9. Surviving Layoffs Part 2: Finding Your Next Opportunity

In the last episode we discussed strategies to address the financial, emotional and physical aspects of layoffs.  In this episode we address the professional aspects. Although the tendency might be to “jump right in” and start job searching, there are a few other things that you should do as part of the process. This episode covers those key things. And even if you aren’t looking for a job, there are brand gems that can help you evaluate your satisfaction with your current role or career overall.

[ EPISODE 9 TRANSCRIPT IS NOW AVAILABLE ON MY WEBSITE ]

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Episode 9 Transcript: https://diamondbrands.media/brand-gems-episode-9-transcript/ 

Transcript

[0:00 - 0:34]

Hello, I'm Andrea Wade, the host of Brand Gems, the podcast where I highlight a person, brand or organization and discuss the key elements that contributed to their success. I'm a marketing strategist, brand architect and an MBA who likes a little fast company and Forbes mixed in with her Netflix Binges. I'm also a consultant who enjoys discovering those rare nuggets that make a business unique. Listen to Brand Gems for ideas to leverage in your personal and professional endeavors. Now let's begin the treasure hunt.

[0:35 - 0:52]

Hello, and thank you for tuning into Brand Gems. This is part two of our special episodes, Surviving Layoffs. Last week we did our first part. I didn't realize it would be a two part series, but as it turns out, there is a lot of information and a lot of things to consider.

[0:53 - 1:21]

As I mentioned last week when I introduced this, I know this personally because I've been through layoffs myself a few different times, triggered by a few different reasons, and it isn't pleasant. And just as I heard all of the news and have been reading about all the layoffs that are going on, I just wanted to be able to provide some information that could be helpful to people. Can be a really traumatic experience to go through, just whatever I can do to help people out. That was my intent. So we will get started.

[1:22 - 1:56]

In the last episode, we addressed three key areas first, because it's absolutely essential that you be in the right frame of mind when you start looking for your next opportunity. So those three areas were financial, emotional and physical. This week we're going to get into the professional. If you didn't listen to this last episode, you might want to go back because again, those are key things that you want to take care of, that you want to pay attention to first before you start thinking about what you're going to do next, what your next move is, what your next position is going to be.

[1:57 - 2:50]

Definitely take some time or if you need to just review any of the things that you did go through or the routines that you came up with from last week. Just keeping all of that in mind is going to be really helpful as we move forward with this episode. The first area that I focused on in the last episode was the financial, rather taking stock of your situation of how much savings you have or what your severance is going to be, if any of your obligations. Really, the whole idea was for you to get a clear picture of your financial reality. And this is critical because now is not the time for you to bury your head in the sand. This will also impact the strategy that you take going forward as far as your professional. So there are two there could be variations from there, but basically I'll boil it down to two scenarios.

[2:51 - 3:43]

One is that you did not receive severance and you're likely looking to find paid work immediately. Perhaps you're a contractor or you just hadn't been at the company that long. Whatever the case, your income is going to stop pretty suddenly and you need to address that because your resources are limited in this situation. Here are a few avenues to pursue. One is temporary work depending on your area of expertise. There are temp agencies that could be looking to fill specific positions. Google temporary agencies in your area. Reach out to colleagues at companies where you previously worked to see if they know of opportunities within the company or at other companies or through their network. This could be a good way, again in the short term and immediate time frame for you to identify ways to generate some revenue.

[3:44 - 4:16]

The other option is to pursue freelance or project work. You can go onto sites like Fiverr Upwork and market your skills. You can also reach out to family and friends and your network and your extended network to ask about project opportunities or any needs. Just make sure they understand your situation. They know your skill set, they may know of someone who could hire you for a particular project, or if you have some skills and experience that may or may not be related to your previous job, that could be an avenue that you pursue as well.

