Here's what I learned from getting laid off in December. I will ignore the popular basics (write a good resume and have pros review it, use recruiters, etc.) and will focus on new stuff, critical stuff, or lesser known stuff. Some of them we succeeded in doing, others only partially, and a few we failed at. Hopefully you will do better after reading this!
Before you get laid off:
1) Identify and live by SOLID FINANCIAL PRINCIPLES.
a. Get out of debt. End of sermon. Read Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover if you need a plan or more motivation.
b. Live on less than you earn and become a saver. If you have a nice salary now, there is no guarantee that you will get another well-paying job! End of sermon.
c. Save up an emergency fund – at least 3 months of expenses in a checking, savings or money market fund. See Dave Ramsey's book The Total Money Makeover for emergency fund guidelines.
d. Now add HEALTHCARE COVERAGE for 3 months to your emergency fund. This is easy to forget because most of us salaried employees don't write a check for it on a regular basis, and it is a major expense.
2) Prepare your Professional Network.
A lot of you engineers out there hate this one, and I fully understand. You don't want to be a schmoozer, you hate chit-chat and a lot of the relationship-maintaining stuff that you see the "suits" doing. But it's not sleazy, it's not hard, and it is immensely valuable.
Here's what networking means to me:
a. Remember every person you worked with at every company or school you attended.
b. Keep current contact information for these people.
c. Don't burn bridges.
That's all there is to it. You don't have to golf with people every weekend or do a lot of business lunches to maintain old friendships (although it certainly won't hurt).
Just REMEMBER people you have encountered, MAINTAIN a way to reach them when you need them, and INSURE that they will want to help you when you need help!
Here's how to build your network:
a. Write down everyone's name!
Before you leave your job, or immediately after getting "down-sized", take a sheet of paper and write down the name of every person at that company with whom you worked or communicated. Get up, walk around and look for people you missed. Scan the corporate address book for more names. Include clients, customers, partners, the guy who filled the vending machine, everybody. Don't get bogged down getting their contact info – initially just capture their names because YOU WILL FORGET THEM. My list from The Home Depot was written on a yellow legal pad, and filled 4 columns top-to-bottom, front-and-back.
It amazes me how quickly we forget. Are you young and in your first job? Trust me, get 3 or 4 jobs down the road and it will all get blurry.
b. Join the LinkedIn network at www.linkedin.com.
It's free and is just about the perfect networking tool. Probably the best feature is that everyone maintains their own contact information, which increases your odds of finding them 5 or 6 years from now when you are looking for a new job.
c. Make "Connections" on LinkedIn with all of those people on your list.
If they are not on LinkedIn, invite them to join.
No, I don't get any money from LinkedIn for promoting them. I did, however, land a great job because a recruiter FOUND me on LinkedIn.
3) Trust God to provide while times are good.
Remember that all good things come from Him and are His, not yours. Recognize that positive circumstances (like negative ones) are probably temporary. Expect hard times in the future. Then, when they happen you won't be surprised or disappointed.
Build your Faith (and fill your silos) when times are good to sustain you when times are not so good.
After the layoff:
1) Go to the unemployment office. Immediately.
a. I hate it, I really do. Going there makes me depressed every time, and is a real blow to the ego. But know this – THEY WILL NOT PAY YOU RETROACTIVELY for the weeks that pass before you drag yourself in there. Also, the money that you will be collecting comes from the employer who just screwed up your plans. Why not get every dollar from them that you are due? GO!
b. The maximum that you can collect (in Georgia) is $320/wk. If you make $50k or $500k/year, you are going to get $320/week. Plan accordingly.
c. If you saw the ordeal that George Costanza from Seinfeld went through at the unemployment office, don't worry. It isn't like that. They don't micro-manage you – in fact they will probably NEVER check up on you. You are supposed to keep records of who you apply for a job with, and do at least 2 a week. However, your chances of them ever auditing you are slim-to-none. And if they do, it's a cinch to pass it.
2) Kill the COBRA.
You've got to have healthcare coverage, but COBRA coverage will eat you alive. Unless you have a GUARANTEED job lined up, go first to the unemployment office, then to your computer and look up http://www.insweb.com/ to comparison shop for health insurance (I have not used insweb.com for health insurance, but did successfully get a great rate on our auto insurance there years ago).
Skip COBRA and get independent health insurance.
3) Work your network.
Remember all of that work you did setting up your network? Now is the time to reap the benefits! Here are some ways to use your network to find a job:
a. FIRST: Clearly define what job you want. Your friends won't be able to help you if you don't communicate clearly. Also, they will NOT spend a lot of time analyzing your wants/needs/skills/special abilities/experience. Would you, if the situation was reversed? Tell them "I want an I.T. Project Manager job, and I am PMP certified" or "I want to program in Java" or "I want a part-time evening shift while I finish school". Then your friends will gladly circulate the word around about you.
b. Method #1 - EMAIL-BLAST: After you have clearly defined job requirements, a cover letter, and a resume, then email-blast them to every person in your LinkedIn contacts and your email address books.
