Getting let go sucks
The immediate horror, anxiety, and helplessness are to be expected. It’s what you do in that moment of fight or flight.
Join a Union and talk to a Union Rep ASAP
First off, depending on your country of employment, find out if there is a Union Rep to help you. Even if you are not part of a union at the moment of your lay-off, you can still contact a union lawyer and have them review your agreement. If you are not part of the union at the time, join that day. Your benefits will start immediately.
Take time off to recoup
The second bit of advice from me is to take a day or two (or three) and have a break.
Go on a trip, sleep all day, play video games until your eyes bleed.
Just take some time for yourself. When you feel like you can cope, THEN move on to fight mode.
Social media, no matter how much you hate it
I would suggest, from experience get on LinkedIn and start changing your settings as soon as possible. As someone who’s been let-go a few times, the experience you have with LinkedIn will vary. After a few years of experience in the same city, I was contacted right away and pretty much bombarded with messages from recruiters as soon as I turned on the “looking for work” setting. Start to post on LinkedIn, even if it’s just a message saying you’re leaving a company. Add hashtags, be prompt in commenting and replying and start to “like” and read other people’s posts.
As silly as it sounds, adding the “Open to work” filter to your profile picture (as of Jan 2022) makes a huge difference as well. I have applied for a lot of jobs in the past and I had more callbacks, bar none, by simply replying to recruiter messages via LinkedIn than I did apply to a job’s website without talking to someone who worked there first.
The reason I say to start as soon as possible, even if you are not ready to physically apply to postings is that after a week or two (or three) of being unemployed and browsing LinkedIn, you’re going to get burned out. Trust me.
Looking for a new job is sometimes more involved than having a job in the first place.
Treat job hunting like a job
Set your schedule, wake up like you would a normal workday, take a lunch break, take a few 15-minute breaks throughout the day and end your day at a normal time of the day. You don’t want to lose your vigor right from the gates. You wouldn’t do this to yourself if you were working, so don’t do it while you’re looking for work.
Take care of residency
If your country provides it, apply for unemployment. If you get a severance package, you cannot apply for unemployment payments until your severance has ended but you can apply as a job seeker. Just get it done and over with. If you are an immigrant and have a visa or a residence permit, check your status and deal with it right then. You can’t ignore it, their government will find out and you will be deported. There are many resources out there to help you stay in your country. If you don’t have friends to ask, go to your country’s Reddit and ask for help.
Another word of advice… takes notes during interviews and take all interviews you can get, even if it’s not what you’re looking for.
Just be you
I’ve found that what works for me is to talk to recruiters in a much more casual tone and treat every conversation as practice. They are there to find employees and they are just looking for a good fit. They are most often the first eyes and ears to see if you are a good culture fit for the company. Act the way you would if you had the job already, speak the way you would naturally. At least the sector I am in, the tech industry, what they are looking for in employees now versus how they were interviewing 10 years ago is completely different. They want someone who is natural and honest. Just be yourself, pretend you are meeting or talking to your Mother-In-Law’s grandma.
Good luck and remember, you can do it. You are worth it. This was your push to find a better-paying job that makes you happy.
