You Lost Your Job. Now What?

I lost my job at the tail end of last year.

Whoa whoa whoa, it’s all good, I’ve found a new career opportunity that I know is going to be absolutely perfect for me.

I did, however, want to take the time to talk to people who may have been in the same situation as I was. Losing your job can feel debilitating, but I want to share some of the techniques and mindsets that I used to not only find new opportunities, but also stay sane while doing so. Without further ado, here’s some of the things I pulled from my latest job search.

1) Be Prepared to Lose Your Job

Now, for some people, this might seem like a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that if you think you’re going to lose your job, well, you’re going to lose your job. Maybe that’s true, but from my perspective, no matter how great the people you work with and how wonderful the company is, there are things that are outside of everyone’s control.

Throughout my career, I’ve been let go twice, and both times were during an economic downturn. I also left certain careers when I saw the writing on the wall, and would have been let go within a matter of months. That wasn’t my fault, it wasn’t my employers fault, and it wasn’t out of the blue. If you follow the news, you can see where the peak and troughs tend to present themselves. Because of this, I always have an emergency stash tucked away, just in case the employment footing underneath me becomes unstable.

If you’re currently employed, try to have at least three months worth of expenditures in a TFSA account, and even better would be six months. If you do lose your job, you can take some time to really focus on looking for the right career path, rather than taking the first thing that comes your way. Also, get on E.I. A.S.A.P. Don’t feel ashamed, that’s your money, it’s been coming off of your checks since you started working.

2) Take Some Time Off

I had a trip planned to Australia that coincided with the job loss, so truthfully, the timing could not have been better. Because I wasn’t worried about money, I could actually relax, do some research, and re-frame my perspective on what I wanted and what direction I wanted my career to go in.

During the trip, I spent four days in Melbourne, which to this day remains my favourite city in the world. The food is stellar, the downtown core is teeming with people, and the amount of art and culture packed into a small area is overwhelming. The next week was spent in Cairns, where I saw the Great Barrier Reef, did a number of jungle excursions and got the opportunity to connect with a kind of nature I had never had the opportunity to experience. This might sound a little flaky, but the whole trip was borderline spiritual. Because I gave myself the opportunity to decompress and change perspectives, I saw exactly what I wanted to do, and I saw a path forward to reaching that goal. Here’s what I solidified about myself;

• What originally inspired me to pursue a career as a drafter in civil infrastructure was that I loved blueprints, and I loved building communities.
• That for a good chunk of my career, I was taking roles that came my way, rather than actively asking myself what I wanted and pursuing those opportunities.
• I have a real passion for writing and art outside of my professional career.

Don’t forget to pursue your hobbies and practice self-care while you’re job hunting. I’ve lost about fifteen pounds, have written the first draft of my second book, and took up painting, something I’ve always wanted to do. I also participated in a number of community consultations with the city I live in, which was fun. People will ask you what you’ve been up to while you’ve been out of work, and showing them that you’re remaining engaged will reflect positively on you.

Now that I knew exactly what I wanted, I could execute on making it happen.

3) Tell People What You Are Doing

After I was let go, I changed my profile to ‘Open to Work’, but that was it. Right away, I had a number of people reach out to me. This was uplifting, because it told me that there were a number of opportunities awaiting me when I got back from vacation. There were people looking for power utilities, for mechanical design, a bunch of neat stuff. Wonderful!

There was also a lot of crap.

Now, I don’t want to disparage anyone’s hustle out there. Chase that bread, folks. But I was contacted by a ton of people for work that was completely outside of my interests and skill set. Not only did I not think I’d be a good fit, but I honestly didn’t think I’d find these careers fulfilling. And some of them might have been scams. Opportunities like…

• Gold Trading
• NFTs
• Insurance Salesman
• Working as a financial consultant
• Crypocurrencies

Not my cup of tea. To combat this, I made a post that described EXACTLY what I wanted. I wanted to get back into civil design, and I wanted to start using Civil 3D again, because that software is incredible and I love using it. After that, the recruiters who were talking to me knew what I was looking for. There was one problem. I hadn’t used Civil professionally for years. How was I going to rectify this?

4) Show People What You Are Doing

Alright, so you know when I mentioned you should keep some cash on hand in case you get let go? I say this because sometimes you’re going to have to invest in yourself, whether that’s school or training, and that’s going to cost you some money. And in the case of Civil 3D, that’s going to be pretty expensive.

