The Career Transition Process: Getting Started

Have you recently lost your job? Don't know where to turn or what to do now? Here are a few ideas to consider in getting started with the career transition process:

1. If you feel like crying, then cry, either by yourself or with someone "safe". By safe, I mean the kind of person who won't judge you because you happen to be a 43-year-old professional who is crying when you are "supposed" to be tough and always "together." Let the tears flow. I have worked with hundreds of people who have lost their jobs. Bawl buckets. In my practice, I've seen many successful men and women sit in my office and cry over their job loss. Go ahead, grab the Kleenex and cry like a baby -- let it out! It won't bring your job back; it may help you "dump" some of the emotions surrounding the event.

2. Immediately apprise family members and close friends of your job loss. Their support and comfort will be good medicine for you. Don't withdraw, even though you might be inclined to do so; force yourself to connect and stay connected.

3. Call a family meeting as soon as possible. Be honest with your spouse and children about your job loss. You need not go into great detail with your children; briefly state the facts and answer their questions to the best of your ability. Do not try to hide the truth from those that love you the most. In my years as a career counselor, I have known a handful of terminated individuals who refused for several weeks to tell their family of their job loss. They'd get dressed, leave home, and spend the entire day doing something, anything -- coffee, public library, grocery store, driving around -- only to return home their "usual" time. This strategy is of value to no one, especially to self.

4. Give yourself permission to grieve your loss. It is stunning; it is shocking; it is a mind bender to hear the news that your job is over. Even if you know that the Employment Termination Train is headed your way, until it actually happens, it doesn't really hit you. And when it does, bam -- for most, it really hurts! For a few days, you may feel like you're on an emotional roller-coaster. One minute you are crying, the next you are laughing; one minute you know that everything will be fine, and the next, you can't even remember what day it is. Just keep telling yourself...this too shall pass. As the name of a book I wrote some years ago suggests: Between Jobs: Recover, Rethink, Rebuild, you have to allow yourself time to grieve, to heal and to recover, rethink, rebuild.

5. Write and never send a letter to the person(s) who dismissed you. Say everything you would like to say if you had the chance. Write, write, write until you simply can't write any more because you have nothing left to say. Keep your letter private, for your eyes only. Once you're done with your letter, read it over and over and over as many times as you like. When you are sick and tired of reading it, shred the thing. My clients have found this activity a most valuable exercise to help them let go of their old job and begin to look to the future and a brand new start.

6. Get help immediately. If your former employer didn't offer outplacement or career transition services to you, make one of your top priorities that of finding a career services professional to help you. If you don't know where to turn, ask your network for names of career counselors or career coaches in your area, if you wish to work with someone face-to-face. You can also check here to identify professionals to help you. Once you get a name, carefully read their recommendations on LinkedIn. Not only will you want to find a professional who is competent, but find someone you can connect with and feel comfortable with; that's important.

7. Figure out your finances for the next six to 12 months. Whether you feel like it, or not, this is something that has to be dealt with and the sooner you address it, the sooner you will know where you stand. Review each and every dollar you are spending in your household...where can you reduce expenditures? What needs to go? What are you willing to sacrifice? Ask everyone in your household to do an autopsy of their spending habits to see where cost reductions can be made.

8. File for unemployment benefits. Put aside any feelings of pride, ego, shame, or embarrassment for having to "file for unemployment." Those feelings will not pay your bills. Your unemployment compensation will help -- a little, or a lot -- with family expenses.

9. Organize a home office space where each day you can arrive at your "new place of work." So your office space may be in a small corner of the loft you share with your boyfriend; it may be the dining room table that never gets used, or the junk room in the basement. Find a place that you can call your office, as it will serve as a starting place for daily structure, routine, and organization.

