Laid Off – Now What?

The First Steps To Your Next Adventure

by Michael D. Hume, M.S.

Losing your job to a “downsizing” feels like walking out to the garage and discovering your car’s been stolen. The vehicle that was taking you places is gone! Now how are you supposed to get where you’re going? (The difference, of course, is that if your car is stolen, you can get another one much more easily if you have a job.) These days, sadly, layoffs are becoming a much more common misfortune, and the light at the end of the tunnel is dim at best.

Being laid off is one of the biggest stressors there is – but you can get through it if you understand what to expect and how to transition as smoothly as possible to your “new normal.” Each person is different, but handling your job loss will undoubtedly involve certain predictable steps… and here are some thoughts on how to approach the aftermath of your lay-off with the least possible pain:

Go ahead and grieve.

You need a suitable mourning period. It’s different for everyone, and the determining factor might be how well set-up you are to tolerate the layoff financially. If you have a nice nest-egg and got a good severance, you have options; good for you! If not, you’ll be tempted to fly out to the job market the day after your layoff, and many people who try that tactic meet with disastrous results. You need to be at your best when you look for your next opportunity, and you won’t be at your best when you’re grieving. You need some time to process the loss, whether you acknowledge it or not. Luckily, most people can afford to take at least a few days to lick their wounds. If you’re not one of the lucky ones, you will have to find a way to grieve while pounding the pavement and promoting yourself. Talk to your spouse, if any, and ask for help and support.

Try to say a loving good-bye.

This is tough. What’s much easier is to focus on the “layoff talk,” the meeting where someone told you your metaphoric car was missing, and to live in a bad place where anger and blame are your constant companions. You may have to go through some of that, but you should really try to minimize it. Try to focus on the early days of the job you just lost, how excited you felt at landing the opportunity, how great the folks were during the onboarding process, and all the good stuff that made that job such a prize. The thing to focus on is not that the company took your job away, but that they gave you one in the first place. And if you’re honest, you’ll have to admit it wasn’t the most perfect job ever – even a great job is still a job, and you probably would rather have been playing golf or sleeping in on some of those days! (Even that fabulous car in your garage might start leaking oil at some point.) Here’s a tip: go out and buy a thank-you card, write a heart-felt “thanks for the opportunity” message in it, and address it to your old boss. Depending on the situation, your lawyer may not let you actually send it – but write it anyway. It’s good therapy.

You’ll know you’re moving out of the grieving step when you find yourself able to say such a loving good-bye.

Start with a toe in the water.

There are a few things you can do even as the mourning period is ending to start getting back into the swing of things. Start thinking about your resume – but be advised that the old typed-up chronological march through your education and work experience is not going to cut it these days. Your resume should be more like a sales brochure that will stand you in good stead against your competitors (of which there will be many). Stay in touch with your contacts, both inside and outside your old company (again, you may be limited in the communication you can have at first with former co-workers). Create or spiff-up your internet presence – make sure you are on the leading social networking sites, and have a nice personal web site with your dressed-for-success picture on it. Also get back to old-school networking: go have lunch with one or two people you haven’t seen in a long time. Do you need to go back to school? It couldn’t hurt to sign-up for an online class. In short, make sure you maintain some of the hidden resources you have in place for marketing yourself. You’ll need them.

Interview yourself.

Don’t miss this step. Take the time, from several hours to several days, to really “interview yourself,” taking inventory of what you’re really after in this transition. Start with what you have to offer. What are your biggest strengths? “Held progressively responsible positions at ABC Company for twelve years” is not a strength. What got you those promotions? When you get to things like “savvy,” “determination,” “discipline,” “problem-solving ability,” “creativity,” and the like, you have made it to the level of true strengths. What are your weaknesses… and what have you learned from them? Only after you’ve inventoried what you have to offer to the next job should you think about what it should offer you.

By the way, it’s during this self-interview that many people discover their next job should not be a job at all, but rather an entrepreneurial venture. If your strengths include ability to work hard, creative capacity for idea generation and practical capacity for making dreams reality, keeping others’ needs foremost in mind, and ability to make calculated bets on your own achievement, you might be foolish not to at least consider creating a business. It might be better to immunize yourself against any more layoffs by working in a business you own, rather than petitioning the next company to take the risks (and own the rewards) on the next part of your career.

Hire yourself.

Your goal may be to start/buy a business, or to continue your career in the service of another company. Either way, at some point you have to give yourself the job of getting up every morning and seeking work. Make it a 40-hour-per-week commitment. If you aren’t starting a business, one key piece of advice is to realize that you are, these days especially, in the business of “you” at all times. Either invest in a business, or invest some of your severance in professionals who can help you craft a winning resume, market yourself, build an effective network, create a great online presence, or hone your interview skills. Go after the job search with the same discipline and rigor with which you will do the job you’ll get.

If your job search drags out, don’t get discouraged. Consider taking more schooling or starting a home-based online business as a “hedge,” and keep looking for the opportunity that will make you happiest.

That’s the goal: overall happiness. If you can think of your layoff as a forced opportunity, as a chance to discover your life’s next adventure, it may well work out to be the best thing that’s happened to you in some time! Imagine walking to the garage and finding someone had stolen that old oil-dripping beater and left a shiny new sportscar in its place. If that doesn’t “drive” you, nothing will.