[4:17 - 5:04]

When I was laid off after Etoys went bankrupt and that was one of the first companies kind of pioneers in ecommerce, I had a friend who knew of my situation and he reached out to me because he heard about a job and thought I'd be a fit. He made the connection and I got the job. I cannot stress enough how important your network is, so don't be shy when it comes to talking about your situation. Let people know that you are looking for a job and you're willing to talk to anyone who could be helpful. Tendency again, if this is the first time you've experienced this is to maybe feel some type of shame or embarrassment. And you shouldn't. Lay offs, unfortunately, aren't a fact of life. It's not something that you can control or influence.

[5:06 - 6:05]

You shouldn't have any judgment around it and other people aren't going to judge you. And if they can be helpful, they will be. So you just have to let them know and pursue all opportunities that seem viable. That job I took wasn't something that I really wanted it, but I also didn't want to be homeless or to be in default on my bills. So that helped me to adjust my attitude. Even if it's not a job that you want long term, you have to determine what path makes most sense for you taking a less than ideal job and enables you to pay your bills while you figure out plan B. Or having your money run out and forcing you to move, sell your car, pull your kids out of private school, whatever else the case may be. I took that job for a year. I didn't love it, but I was grateful for it. I didn't have enough savings and my severance wouldn't have lasted that long. So I dodged a bullet. And at that point I vowed then that I would never be in that situation, in a situation where I was caught off guard financially again.

[6:06 - 6:54]

So if you don't have a buffer, these are some of the things that you want to consider. If you do have a bit of a buffer then it is worthwhile to spend some time thinking about your last company and your last position. I'm not saying just to spend the time needlessly, but maybe take a day or two and do some of that thought work. What did you like or enjoy about your previous position and company? What was missing? Were you happy with the industry or were you thinking of making a change? What other roles or industries had you been thinking about or what other roles or industries maybe interest you? Now is the time if you're going to put all this effort into determining what's next. If you can take a beat and actually make sure that you're going for something that you're really interested in, it's a worthwhile investment of time.

[6:55 - 8:32]

Or if you were happy with the path that you were on, then you want to be intentional as you plan for your next step. In either case, here are a few suggestions, you want to set a schedule for your job search. Searching for a job is intense and can be draining. So break it up. There are a few categories that it makes sense to focus on and those categories are roles or positions you might be interested in. Companies/industries that you're likely interested in, network people who are in your network, your direct network, maybe friends of friends and your resume. So let's go through those. As far as the roles, maybe even before you start doing any type of search, just give some thought to the type of positions you think you're interested in. You can go online and there's so much information there that you can easily just be led down a rabbit hole in terms of possibilities and this will be helpful at some point. But I'm just suggesting that right now you take fifteen minutes or so and maybe just do a brain dump on the types of positions or roles that you're interested in. Then you can go online and do some global search or something and maybe kind of refine that. Now this is going to be key because this ties hand in hand with the company's industries. And so as you're thinking about those roles and the next logical step is to think about the companies or the industries that you might be interested in. Maybe you were at a small company and now you're thinking you want to be at a larger company. Maybe you were at a larger company and you're thinking you want to be at a smaller start up. Just really give thought to all of those.

[8: 33 - 8:52]

Or is there a particular industry where you are in an industry that you have certain functional expertise that it would be relatively easy for you to transition, although you'd have to learn some industry specific things. Is that important to you? Really give thought to that. And then also too, once you've done that brain dump, then you can go online and do some additional research.

[8:53 - 9:38]

Next you want to think about your network. What groups or organizations are you a part of? This could be some alumni groups. Maybe there's some industry groups that you're a part of. Are you active in those groups? Maybe there's some alumni groups from previous employers. Are you connected to former classmates? Think about your family and friends of family, former clients that maybe you had a good relationship with. Just really think about all the people that could be helpful to you. Be it for information, be it connecting you to others and put that down on piece of paper other ideas will come to you later. But spend some time thinking about your network and people, organizations or entities that you might be able to tap into.

