Lost about losing your job?
Losing your job can be a traumatic experience. You’ve lost your income (unless you negotiated a severance package, which is a very smart thing to do), you’ve lost what was probably a significant piece of your identity, you have 40-50-60 hours per week to fill and you don’t see your work buddies any more.
So what should you do?
You don’t need to jump into your job search the next day. Perhaps you could take a few days to relax with family or friends. Seek out someone with whom you can talk openly about what happened and how you’re feeling about it. You might also find it useful to write in a journal about your feelings. It’s common to feel angry or hurt, but sometimes people are relieved to be leaving an abusive work environment or work they didn’t enjoy. Whatever you’re feeling is fine. Finding a person or writing your thoughts down in a notebook in which to confide your feelings will help you get ready to start your job search with a clear head.
Set up a quiet place in your home where you will work on your job search. You’ll need to have a functioning computer, good light, paper, a printer, a reliable phone, a calendar, speakers (to listen to webinars), a list of contacts and some envelopes and stamps in case you need to mail something by snail mail.
Make a list of people you can contact, people in your family, your friends, people you’ve worked with in your most recent job as well as previous jobs. You’ll be adding to it on an on-going basis as you develop your search. Develop a script that you can use as you start to contact them. Don’t ask if they know of any jobs, tell them about your situation and ask them what suggestions they have about places and people you might contact.
A career consultant like Judi Lansky can also help you jumpstart your job search.
You’ve gotten started. Work on it diligently. Who knows, perhaps losing your job will turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to you.