I’m a software junkie at heart. AutoCAD, Inventor, Fusion360, Rhino, Blender, not to mention the number of programming languages I’ve dabbled with, has given me the skill set to pick up a new piece of software and learn it quickly. I had to be able to demonstrate that, so I purchased a license for a month of Civil 3D (It’s actually two months now), and went through a number of training courses through LinkedIn Learning. Once I went through the courses, I started to try my hand at building small subdivisions with local engineering standards.

When I had my interview, the subject of Civil 3D came up and my lack of experience with the software. I was able to open my laptop, show them exactly what I was doing, what I knew, what I was struggling with, and that I was committed to pursuing this opportunity. I honestly believe this is a huge part of what landed me my new role.

5) Reach Out to Your Network

After I made a couple of posts, I had a huge swath of support from friends and colleagues, who not only gave me links to job postings within their companies, but they also gave advice and encouragement.

Let’s be real for a second, finding a job is a lot of work, and it can be scary, frustrating, humbling, and anxiety-ridden. There will be moments of anger, sadness, self-doubt, and a whole lot of self-reflection. Having people reach out, even if they just liked a post on LinkedIn, reminded me that my friends and colleagues are rooting for me. And having a little cheering section, even if it’s virtual, reminded me that everything was going to be okay. All kinds of thanks to everyone who took the time to talk to me, comment on my post, and even just liking them. Believe it or not, it made all the difference in the world.

6) Recruiters are the Hiring Process

I wasn’t exactly sure how to title this section. First, it was ‘Recruiters are the Hiring Process of the Future’, or ‘Recruiters are Your Friend’, but I think this is a little more succinct. The last three jobs I got, I got because of recruiters. Full stop. While I don’t remember the name of the recruiter at Golder Associates, Dwayne Arokium connected me with Primary Engineering and Annaelle Carmagnole connected me with TimberLake-Jones.

Many companies use systems and algorithms to weed out the vast number of resumes they receive. While that may seem like an effective strategy, the issue arises that people, when presented with a system or algorithm, will focus on gaming that system rather than focus on their actual skill set. I’m not saying people aren’t being honest, what I’m saying is this trains people to focus on keywords and the systems themselves. A company may be passing up on awesome candidates simply because the candidate wasn’t familiar with the keywords that the company deemed important.

Now sure, you can go to a company’s website and look at their language, their core values, their mission statement, and pepper your resume and cover letter with this language, and in fact, I encourage it. But I have seen a huge surge in recruitment firms in the last decade, which leads me to believe that companies are struggling to find the right candidates and that these systems aren’t producing the best results. Your resume has to typically go through one of these systems, then through HR, then to someone actually familiar with your role.

Recruiters skip that step for you, and get your resume right into the hands of the people who need to see it. I talked with over a half a dozen recruiters in the last few months, and a half-hour conversation with a recruiter is worth more than blindly sending out twenty resumes, without a doubt. It’s their job to connect you with the right people, and I honestly can’t sing their praise enough. Just remember to be up front with them, let them know the moves you are making, and when you land a role.

7) Wrapping it Up

By the time I start my position in May, I will have been unemployed for six months, which is the longest I’ve ever been unemployed. At the same time, this space has provided me with the ability to actually refine and dial-in exactly what I want, not only for my career, but my life as well. If there’s one thought I can finish with, it’s this; Change is good. I’m moving up to Parksville to pursue this opportunity, and the more research into the area, the more excited I am to get up there. There’s a vibrant art scene, there’s stunning beaches, and it’s more affordable than Victoria. And the city isn’t too far away, so if I want to come back to visit on weekends, it’s not a problem.

I want to acknowledge the privilege that I have to be able to spend as much time as I have looking for work. Money can be tight, bills have to be paid, and as prices continue to surge, it can be harder and harder to make mortgage payments. But if you do have the opportunity to take your time and explore what you really want, you'll be doing both you and your future employer a favour.

If you’ve recently lost your job, that sucks, and I feel for you. But I want you to know that it’s not the end of the world, you’re still valuable, and you’re worthy of a career that you find fulfilling. Just remember to reach out to people, learn new skills, and work your ass off. And who knows? You might discover things about yourself you never even knew.

p.s. I just want to give a shout out to the other recruiters I had the pleasure of speaking with, Mackenzie Vickers , Bal Gill , Sarah Nhan, P.Eng. , Spencer Pal , and Charles Amaliri . Thanks again for taking the time to speak with me, I absolutely appreciated it.