Coping with credit crunch redundancy
Receiving the news that your role is no longer required can impact you in a number of ways:
- You can feel like a victim
- Feel worthless/useless
- Financial worries
- Confidence and self esteem can take a dive
- You worry about how you’ll get another job (especially in the credit crunch!)
- How you’ll support yourself and your family
What can you do to be positive and pro-active and increase your chances of employment elsewhere?
The last thing you feel like doing is being positive or pro-active, ironically it’s that attitude that will serve you well for gaining new employment. Change your perspective, consider this is a close friend and although you feel for them, you want to help, what advice do you give them? You might consider the following:
- Before you leave your company, get everything you need; a good reference in writing and contact(s) for when you apply for your next job
- Get your P45
- Ensure you find out if your company is offering anything like careers advice, career coaching, etc - if not don’t be afraid to ask if they’ll pay for this for you - it’s surprising how much is put aside for a redundancy fund!
- Choose your attitude - a wow is me attitude is fine for the first 24-48 hours, it does you good to have a moan BUT then move on…
- Be positive and pro-active, encourage yourself to consider what opportunities this offers you - there will be plenty!
- Decide how you’re going to plan for your new career, will you:
- Write a CV yourself - ask a friend to help - get a professional CV writer to create it for you?
- Name the things you enjoy doing and see what jobs include that, for example if you love being outside and working with your hands (and have previously been in an office job) nows the perfect time to consider all OPTIONS - You might decide this leads you towards a career as a Builder/Personal Fitness Coach or any number of choices - they’re all yours!
- Working with your list of OPTIONS start searching for your chosen career, get creative, as well as doing all the usual job papers, internet search engines, consider other OPTIONS for finding your next career….how about using your contacts and your contacts contacts, you might consider contacting companies directly even if they’re not advertising - this is how I got my second job - I sent 20 letters about me and what I was looking for and very randomly one of the companies had a vacancy come up that week and 3 weeks later - I started!
- Now, by this time you’ll have put in enough work to feel like you’ve been ‘at work’ for at least a week
- Stop, Rest and Assess - Look over what you’ve done so far and decide if you’re happy with it - Take time to praise your great efforts so far.
- Take Action - Do EVERYTHING WITHIN YOUR CONTROL - even if some of it is a little unusual and uncomfortable - the more you do the greater your chance of finding your next career.
- STICK WITH IT - Learn from any setbacks, maintain your positive attitude and keep thinking about what else you can do…a common mistake in job hunting is to expect it will just happen…IT’S YOU THAT MAKES IT HAPPEN!
If you’re in this position….I wish you the best of luck in finding your new career…If you need some support, I offer Career Coaching and have supported a client moving to the next stage of her career and earning a greater salary!
Zx