Finding your next job post-layoff – stay calm and carry on interviewing!
The dust is still hanging in the air after all the big companies in tech dropped the layoff bomb.
Just last week alone (Jan16-21) saw another 51000 people join the ranks of the suddenly unemployed.
It might seem obvious, but confirming here that there hasn’t been a single global employment event like this since at least 2008, and this is worse. You would have to go back to the mid-90’s for anything similar.
So, for all of us who have been dropped hard into unemployment – what to do now?
Well, and I wish I had a better answer for you. Having gone through this kind of event before myself and remembering how it went – there are five bullet points I recommend you do for yourself.
A checklist for your post-layoff/pre-job search life:
- you need to remember that it likely wasn’t because of anything you did or didn’t do. It was a salary purge to make these companies’ earnings reports look better for Wall Street people
- you should take stock of your accomplishments. Brush up your LinkedIn profile and resume to reflect the greatness you bring. Invest time in bringing your professional profile up to date.
- start to find things to occupy your time productively – take LinkedIn courses, volunteer at your kids’ schools, Keep busy & stay positive – remember that 78% of all tech people laid off in the last 6 months found jobs within three months of being laid off.
- work on sorting out any household budget things and straighten that out. Its much easier to job search and interview when you don’t have money worries hanging over your head. This will also make sure you’re not in desperation mode and take the first thing that comes along
- I hate to say this but… you can take a job that doesn’t really meet your expectations in salary or role just to make ends meet and stretch out savings. You can keep looking for that next job with the better everything while you’re working.
And then probably one of the most important things – you should start working on what and how you present yourself to interviewers. Take career building courses online for interview coaching. Or hire a coach and start to prepare and develop yourself so as to have the best chance for success landing that next role.
As always, you can book coaching time with me here on Prodigy Career Coaching – https://prodigy-cc.com/book-your-session to get yourself revved up and ready to land that next gig.
Best of luck to all of us and may the (interview) games begin!