[9:39 - 10:02]

You don't know where this will lead or where it will come in handy. So just give it some thought and you can always add to this list as you go on in the process. Now you want to think about your resume. So there's a matter of revamping your resume. If the layoffs were unexpected, you most likely hadn't touched your resume. So now is the time for you to review it and to update it.

[10:03 - 10:48]

Now the reason I had you think about the roles and the positions and the companies and industries that you're interested in at first because you maybe want to have a couple of versions of your resume. If you're thinking about certain positions, there are certain skills or experiences that you might want to emphasize depending on the position. So let's say there were three to four types of positions that you were interested in. Then for each of those, to the extent that there are certain skills that are going to be more appealing or more relevant than others, then that's maybe what you want to emphasize on that particular version of your resume. But just to start, go on and let's update your resume with the accomplishments and things from your previous position and then you can see where it's an iterative process.

[10:49 - 11:26]

As you start doing more research and you start really zeroing in on the direction you want to go in, you can determine if there are changes that you need to make to this baseline, resume how you might want to tweak it and have a version A, B, and C. Just know that this is going to be an iterative process. So you can see there's a lot to do, and if you're being very intentional and thoughtful about it, it can take some time. But I suggest that you keep to a schedule. I recommend you establish blocks of time for these tasks and spending no more than three to 4 hours a day on these tasks total.

[11:27 - 12:12]

Be it you're looking at industries, you're looking at positions, or you're working on your resume, or you're thinking about your network, or contacting people on your network, it's just a very intense and draining process and you want to be efficient and effective. So it's far better to have focused time and just to be clear and direct during that period than trying to push yourself to go eight nine hours. Now keep it to three to four hours a day. Remember, you have to focus on the other things for your emotional and your physical health. And you can also supplement with some personal professional development, reading articles or books, taking online courses.

[12:13 - 13:02]

This is a period you have to do whatever you can to keep yourself motivated, to keep yourself healthy, positive and efficient. This is information just to help you get started. There are tons of resources available online, including LinkedIn. You can check out books online through the public library. One book that may be especially helpful during this process is called Designing Your New Work Life: How to Thrive and Change and Find Happiness--and a New Freedom--at Work. The book's authors, William Burnett and David J. Evans, were Stanford professors and they've captured a process that helps people design and build their way through disruption, rather than by analyzing, worrying or complaining their way through it.

[13:03 - 13:40]

So if you're at all interested in another way to approach this process, definitely take a look at this book. I've given you a lot of information in the last episode and in this one. Take what is useful, find what works for you, but most importantly, just do what is best for yourself. Remember, this is one period of time in your life. You will get through it. Just take one step at a time and keep moving forward. Most importantly, take care of yourself, your emotional and your physical health, and then everything else will fall into place.

[13:41 - 14:27]

Going through a layoff that has the potential to teach us a lot and to remind us about the things that are really important. And I think those are the brand gems for this episode. Sometimes we get so busy just doing our day to day that we really don't think about the things that we really enjoy about our work, or our positions, or maybe what we like about our industry, or what we might like about another industry that we just view from afar because we aren't part of it. So, if anything, if you are going through a layoff, certainly try and look at this as a time, an opportunity for you to reestablish, to go in a direction that ultimately is going to be more beneficial to you.


[14:28 - 14:58]

But if you're not going through a period of layoff, always remind yourself to make sure that you are doing what is indeed true to you. It's indeed something that is fulfilling to you and rewarding. And also importantly, making sure that you're taking care of yourself first. Again, remember, I started making sure that you were taking care of your emotional and your physical health, and that is so important at any point, but particularly when we're going through stressful times, but a lot of times, we'll maybe let that go.

[14:29 - 15:14]

So if nothing else, use that as a reminder that our emotional and physical health is the key to everything. That's it for this week's episode. Thanks for tuning in. Until next time. This is Andrea Wade with Brand Gems.

[15:15 - 15:24]

You just listened to another episode of Brand Gems. Be sure to follow so you don't miss future episodes. And please share with anyone you think will find the information useful. 

[15:25 - 15:26]

Until next time.