If you have been made redundant, it can be a very challenging and often demoralising experience. It can knock your confidence and it can be difficult to bounce back but it is possible. We’ve put together a few thoughts to help you make this come back:
Take Some Time Out
Losing your job is a horrid ordeal. Even though you will have known about it for some time, it can still leave you with mixed emotions that can overwhelm you and that need to be dealt with. There can be a combination of anger, frustration, feeling helpless, demoralized, undervalued, underappreciated and even depressed. It can also be an exhausting process. You deserve some time out. You deserve a bit of time to yourself, to digest what has happened and to recover from the stress and strain of it all.
Deal with the Pain and Get Practical
It’s a painful process and it can leave you in a very difficult situation. However, you need to face up to reality and deal with this pain. It won’t go away if you ignore it so to start off with – get clear about what situation you are really in and figure out a short term plan of how you are going to deal with it and manage. Think practically. What are your finances like? How long can you last without an income? What outgoings do you have control over? Who can help you with this?
Review, reflect, re-shape
Now it’s time to get back on your feet, to address why you are feeling drained and to get re-energised. Think about what you want to do next. The first step is to appreciate how far you have come and to understand what experience and skills you have gained so far. Make a list of your achievements to date and what you are good at.
Try to think about the positive elements of your career to date. What have you learnt, who have you met who has been influential to you and could they help you in the future? Which areas of work have you enjoyed most so far? What are you and have you been good at? Think about what has worked well for you in the past as well as what to maybe avoid in the future. It’s time to be thinking about where you want to go next and what type of role you really want. Look at this How to Get the Job You Want ebook to help you along the way.
Learn from the past
What has happened may be a blessing in disguise. Perhaps what you were doing before was not really suited to your skill set. Think hard about whether you really enjoyed what you were doing before? Were you performing at your best? Were you enthusiastic about work and were you constantly learning and growing in your role? If not – maybe this is your chance to find something better. Think about what job will make you want to wake up in the morning and get started on it. Don’t make the same mistakes again. Start afresh, with a clean slate and begin to develop how you wish to continue.
Be Clear About Your Target
Try to get as clear as you can about your next role. Figure out what is really going to work for you in terms of what the role and responsibilities look like, the types of tasks you’ll be doing that will harness what you’re good at, the people you want to work with, the type of business and where it might be located. Think about what you want and how it’ll work around the rest of your life so that it feels right and practical for you. Spending time on figuring out what you are going after is really important and will be much more valuable to you than going straight into CV writing and filling in application forms online. For a much more effective job search strategy, be clear and focused about your target before approaching it. Then you will succeed.
For more careers advice visit the Position Ignition Career Change Blog or find them on Twitter @PosIgnition and Facebook
