You Just Lost Your Job: Now What?
Robert Kanaat
Full-Stack Engineer | AI Automation Wizard | Direct Response Marketer | Master Copywriter
It's tough. I get it. You just lost your job. And your mind is spinning. Racing at a million miles per minute. You're scared. Afraid of what tomorrow holds. Where do you go from here? Who do you turn to? How do you know who to trust at this point?
The situation is not a good one. You have bills to pay. And money is tight. It's the worst time to be caught in a situation like this. The worst part? It was sudden. It came out of nowhere and you were blindsided.
But out of every bad situation comes some good. The tough part right now is this. You have to stay positive. Because positivity attracts positivity. Like attracts like. This is no time to wallow in self-pity. Now is the time to take action.
Next Steps
If you just lost your job, and you don't already have one lined up, you're in limbo. You're in that gray space between employment and unemployment. It's a slippery slope. I get it. But there are some best practices you can do here.
This is not going to be your run-of-the-mill advice. This is not about spam posting your network or begging for work. Nope. That makes you look desperate. If you're serious about getting a job fast, then please pay careful attention.
How you approach this might vary based on why you were fired. If you were let go because of a contraction or some other outside reasons, that's one thing. If you were fired for cause, that's another thing entirely.
Meaning, if you burned some bridges on your way out then it's going to be harder. Not impossible. But if you lost your job because you were fired for doing something you maybe should not have been doing, then you're going to have to work ten times harder to get that next job.
Problems & Solutions
I don't believe in the resume but companies still rely on them. Although it's not all companies, they still want to see an updated resume at some point. But you already know that. This is not about updating your resume.
What's more important is to figure out what problems you've solved and document those. Look, when you zoom out to a 30,000-foot perspective, all money is generated through problem solving and offering solutions.
The company you worked for is good at solving specific types of problems. Their products and services are all designed around solving those problems. What you need to do is figure out the problems YOU solved at that company.
Put a lot of thought into this because this will help you go into battle armed with the right weapons. Applications. Interviews. Follow-up interviews. You must equip your arsenal with the right weapons.
Weaponize Your Problem-Solving Skills
Look, you've already done a lot up to this point. I'm sure you've updated your resume. You've probably reached out to headhunters. And I'm certain you've messaged people in your network, right?
I get it, you're trying your best. Those are all good things to do. But in the meantime, while you're still a fish out of water, what else can you do? After all, you can't survive for that long without making money, right?
What you need to do is weaponize your problem-solving skills. The amount of money you make in any job is always in direct relation to the quality of the problems you're solving. Solve simple problems and make minimum wage. Solve far complex problems and you'll earn way more.
This is where you need to bring your creative skills to the forefront. Take the problems that you've been solving at your previous job and weaponize them. Meaning, you approach everything from the frame of solving those specific problems.
Now, take a good look at this list and pick the three best solutions you implemented that led to the biggest results. This might not necessarily be in order of importance from top to bottom.
This is going to be a weapon in your arsenal for not only getting your next job, but also for potentially selling a solution to the problems that you solved. Remember, people pay money for solutions to existing problems.
Your goal is to approach your next job from the angle of solving these specific or related problems because you already have a track record for solving these problems.
Bundling Your Solution
You've been solving problems for years. Now, you take those problems and bundle them into solutions you can offer. You can use these solutions to help get your next job or you can bundle them up into an offer.
Why not create an irresistible offer around the solutions you're delivering? Meaning, even if you can't find a job in the meantime, you've created solutions that people can implement.
And you can sell those solutions as offers. You can even build out simple landing pages using premade templates through existing software that doesn't require any technical skills to implement.
None of this is rocket science. And when you lose your job, you sort of have to pull out all the stops. After all, it's your family's future and financial safety on the line, isn't it?
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Psychological Levers
In marketing and sales we use psychological levers to get a prospect to buy. This doesn't mean you need to be in marketing or sales to do this. Psychological levers are important because they provide a frame that gets people to take action.
After all, humans are humans, right? The trick is to implement these ethically. For example, Amazon uses this all the time. They employ a tactic called scarcity. It often says "Hurry! Only 3 Left" or something like that.
When you see that message as opposed to not seeing it, you take action, don't you? That's because scarcity is a big psychological lever. Another one we often use is called urgency.
Urgency is also everywhere. Auctions create urgency because there's only so much time to bid. But so do sales that are say a day or two long. You're more likely to act because of a fear of missing out.
Other psychological levers we use are something called micro-commitments. If you can get a prospect to agree to three small statements, the fourth is usually a surefire YES.
Russell Brunson calls these "trial closes". Meaning you're getting them to nod their head or silently agree with what you're saying throughout a presentation. But this also works for interviews as well.
Your Pitch
Even if you're not in sales, you have to sell yourself. Right? If you can't sell yourself, no one will offer you a job. But learning to sell yourself isn't hard. And you don't need to come across as needy or desperate as long as you approach things from a problem-solution perspective.
Yes, you lost your job. Now, you have to find a way to create a pitch that makes sense. How can you present the problems you've solved in a unique way that doesn't come across as slimy or sleazy?
This is not about going out there and working for free to show people your value. It's about being very specific and intentional about your approach. You need to find people the right people who are facing the problems you've solved.
Outreach
The only way to do this is to reach out from the problem perspective. Ask individuals in companies whether they're struggling with the specific problems you've solved. The best way to do this is to use a program called Apollo.
This will help you identify people in specific industries or departments that you can reach out to. Yes, this is cold outreach so you have to keep it simple. Find them on LinkedIn or simply send an email.
But make sure you do a bit of research on the person you're reaching out to first and personalize your approach. Don't just spam people. That won't work. Get the dialog going and take it from there.
This is a volume approach. But the more personal and specific you are, the better the results. Take the time while you're in this transition period in the wake of losing your job to do this every single day.
Reach out to 100 people per day. It might sound like a lot, but it's not. From the 100 people you reach out to, only a few will respond. Keep it simple and use the opportunity to prob them for those problems.