Your New Career – Part 1: So You Lost Your Job

If you’re reading this, you’re likely out of a job.  Maybe you were laid off, maybe something else.  Or maybe you’re in a dead-end job and you are longing for something better.  Maybe you’re more adventurous and you quit your current occupation without having another one waiting for you?  It doesn’t matter because this is about finding your next career opportunity.

There are certain people who go through life and experience hardships, and then success ,and are happy with celebrating their good fortune privately.

That’s perfectly acceptable. There are others who feel the same way but then have the urge to help others who were in the same circumstances.   I would fit into the latter category.   That’s why my blog contains articles on fixing PS3’s and touch-sensitive faders.

If I figure out something useful, I want to share it with others.  And that’s the purpose of the forthcoming articles.

Now I can’t guarantee that if you follow the suggestions I will present in this series that you will end up as gainfully and happily re-employed as I am.  But I know the knowledge I will impart can only make your circumstances better.  And some of it is not intuitive.

I took notes for myself through the re-employment process and based on those notes I think this will at least a six-part series, maybe more.  I won’t come back and edit this paragraph if the actual number is different.

Let me kick this off by saying that losing one’s job is painful and scary.

There are certainly financial implications. You may lose your health coverage, or it may suddenly triple in cost via COBRA.   It’s a “job” to search for a job; it takes a lot of effort. It can be twice as bad if you don’t have solid support behind you in your family.  But you can overcome it.

Be aware that nearly all of those people who were your work friends will remain your work friends. By that I mean, you will lose nearly all of them as friends.  Be prepared for about 10% – 15% of your former acquaintances reaching out to you to offer help after you are unemployed.   This could be because they are afraid for their own jobs and don’t want to be seen interacting with someone no longer working at their organization.  It could be they are uncomfortable or embarrassed and don’t know how to interact with you now that you don’t share that commonality.  There could be politics involved that would make it impossible for them to interact with you going forward.  Or in a few cases, you may no longer be useful to them now that you are not influential in their organization.  Don’t let any of that bother you.  The folks who do reach out to you are special and you should focus on them.  And focus on your network outside of work (more on that later…)

Finally, there is a book that helped me through the process and that I probably should have read long ago.  It was suggested by a former co-worker who turned out to be only a work friend unfortunately, but that did not devalue the suggestion.  The book is called The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle (Amazon: The Power of Now ).  It’s described as a spiritual book, and in many ways it is, but it’s really about how to live your life in a way that puts the most emphasis on what is going on at the moment, and not dwelling in the past, or having your hopes hanging on some future event.  It’s more complicated than that, but that’s the gist of it.  And it’s somewhat difficult to read; I had to read it in parts.  I often go back and re-scan sections.  It puts things in proper perspective and makes for a much calmer experience.

Look for a new article every week or less and please let me know your thoughts or share your experiences.  Let me know if anything you read actually helped you get interviews or, hopefully, landed you a great new occupation.

Are you ready for your next big opportunity?

Well, let’s go find it.