Thank You, What Next?

After almost two years with Tenfold, I was laid off as part of a reduction of force on February 4th. Why do I remember the date? Because it was the morning after Tom Brady and the Patriots won their 6th Super Bowl. Talk about a roller coaster of emotions. Believe it or not, corporate America is not affected by the results of your favorite sports team. Layoffs occur across the world every day, not at your convenience. Capitalism must roll on.

This week, I started the next chapter of my professional career, working as a Commercial Account Executive at Dialpad. I’m fired up to be joining a fast growing company that’s prime to dominate the UCaaS market by leveraging AI to improve the way that Sales and Support teams interact with customers. Stay tuned, as I’ll be posting more about my new role over the coming weeks and months.

While this week marks a new beginning, it also represents a good opportunity to reflect on my experiences and share the lessons I’ve learned after having been laid off twice in less than 3 years. Here are 5 of the biggest ones:

1) It’s A Tough Pill to Swallow, but It’s Just Business

There’s no two ways about it, getting laid off sucks. Companies must keep their plans confidential for legal and security reasons, which means layoffs hit hard and fast. A job you had on Friday when you left the office, no longer exists Monday morning.

You will likely feel upset, confused, frustrated, etc. This is a normal reaction, you just lost your job. The important thing to remind yourself of is that layoffs are not a result of anything you as an individual have done wrong. To the best of your ability, do not take layoffs personally.

In reality, a layoff is a tough choice that your leaders do not make lightly, but it usually represents the lesser of two evils, an impossible choice. For those who survive the cut, as I have many times before, layoffs are just as hard. Familiar faces in the office vanish immediately and company strategies can pivot instantly.

2) Take Time to Decompress

Getting laid off is jarring, you probably didn’t see it coming, or if you did, you still didn’t know when the shoe was going to drop or who was going to be affected. However, this represents an opportunity to take a deep breath, re-evaluate your life goals, and spend time doing the things you always told yourself you would do if you weren’t so busy at work. I personally recommend at least a week or two if you can afford it. Don’t think about work, live in the moment as much as you can. This opportunity is rare.

The good news is that layoffs typically come with a severance package, which gives you a little bit of runway. It’s the closest adults will come to a summer vacation since we were in college. Take full advantage of this opportunity.

You can also file for unemployment, which you should do doing right away. You’ve been paying into this program your entire working life, now’s the chance to get that money back. Don’t count on this money however, think of it as a spot bonus. This may come as a shock, but the government isn’t the fastest when it comes to processing paperwork. Understand the process in your state and start it as soon as you can.

3) Leverage Your Network

I cannot stress this one enough. When I first started in software sales, I was always told that networking was key. However it was always framed in the context of happy hours, conferences, user groups, and the like. The truth is that you have the ability to grow your network each and every day. Continue to make and strengthen connections with your co-workers, your clients, your friends, your prospects, even total strangers. You never know which actions you take today will pay dividends in the future. These connections will open doors you never thought possible and will often accelerate the interview process.

Do not underestimate the power of a strong referral. Hiring managers are human. People want to hire people that they trust. Making the wrong hire is time consuming and expensive, which means risk aversion factors heavily into the evaluation process. They value the opinion of people they have had a direct, positive experience working with.

Just as you would use a case study to win over a potential client, referrals are a strong proof point that make hiring managers feel far more comfortable in a candidate when evaluating a large pool of applicants. A strong referral will make you stand out from the crowd, in a way that even the best 3 hour onsite interview simply cannot.

4) Save the Best for Later

So now you’ve updated your resume and are ready to start interviewing. You’ve found the perfect role at the perfect company, and can’t wait to walk in the door and earn the job. That’s great, but ask yourself, when’s the last time you’ve done an interview? If you weren’t expecting to be on the job market, it has likely been a while. There’s a reason baseball players travel down to Arizona and Florida for spring training before the regular season. You need to shake of the rust, take reps, and continue to work on perfecting your craft. In this case, it’s telling your story, an elevator pitch that sums up your experience, qualifications, and why you are the best candidate for the job.

When you first start the job search, I encourage you to take as many phone screenings as possible, and maybe even a few on-sites. Will you interview for roles or with companies that you are not super excited about? Yes. Will you be able to refine your pitch and better answer challenging interview questions that may have tripped you up when you started the process? Absolutely. Curveballs will start looking like fastballs. You will feel far more comfortable and confident walking into an interview for your dream job if you’ve rehearsed your personal pitch to dozens of recruiters before ever stepping foot into an office. This will lead to a more successful interview process and increase your chance of a getting an offer, which is what interviewing is all about.

5) Back to Back to Back

Now that you are knee deep in the interview process, keep your foot on the gas. This tip is closely related to the previous one, but cannot be overlooked. Even if you think you crushed an interview and walk out feeling confident, you don’t know who you’re competing with for the position. Maybe they have a stronger referral than you, or their resume is more closely aligned to the role. There are an infinite number of reasons why you won’t get an offer, even if the interview went well.

By setting up multiple interviews within a week of each other, you keep your mind sharp and your options open. It can certainly be stressful to prepare for multiple on-sites in a week, as most will require you to do some type of presentation or role playing exercise. However the pros outweigh the cons here in my opinion.

If you do get an offer, companies expect you to make a decision quickly, as they don’t want open job postings to linger and have a pipeline of other candidates. Know that nothing is final until the ink is dry. There is a very real possibility that the company has multiple offers out for the same spot on a team, and whoever signs first will get the job. And in the event that you are lucky enough to get multiple offers, you now have options to consider and far more negotiating power.

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Hopefully this article has helped provide some perspective and insights on how to best handle getting laid off. If you have had a similar experience, or if you think I have missed anything that is crucial for recently laid off employees to know, let’s hear about it in the comments.

If you are interested in talking more about this topic, or why I chose to join Dialpad, feel free to reach out to me directly via email or phone. I can now be reached at [email protected] or 512-817-2632.