You've Been Furloughed or Laid Off...Now What?!?

Now what? You might be asking yourself that after you’ve gotten the grim news that you’re getting furloughed or let go completely. While job prospects at the moment may seem bleak, I want to help improve your chances of landing your next role and make sure you exit "The Great Lockdown" in a better position than when it started!

If you are a regular on my content, you already know this, but for my first-time readers, I am not some career coach, recruiter, resume writer, and I don’t sell worthless e-books or have much content that resembles personal development. But, wait though, don’t click out of the article because I think I can help with your situation by using my 10+ years of corporate strategy experience.

Before we get started, I wanted to establish some rules because I don't want to waste your time...

• Rule #1 = I will not sit here from a place of privilege and talk about unrealistic concepts. This will be rooted in realism and I will put myself in your shoes.
• Rule #2 = I won’t be sharing get rich hacks or anything like that because news flash those are scams. Instead, this will be rooted in practicality and will focus on validated ideas.
• Rule #3 = These steps might seem simple and make you think “duh!”, but mastery of the basics provides you with a strong foundation that is impenetrable during wartime or peacetime. 

Enough with the rules, lets get into the valuable stuff.

Step #0 – Create Stop Gaps

I felt the need to add a "Step 0" because there are many of you that are in dire need to create income in the next 30 days for basic essentials like food/water/shelter. This needs to be a much more practical step before anything I am going to say that is more focused on securing you employment in your desired industry.It's time to get very real and understand that life is going to get tougher and anything you do now is going to help subside those tougher times likely into early 2021.

Throughout my early career, I took second or third side jobs that I could make extra money to pay down debt and get financially secure to take more risks later in life. Additionally, throughout my early years of building my consulting company, I took on additional hourly employment jobs that most would look down at "because they know their worth" or something else your ego tells you to feel good about to justify an excuse for action. I did this to help normalize my earnings, so I could continue to look long-term towards my goals.

My point here is that if it doesn’t go against your core values, is illegal, or immoral, its best to put whatever ego or thought of what you are worth to the side and take anything available. I know with 110% of me that if I was in dire need of money for basic needs, I would work at Walmart, Dominoes, clean toilets, break rock, or whatever. Not one human will look down on you for having to survive. You are not defined by your job title, but the hard work and purpose you live by in a challenging time. It's important to note that counting on the government during this challenging time is a one-way trip to hardship. Instead, bet on yourself and your work ethic to get you to the other side.

Step #1 – Acceptance First and Foremost

I know it fucking sucks, you’re pissed off, and you’re overwhelmed with the totality of uncertainty, but nothing can progress until you accept the reality and ask yourself “now what?” After you get to the "now what?" stage, your focus should shift to building an action plan that focuses solely on positive value creating short-term and long-term activities.

• Examples of Short-Term Activities = comprehensive expense analysis (cut everything that is non-essential) and update your resume/LinkedIn profile
• Examples of Long-Term Activities = highlight learning opportunities (from industry podcasts to SkillShare/Udemy courses), compile list of your trusted professional network, and research industry leaders/connectors/decision makers that you'd like to meet

Step #2 - Be Vulnerable. Be Authentic.

After updating your resume/LinkedIn profile, it's time to set yourself free by letting your ego/pride down and sharing the news of your situation. If you don't ask for help, your expanded network won't know you need it. I suggest doing it in a well-written LinkedIn post, because it opens up your chances of getting help from unexpected places. With the LinkedIn algorithm, it only takes a few highly-connected individuals "liking or sharing" your post to create thousands of views from outside your network. Right now, your network (and their networks) know that times are tough and most of are willing to use their equity with decision makers to help others in need.

Step #3 – Reach Out to "Your Crew"

While being publicly vulnerable is important, it should complement privately reaching out to "your crew" (aka your best professional relationships). These strong professional relationships will be key in finding your next employment. If you’ve been valuable to "your crew" over the years, they will be interested in helping you refine your unemployment story. This unemployment story is how you will best answer the question that everyone is going to ask...

“What happened?!?”

You want to have a candid, yet forward-looking positive response. As an example, say I worked at GNC as a store associate in a sales role, I would answer the question along the line of the following:

“Unfortunately, I was recently furloughed by GNC. It’s a tough situation because I loved my job, especially when it came to helping customers get to their goals. I’ve really enjoyed the process of evaluating a diverse set of consumers' needs and being able to walk them through the steps to eventually landing them at the best solution."

While there is a million ways to answer the question, I was candid about my situation, but focused on what I’ve enjoyed and mastered that could be applied in new sales roles. That sales role could be for another retail sales position or could be applied to a B2B role. 

Step #4 – Piggyback Off "Your Crew’s Crew"

As you are reaching out to "your crew" in Step #3, it's good practice to ask them if there might be anyone in their networks that they believe would be valuable to you. This is your way to broaden your reach with important decision makers or connectors in your industry. Since "your crew" will additionally give you a personal recommendation to this new person, it will drastically increase the likelihood that you will get some time.

When you get a meeting, remember that sharing your story will be a key element, but don’t allow that to be the focus on the first conversation. Right now, the only equity you have with this new person is borrowed from your professional connection. Because of that, you need to establish your own. Focus on the conversation for opportunities to add value to that person. The biggest mistake you can make here is focusing too much on your dire short-term situation. It is more powerful to focus on the long-term relationship with these decision makers/leaders/connectors in the industry and first impressions are very important.

Step #5 – Control Your Destiny

Reality is, this current situation sucks, but it will happen again and again if you are 100% reliant on another business/person for your livelihood. You need to focus on controlling your own destiny. Two key things with controlling your destiny are;

• Building Rock Solid Skills = learning should never stop, so if you are one of those people that thought you were down learning after high school or college…think again! It’s time to master a collection of skills that are marketable in any economic stage in the world. Some of those skills could be coding, digital marketing or graphic design, but the list is endless, depending on what you are most interested in.
• Personal Brand = when all of the robots, algorithms, and machines start to take over (it will happen faster than you think), what's sustainable and will differentiate you? Your thoughts! Start to document those professionally through content creation. Ideas could be to start a YouTube channel, podcast, or write articles or insightful posts on LinkedIn.

Conclusion

I want to leave you guys with just some thoughts…

1. Action in the face of uncertainty develops grit, persistence, and resilience. These are traits that will forever be valuable.
2. If you create a plan, execute on that plan, and show results…confidence will build. With consistency, momentum will create multiplier effects.
3. America loves an underdog, so be vulnerable and show your lows, but let them only remember your comeback story

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to share with colleagues and let me know your thoughts in the comments.

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