Laid Off - Who Me?

This was my dream job. It paid me an obscene amount of money to do what I loved. Because of that I was starting to get concerned when we were not hitting the numbers in fact were not even coming close.

The first person to leave our division was the person who hired me. I started thinking then that maybe our division was in trouble. But, I worked my rear off hoping things would turn around. They didn't.

In October I received a call from the VP of our division. I thought for sure this was it. But no, 1/2 of the division was laid off but I was spared. Whew, that was close but I did start to think that it was only a matter of time. I spruced up my resume and started networking just in case.

I started a small side business to see if I could get some extra income coming in now instead of waiting.

Sure enough in January we were all told that the VP wanted to speak with us individually. I was up early that morning and sent an email to one of my peers at the corporate office. It bounced back as undeliverable. I IM'd some of the team and no one knew anything but I knew deep in my gut this was it.

The inevitable came to pass. Though he was sad it was a business decision to eliminate the entire division. I got a great reference letter and a pretty decent severance.

NOW WHAT?????

I have never been unemployed and now at 52 this was a scary prospect. Cap that with the fact that I don't have a degree in anything and my field of choice was very hard to find good positions; needless to say I was a little bit concerned.

The first thing to know is DON"T PANIC! If you are one of the lucky ones and get a severance package make sure to have a lawyer look it over so you are getting the best deal you can. Most of us just feel lucky to get more than a pink slip, but you really need to look out for number one in this case. Remember you can negotiate even going out the door. See if they will pick up your medical insurance for the entire severance.

Keep your insurance. It is one thing I found out... It is cheap compared to not having any at all so budget so you can pay the cobra payments.

Find a good networking group or groups. I joined the Rotary a year ago and was now able to make the meetings. I had to re-introduce myself as I was a phantom member that no one saw. I joined the Chamber of Commerce and a Business Networking group. These are all great places to see what is out there.

Most jobs are found by networking, not thru Monster.com or ads so make sure you let everyone know you are looking for a new position. This can be said casually. Normally it starts with "So, what do you do for a living?" I would tell people that I am in transition as my company recently downsized. Everyone knows what that means and opens the door for discussion. I can't tell you how many people asked me for my resume to send to someone they knew. Even people that didn't know me well.

Make sure you have a good resume. I actually got some great tips from the unemployment office. Even though I had my resume professionally done I wasn't getting hits so make sure you are constantly re-working it until you get those call backs.

Know that it may take time for the phone to ring. I was really worried that I was sending out resumes and nothing was developing. I finally figured out that it takes almost a month for the resume to get through the process.

Brush up on your interview skills. Again the unemployment office had some great classes. It is just a matter of remembering why you are the best at what you do. Sometimes we go in trying to hard to get them to hire us that we forget we need to be interviewing the company as well. Don't settle. You are better than that.

I am happy to say I found another job in a different career path that looks very exciting. AND my phone is still ringing from all of the resumes that were sent out so my self esteem is now higher than ever.

The first thing we have a tendency to do is think of all the bad things that could happen now that your paycheck is no longer coming in. Believe me, I swear all I saw on the news was how everyone was losing their homes, cars and living on the streets. I stopped watching the news and made sure only positive information was coming into my home.

The first thing you do is sign up for unemployment insurance. I actually had to have help with this. I hesitated only because I thought I would have a job way before I even drew the first check. In this job market I found it may take a little longer to find a job that pays me close to what I was making. So do it right away. It is easy now as many states you can sign up online and then do your weekly filing online as well.

• Get a professional photo taken. I found this great to put on my websites that I was steering prospective employers and networking buddies to.
• Don't listen to anyone who tries to tell you this sucks or your company did you wrong or it is terrible this happened to you.
• Purchase tapes that have a positive overtone to listen to everyday.
• Take time every morning to think about what it is you want to do now that you have the freedom to choose.
• Take a short break and do something fun. If money is tight do something that costs little, like a camping trip or a short drive to a beautiful park.
• Network, Network, Network. If you don't know how, learn. There are great sites like www.linkedin.com
• Don't be afraid to try a new career move. This is a great time to reevaluate and revitalize your life.