6 Tips On How to Reposition Yourself After a Job Loss
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Maybe you saw it coming, maybe it blindsided you, but it happened: you lost your job. Whether it’s from a change in the industry, a layoff due to company finances, or even something specific to you and your role, the end result is the same: you’re looking for work.
I’ve been in the “career market” game in one way or another for over a decade. I’ve been a hiring manager, I’ve been a recruiter, I’ve been a non-traditional job seeker myself, and now I’m the Director of Career Services for a professional coaching firm specializing in career transitions. In other words, whatever you’re facing, the chances are good that I’ve seen it.
So I’m going to give you four pieces of advice in this article – one for the immediate term, one for the short term, one for the medium term, and one for forever. Use them together and tackle this challenge with confidence.
First, the immediate advice. This is advice is so good I literally have it tattooed on me:
DON’T PANIC.
That’s right. No matter what, don’t lose your head. It won’t help you one bit. You don’t need to be scared, even though the situation is unpleasant. Take a few deep breaths and remember – you’re already on the right track. After all, I know at least one thing about you: you’re reading an article about the right way to go about a healthy job hunt. That means you’re already keeping your wits about you and focusing on improving your station with real action steps and good advice. Keep it up!
Okay, now on to the short-term advice!
In the short term, you need a plan.
I know this seems like the most basic advice, but not only do almost no job-seekers (in my experience) follow it, chances are good that you aren’t either. You might think you have one, but if you’re like 99% of job-seekers, your plan is just “put my most recent job on my resume and then submit it to as many job openings as I possibly can.” That’s a lot like firing a shotgun into the air and hoping some of the buckshot falls on a rabbit for dinner.
A plan has more details and targeted action steps. Get yourself a notebook, a spreadsheet, or a whiteboard full of post-it notes, and give yourself a workflow. Dedicate specific time each day to job hunt – and specific times NOT to! Don’t make yourself crazy by over-working, because your effectiveness drops dramatically when you do. Set aside a few hours a day for just this task, and be laser-focused during that time. Remove distractions and give yourself a dedicated workspace. When the time each day is up, leave that space – mentally and physically! Spend time on your hobbies, with your family, and on your mental health. Trust me.
Here are some things that should be on your workflow checklist:
Putting interesting job postings into a list. Don’t apply to them just as you see them! To be effective, you’ll need to do some more research, so don’t just scroll through Indeed clicking “Apply Now” to 20 postings a day. That never works. But gather a list of ones you see that appeal to you.
Researching openings. That requires, at a minimum, checking out the company website, all their social media pages, and Googling them for relevant/recent news mentions. If you can do the same for public members of leadership, do so!
Spending time on your own personal brand. Assume that potential hiring managers will research you just as hard – because we do! Make sure they’re finding great information. You don’t want to be a ghost.
In addition to reviewing your resume, work a little each day on a “personal pitch deck.” A resume says what you have done; a pitch deck (could be just 3-4 Power Point slides!) says what you will do. It’s a huge upgrade over just a resume or CV, and can really impress a hiring manager.
Filter down your list of appealing jobs to your “Top Three” each day. Don’t pay attention to the others. Once you have the Top Three, look for contact points that aren’t just the job opening. Is the company or certain members active on social media so you could make contact? Are they hosting any seminars/webinars or other events you could attend? Do they support any volunteer efforts you could join? These “back doors” are FAR more effective than just applying “blind,” so look for them!
Pick which job in your Top Three looks the most “accessible” based on what you find. Then, craft just ONE really spectacular application for that role. Customize your resume a little for it by looking for language in their job ad and on their website. Match your pitch deck to the role. Write a personalized and compelling cover letter. Then bundle that all together and get it to a real human if you can!
Limit yourself to just that one application each day at most. The rest of the time – network! Talk to people on LinkedIn or other social media channels. Respond to public requests for opinions or feedback. Talk to other attendees of webinars and make friends. Social activity is not only healthy, it’s far more effective in building a good pipeline of opportunities than just sending resumes into the void.
Feel free to add more to this list based on your industry or career ambitions – maybe pursue new certifications, do pro-bono work, etc. But put it into your checklist so you never feel lost or stuck. When you don’t know what to do, you’ll have an instruction manual!
Now it’s time for the medium-term advice.
You never know exactly how long a job hunt will last, so make sure you’re sticking to your plan and not losing momentum.
Don’t get discouraged – you absolutely will face some rejection along the way. But even candidate processes where you don’t land the job can be very beneficial. Change the game!
How? Don’t focus on getting the job as your only goal in each interview. From the moment you get the first email or callback from a company, make it your goal to impress people in your industry. Make it a goal to make contacts and friends. You might not be a perfect fit for every job, and I guarantee that not every job will be a perfect fit for you, either. But all the people you meet along the way, from hiring managers to department heads to even other candidates, can be fantastic contacts to build out your network. Hiring managers talk to each other (a lot!), and we are some of the best resources for your job hunt even after you’re no longer a candidate for the initial role you interviewed for. We know the game and we know the players. I’ve made hundreds of introductions on behalf of great candidates that I didn’t hire, and those introductions led to jobs. If you keep that in mind, not only will your job search be considerably more rewarding and even fun, but it will be more effective as well.
Keep those contacts in your master document and stay in touch! Make introductions, send interesting articles, or give them public recommendations. Putting that kind of energy out into the world comes back ten fold.
If you do these three things – Don’t Panic, Make a Plan, and Change the Game – you’ll be well on your way to a new career path in no time. But I mentioned some “forever term” advice, didn’t I? Well, here it is:
Don’t stop once you have the job!
If I had to name the biggest mistake people probably make across their entire careers, it’s this: they treat Day One on the job as the “finish line,” and immediately ignore their own career path. Your career trajectory isn’t just something you work on while you’re unemployed or soon to be. Yet people have a strong tendency, once they’re gainfully employed, so let everything else go to rot. They don’t keep up with networking, they don’t chat with old contacts, they don’t manage their personal brand, and they don’t put continuing effort into learning new skills. And then when they’re unemployed again down the line (and you will be!), they’re right back where they started.
If you keep up with these actions all the time, even at a reduced capacity, you’ll find that your next job hunt goes much more smoothly. You’ll see better career options, know better people, and be a more desirable candidate yourself. Your whole career can change, not just your next job.