Call it what you want – being laid off or made redundant, getting dismissed or fired, receiving a pink slip or walking orders – losing your job hurts.
Sometimes you can see a job loss coming from a mile away but often it is unexpected and extremely jarring. If you just became unemployed, you are probably dealing with a lot of different feelings right now. The most prominent one is probably fear. Unemployment makes you wonder how you are going to survive financially and what your next steps should be.
We’ve put together some tips which will help you bounce back from job loss and make an incredibly difficult situation a little bit easier.
1. Take some time. No matter what your old job was like, whether you loved it or hated it, you will need some time to mourn. There’s no point jumping back on the job horse when you’re not in the right headspace.
2. Stay focused, look forward, not backwards. Although it is important to reflect, you need to know the difference between necessary reflection and unnecessarily dwelling on the past. Don’t place blame on anyone, or perpetuate excessive self-pity; this only serves to disempower you. Think positively about what you can do next.
3. Don’t allow yourself to be defined by your job status. What you do is not who you are. Don’t view your job loss as a failure; but rather as an opportunity to grow. Build up your resilience and move forward.
4. Acquire a productive mindset and schedule job finding into your day as if it was a job itself. This means creating daily plans and structuring small manageable steps into a routine. Unless you implement a plan, it is very easy to lose motivation and get lost in a sea of unproductivity.
5. Review your online presence. If you want to truly tap into the job market in this day and age, you need to have a professional persona and strong reputation on the web. Start by tidying up your Facebook profile and Google yourself to make sure that everything the public (and potential employers) are viewing about you is to your advantage rather than detriment. Then get to work on refining your LinkedIn profile. Hundreds of potential employers are trawling LinkedIn for out-of-work individuals. Don’t be ashamed to advertise your present employment status; it’s not a source of shame but of opportunity.
6. Recognise that your dream job might not be available yet, but don’t allow that to dampen your spirits. There are always good jobs out there for good people. It is okay to accept a transitional job because every job you have on the way to your ideal position will be a source of learning and growth for you – you never know where it might lead! You might find that you don’t need the job you had in mind to be fulfilled, happy and secure.
7. Reach out to the experts. Having professional support from specialists who know the recruitment process and can help you translate your words into a winning job application makes for a seamless transition from the old job to the new.
If you want to put your best foot forward and take on the job market with confidence, Brainbox HR offer professional services to coach you through the transition of job loss and guide you in navigating the job market with resilience.
