Taking Charge After A Job Loss

Your Initial Challenge: dealing with disorientation

When interviewed on Larry King Live on CNN, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher was asked what she missed most after leaving her government position. Did she miss power, influence, control? No, she answered with one word – “structure”. Larry King followed up and asked Lady Thatcher what she meant by that. She answered that her life before the sudden transition from government had been completely organized. Her activities were planned to the last detail. Ministers and aids scheduled her days. Her’s was a 24/7 job.

When former President Bill Clinton left office, he too experienced a similar sense of disorientation and loss of structure. Both these individuals re-organized their lives through the discipline of writing their autobiography. Over time each re-structured her/his time and life. Both Lady Thatcher and former President Clinton were faced with a significant transition in their lives, and both dealt with change in a positive way.

Handling your transition successfully

When a job loss occurs, we are literally thrown into a transition mode. Individuals react to transitions in a various ways…denial, anger, frustration, relief, acceptance. We recognize that an employment relationship has ended, and we’re uncertain about our next steps. We’re often disoriented and distracted…unfocused and confused. We tend to seek refuge in comforting places and things…and avoid thinking about what just happen. As a result, some of us begin to drift, lose focus and energy, and get down on ourselves. Others get energized through exercise, hobbies, daily rounds of golf, travel…anything except looking for that next job. People, by nature, are great at avoiding unpleasant situations and tasks. And job search ranks high on the list of activities to be avoided.

Taking charge of your life

After a job loss happens, we ask you to think of this moment as an opportunity to reassess your direction, your contributions, performance and career. Think of your separation from the usual work routine as a special gift of time. You’ve worked diligently everyday for 8, 10, 12 or more hours, plus commuting time, and now those hours have been returned to you. How will you react to this gift of time? Will you say, “woe is me” or will you take charge of your time and your life. You now have an opportunity to re-structure your time and begin a focused, well-organized job search.

A practical approach to organizing your job search

If you find yourself struggling with managing your time during a job search, you’re not alone. The good news is that it’s possible to re-gain direction and considerable control in your life by taking a few simple but effective steps. Here’s what we’d suggest:

1. Buy and use a calendar [day-timer or contact management software]
2. Allocate your search time appropriately over a 30-40 hour week
3. Limit your use of the Internet each day
4. Devote the bulk of your time to getting out and connecting with people
5. Prepare a list of people you know.
6. Prioritize your list
7. Allocate time every day to connect with those people
8. Make a list of target companies for which you’d like to work
9. Network into those companies through your people contacts.
10. Choose a date certain by which you will be re-employed



How do people usually look for work?

Actually the question should be phrased, which are the most effect ways people use to find new employment opportunities. Most of us become bogged down in responding to newspaper ads and Internet postings. We especially rely on recruiters or other passive resources to “ find” a job for us. Unfortunately we tend to over look the most obvious sources of job leads….family, relatives, friends, former co-workers. In other words, people we know who could provide information and guidance that would lead to increased visibility in the job market and get us considered for possible opportunities.

“Strangers don’t get hired.”

The most effective way of finding a new job is still networking. Somewhere between 75% and 90% of employment opportunities are still found through connecting with people and getting yourself known. Targeted networking, when done well, will help you become known…a “friend”, so to speak. You’ll develop significant new relationships with people who can offer information, advice, and guidance relative to your career choice or job search. In essence, you’ll come to a new organization “pre-qualified” and will likely be able to skip the usual preliminary screening interviews. This will enable you to leapfrog over the competition directly to the hiring manager.

Putting it all together

Recognizing that the most effective way to move a job search forward is through networking with people and understanding that time is your primary resource, it’s essential to ask yourself how will you effectively organize your time to your advantage. We’ve found that allocating your time each week into compartments or sections can be an effective way to manage your time.

A workable timeline

Some time each week should be assigned to schedule planning, Internet research, networking, advisory meetings, interviews, and follow up activities. Also leave sufficient time for personal renewal and family. Our clients have found that planning the coming week’s activities on Sunday evening seems to work well for them.

Your new workweek

Mondays should be devoted to responding to Internet postings and researching people and companies. Networking telephone calls begin in earnest on Tuesday and continue through the balance of the week. Also networking lunches and breakfasts, advisory meetings and connections are usually planned for Tuesday through Friday. Interviews may develop at any time, but always schedule them according to your own schedule. Some time each day should be designated for research and Internet surfing, but don’t get trapped into spending more than about 10 % of your time in Internet searches. Since the majority of jobs are found through networking, that’s where the bulk of your time needs to be spent.

Contact management

Also, we strongly recommend you use your personal organizer to keep track of your appointments, your telephone calls and your next steps. You’ll need to have contact information at your finger tips [names, company names, phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses] as well as information on when you called or emailed, the purpose of the contact, the status of each contact and when you’ll follow up with the individual. Your contact management efforts are time consuming but extremely important to the success of your search.

In conclusion…

A disorganized job search effort will result in a less than successful search. Considerably more time, your greatest and most precious resource, will be spent on search activities when one fails to manage time or to organize a search effectively.

If we feel ourselves drifting through the search process or if we seem unable to get started with a search, it’s time to focus on a few small steps to get you headed in the right direction. In essence, we urge you to create your own new structure, organize your “gift” of time to suit your new schedule and circumstances. Since time is of the essence, make the most of it and re-direct yourself toward the next phase of your career.