10. Track your own performance. For years, your employer has done so for you. You don't have that now, so it's up to you to do same for self. This is a simple activity I encourage my outplacement clients to do on a daily basis, for at least the first 30 days of their transition. Buy a small journal; keep it in a private place where each night before you go to bed, you can record these three pieces of information: 1) the best thing that happened to me this day 2) the worst thing that happened to me this day and 3) on a scale of 1-10 (10 is tops), rate how you thought your day went by affixing a number to it. This activity takes no more than a couple of minutes to do at day's conclusion. Over the next few days and weeks, you will then be able to track how you are doing. (This is not to be confused with what you are doing...that's a separate thing.)

11. Start thinking about who you want to invite to serve on your Transition Team. Be intentional about who you select and your reasons for choosing them. Avoid including anyone who stands to profit or gain from your transition. Select members who have a genuine interest in your continued career success and your overall well-being, just because you are you.

12. Tend to your knittin'. When I was growing up, my grandmother frequently cited those four words. I never knew what her words meant for sure, but I suspect they had much to do with staying focused, disciplined, and on task. Take a few days "off" and then, get your new Career Transition Project well underway. Plan to work very, very hard, especially on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday in the coming weeks. Use these three days in particular to focus on making connections, going on interviews, catching up with people. Based on your own work experience, you already know that Monday is generally a day of "coming back" and about 3:00 P.M. on Thursday, people start "checking out" for week-end activities. Hence, the emphasis on Tuesday-Thursday for peak productivity in job-related activities.

You will note that many of these ideas have to do with the "emotional" side of job loss versus the "organizational" aspects of it. Set yourself up to succeed. As my good friend in sales always claims, "Plan your work; work your plan." Build a strong foundation and launch from there. What you put into your new endeavor -- time, passion, energy, commitment, thought, motivation -- that, then, becomes what you will get out of it, your ROI. I wish you continued success as you embark upon the next phase of your career journey. No one said it would be easy...it's just one of those things that you have to keep doing, until...

posted by: billiesucher

Comments

[Sital]

Thanks Billie, brilliant post!

One of the best "I've just lost my job, what next?" type articles i've read in a while.

Your point on 'performance' is very true. One point to add on this: I ask clients to measure the acvtivities they can CONTROL(ie the number of resumes send, number of calls attempted, what you do and say at interviews etc) instead of just the outcomes their aiming for (e.g. interviews, job offers).

In the current market, it's tougher to secure interviews and jobs which typically means you'll experience more rejections before securing interviews - and possibly unsuccessful interviews before securing a job.

So if you focus on what you can control - it helps maintain morale and be persistent in dealing with the rejections until you get those interviews coming through.

thanks again.

Sital

[billiesucher]

Hi Sital -- your comments are very much appreciated....I have just seen so many people lately who have lost their job, I decided to write this post...thanks for your excellent contribution.

- Billie

[paul]

H Billie - great article. I found suggestion #9 to be very parellel with a strategy that I've followed during my transitions. Like the old adage goes - if you make finding a job your job then you will see opportunity where others don't. I went for a period once of 100 days (on the dot) where I was unemployed, and every day I would get up, clean up, and head over to my friends house to spend all day online looking for my next move. This was back in the 90s when not everyone had the internet. :) Thanks again and good luck out there everyone.

[billiesucher]

..."if you make finding a job your job"...that says it all so very well! Thanks Paul.

-- Billie

[Bruce Bloom]

Good advice, all of it.

I'd like to add one more point -- something often overlooked if and when you get fired: negotiating a reference. It's likely a prospective employer will call the boss who fired you, and you can win the job or lose it depending upon what he/she says. So before you clean out your desk at the old job, have a heart-to-heart with the boss who let you go and get agreement on what he/she will say about you -- including the reason why you parted company (usually something along the line of "This just wasn't the right job for him/her"). Try to get the old boss to agree to stress your job strengths and forget about or explain away your weaknesses. You'll find all but the most heartless bosses will agree to help you land a new job.

[billiesucher]

Bruce...yes, that's very important to find out about the employer's posture on a reference...before you exit the premises. Thanks for adding a great tip.

- Billie

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