to learn the importance of side hustle; trading, consulting, career coaching, and social selling workshops in groups of 10 to 20s.?And we are talking about $500/hour to $2,000/half a day session. It has helped me to find the joy of being just a salesperson and knowing that you can do much more than what you can imagine!?

This year alone I pick up writing which in my lifetime, I will never think possible. Thanks to Tim Denning for the amazing course on writing, it gives me the courage to write that 1st sentence and since then I have been writing!

4. Join a community

Liverpool was right with their “You will never walk alone” motto (though I am a Man U fan) and I realized with my personality, having no community will just make me nuts, especially with the layoff.?

So apart from my church community, I started to get involved more in other communities around exercise, side hustling, networking among the techs, charity, etc. Like iron sharpens iron, when you get more regular you will start getting feedback, and input and being aware that life is more than just a job alone and that you as a person have more impact than what you think you are worth.?

Find one that can help you & eventually you use it to help others too. If you don’t know where to start, you can try to look into one of the recent platforms I discovered such as adplist.org where they help to connect mentors all around the world.

5. Build your personal branding on LinkedIn

I decided to revive my personal branding again on LinkedIn for the long game because I know no one is indispensable and history could repeat itself.?

With just a little tweak, openness to connect, and consistent posts all year long, in the past 1 year I have received more than 40 InMails of job opportunities. That averages 3 job opportunities per month & just yesterday I received another InMail message for a role again!?

How to start? Leverage your 1st-degree connection and just dropped them a message to connect. You would be surprised how many are willing to help you, so take that courageous 1st step.?

Remember, we are all in this together and if you ever need support (even prayer requests), feel free to DM me and I will make sure to pray for you too. God bless!

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Hey, thanks for reading this post up to this sentence. Now, I know you're probably wondering,?"Why do you post this article?"?

Well, I first started my career journey as a headhunter and the reason why I jumped into recruitment is that I didn't know what I want back then. I thought the best thing to do is to interview thousands of people and understand their roles and industries. With this exposure, I was able to understand the mind of recruiters, and hiring managers, and years later had the privilege to be in various roles with top global companies.

I am forever grateful to all the people that came into my life and showed me that I have what it takes to pursue my goals. Today, I am on a mission to help driven & ambitious people to get in front of global leaders & world-changing companies.

If you think you have benefited from this sharing, I hope you can pay it forward by sharing this article and connecting with me to always inspire each other. Stay tuned for more brewing on #rioslab . God bless!