What To Do If You Lose Your Job
by Janet Farley, Ed.M.

Job loss can be a painful experience that bruises your ego and your income level. It is, however, a reality that happens every day.

Employers downsize, right size or close their doors permanently. Employees are fired for poor work performance, bad behavior on and off the job or even for online rants that reflect negatively on their employer. Still others find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and become collateral damage in the name of organizational house cleaning.

If you lose your job:

• Identify why it happened in the first place. If blame lies with you, then own up to your mistakes. Learn from the experience and commit to self-improvement. 
  
  If the employer is at fault, decide whether or not you want to fight that battle further and assemble the necessary players.
  
  
• Face the status quo. Accept that your current sitrep is less than ideal and allow yourself to feel whatever it is you need to feel in order to get past it. Note the absence of the letter “w” in front of the word “allow”. Allow yourself the dark moment at hand but don't wallow in it indefinitely.
  
  
• Assess your finances. Losing a paycheck can have a significant impact on your quality of life. Before you console yourself with excessive amounts of retail therapy, assess your new financial situation. Review the family budget and make adjustments as needed for the time being.
  
  
• Note your timeline. Do you need to commit to getting a job as soon as possible in order to stabilize your finances and maintain your sanity? Can you hold out over a few months if need be for that ideal job or can you afford the luxury of no job for a while? It's important to know your timeline here so you can adjust your job search strategy to fit.
  
  
• Visit your state's Department of Labor. Find out if you are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits, funding for enhanced skills training or paid on the job training opportunities as a result of the loss. Register as a jobseeker with your state and take advantage of robust job banks, free job search skills classes and hiring events.
  
  
• Launch your job search. You know the drill. Update the resume. Identify potential employers. Apply for specific jobs with a targeted resume. Ramp up your networking activities. Connect with your NMSN members for leads and ideas. Review your online branding and be sure it's up to professional standards. Engage online with others professionally on LinkedIn. Prep for interviews and those tough questions that might come up in them (i.e. why did you leave your last job?).
  
  
• Use all the community resources available to you. In addition to the Department of Labor, visit the employment readiness center on the installation nearest you. Check out off installation support services as well.
  
  
• Keep it real. It can take time and consistent effort to find a new job, particularly when you weren't expecting to be in the job search process in the first place. Be patient. Don't let the negativity of losing one job hamper the efforts to secure a new one.
  
  
• Look on the bright side. Yes, it sucks that you lost your job and your paycheck. Maybe, just maybe this is the universe telling you it's time to get a better job or even a whole new career. It might even be time to become your own boss. Ironically, losing your job could end up being the best thing that ever happened to you.

Janet Farley is the author of Mission Transition: Managing Your Career and Your Retirement (Rowman & Littlefield, 2017) and she is a NMSN employment expert. She resides in Colorado Springs where she works as a job coach for Mt. Carmel Veterans Service Center.

 

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