It seems like lately every day you hear in the news or social media of another company restructuring and laying off thousands of employees.
If this has happened to you, it's normal to feel panicked, angry, sad, shocked, or perhaps relieved if you had been thinking about leaving your job anyway. Once you have taken a day or two to process what's happened, it's time to put together a strategy to find a new job. Here is a list of specific things to do:
- First, take an inventory of your skills and accomplishments. What do you enjoy doing and what are you good at doing? Since you have to find a new job anyway, you deserve to find something that you actually would enjoy doing.
- Next, access your financial situation. Did you get a severance package? It would be a good idea to take a look at your budget to see what items you can trim to help reduce your expenses. Then, meet with your Financial Planner to see how to invest it or what to do with your 401(k) if you had one with your previous employer. If you are scared about how to pay your mortgage or rent, there are a lot of side hustles that you can do to help bring cash in immediately while you search for a full-time job such as working for a food delivery service, Uber, Lyft, etc.
- Dust off your resume/LinkedIn profile and take a good look at both items. When is the last time you had either one professionally updated by a Certified Resume Writer? It's imperative that you have a strong, market-ready resume to help you stand out from the competition and make it past the ATS systems. Make sure that your LinkedIn profile helps you stand out and that it makes a great first impression to recruiters/hiring managers.
- Now that you've determined what you want to do for your next career move, make a list of companies that you would like to work for and start reaching out to them directly through networking. Also, identify some Recruiters that you can build relationships with to assist you with finding jobs that are not on job boards.
- Keep track of the jobs that you hear about or apply to and follow up on the status of your application/interview. It's a number's game! You should be applying to a minimum of 5 new jobs/7 days a week.
- Learn how to navigate the hidden job market and go direct to company websites. Many companies don't post jobs on job boards. If you don't know how to conduct a targeted job search, work with a Certified Career Coach who can teach you how to do this successfully.
- These are just a few tips to help you with your job search after losing your job. It's important to practice self-care and maintain a positive attitude through this process, too.
If you would like to learn more tips or need assistance with your resume or job search, I'm here to help you. I've been a Retained Search Recruiter and am a Certified Career Coach/Resume Writer for over 31+ years and have helped thousands of clients just like you find a new job that they love!