After you do this, clear your calendar. The responses I got kept me chasing leads for at least six weeks.
c. Method #2 – Find a friend where it counts: When you are chasing an opportunity at a particular company, you cannot just send them a resume and wait. Many times when you send a resume to a company via their websites, it goes to either 1) a black hole or 2) an enormous pile of resumes. There is no guarantee that anyone will even see it. So use LinkedIn's search engine to find friends, or friends-of-friends at the company you are trying to get into. I believe that LinkedIn can even find 3rd level connections (friends-of-friends-of-friends). Get a friend to introduce you - make a friendly contact inside the company - and then your chances are far better of landing the job.
4) Don't count your chickens before they hatch.
So, I was laid off on Dec 31st. Then:
a. By Jan 15th one company said "We need you, and you are virtually the only candidate." Rumors of an impending acquisition caused a hiring freeze.
b. By Feb 28th I had 4 companies who said "We want to hire you, just as soon as <insert an out-of-my-control reason here>" Never got an offer from any of them.
c. In March, 1 more company said "You're perfect for the job!" No offer.
d. Later in March, 2 companies called me into their offices for interviews. They both said "We love you! Unfortunately we don't have any positions available. Sorry."
e. Also in March another company said "You're great – we want to interview you." I persisted through seven first-interview attempts. The first reschedule was my fault – car trouble kept me from making it. After that, it was all them. No-shows, last minute reschedules, calls from the emergency room. I persevered. Six weeks later I finally get into the office and am told "Well, the job title isn't accurate and we are looking for a more junior candidate. You are overqualified".
f. In April the same company says "We really like you and your name keeps coming up in our meetings regarding new initiatives. There may be possibilities." Never heard from them again.
g. In May I interviewed seven times with the same company. Rejected with no reason given.
h. In June a hiring manager said "You are the one. Expect an offer from us." The same day they announced a re-org and hiring was frozen. No offer.
i. Also in June I interviewed with another company who said "We love you, want to hire you, buuuuut…we have got to wait until some deals close." This time, however, they did call back two weeks later and made me an offer! Thanks Innovative Architects! I don't think that they have closed the deals yet.
5) Even if the repo man is in the parking lot taking your car away, maintain an optimistic image to your interviewers.
They can smell desperation on a job candidate, and it can frighten them away. Pretend if you have to. I got lots of compliments on my "positive outlook" and "great ability to cope with adversity", when on the inside I was saying "Please please pleeeeeeeeeeeease give me this job!" Oh yeah – no whining to the interviewers either. Save that for your friends and family.
Also, don't be lured into whining by the question "so how are you finding the job market?" My answer: "It's definitely harder than it used to be, but there seem to be lots of opportunities available if you can navigate around the hiring freezes."
(for the record, the repo man was not in the parking lot waiting for me. Our cars may be well-used but they ARE paid for!)
6) Work your contacts AGAIN.
So you worked all of your contacts and still no job. It's been a couple of months. DO IT AGAIN. Stay on your friends and family. Everyone gets lax, and unless challenged, they think they have done all they can. But this time they may remember something that they didn't before.
I bring this up because it is (sorta) how I finally got a job. The poor guys in my ChristianRunners Bible study had heard this same prayer request from me week after week for six months. One night this caused Kirk to remember another friend of his in the I.T. business named Pat. Kirk contacted Pat, who didn't have a position for me. But apparently Kirk had said nice things about me because Pat forwarded my resume to a friend of his named Scott, who hired me.
Brad –> Kirk –> Pat –> Scott
7) Find an outlet – preferably a physical one and one in which you can have some success.
I thank God for tennis, literally. Just last summer I started playing again and it was a lifesaver when I got laid off. Exercise really helps me cope with stress, and the small but steady victories I have had boosted my ego when the job hunt was discouraging. "No one may want to hire me, but I sure can beat A and B and C in tennis!" The male ego is a fragile thing.
Just don't let it distract you from your primary purpose: finding a job!
8) Give yourself a break.
The chances of someone returning a call, or setting up an interview, or responding to an email about an open position are just about nil after lunch on Friday afternoon (or so I told myself). The kids were also napping then, which was convenient. So every Friday afternoon I would head to the tennis courts for a 3 ½ hr workout with the ball machine to excise all of the frustrations of the week. Or play a video game, or go to a matinee movie (cheaper, plus no babysitter required), or something like that. My break time helped me stay sane.
9) Give yourself a treat.
Find the cheapest hamburger or ice cream in town, so that you can indulge with a clear conscience. Ice cream cones at McDonald's are only $0.99.
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So as you can see, the most important things to help you out when you get laid-off need to happen BEFORE you get laid-off. I hope this will help you prepare!
Email me if you have any questions.
Brad
