So, you've been made redundant...

With the ups and downs of the market, sadly redundancies are a reality. From small startups shutting down their entire business to large established companies shedding staff, it can happen to anyone, often with very little warning.

If you’ve found yourself recently redundant, then first let me say: sorry, that sucks. But secondly, hopefully the following suggestions might be useful.

Take a moment

It can be stressful not to know where your next payslip will be coming from, and you may feel you need to immediately dive into finding a new job. However it can be useful to give yourself some time to reset and reflect. It’s ok to grieve over losing a role you were really enjoying. In fact, allowing yourself time to do that will let you approach interviews for your next roles in a more positive frame of mind, which will translate to you representing yourself better.

It’s also a good opportunity to think about what you did and didn’t like in your last role, essentially developing a wishlist for your dream job. That’ll come in handy as you talk to people about what you’re doing next, which brings us to…

Go public

Not having a current job brings a distinct advantage to your job search: you don’t have to be secret about it. Most of the time when people are looking for a new position it’s all about flying under the radar, just in case your current employer finds out. But freed from that, you can put the word out about what you’re looking for and get your network to help you. Tweet about it, write something on LinkedIn, mention it at a meetup - someone you know might just have the perfect role for you, but if they don’t know you’re looking they might not think to consider you.

If you decide to do the LinkedIn open to work thing, be aware you will be swamped by recruiters, which can be all consuming. Feel free to talk to us first! We’ll hopefully have some options for you to…

Explore

This is more a general tip for job searching, but it’s worth mentioning in this context - applying for a few roles and doing a number of first round interviews is very useful in really locking down what’s going to be the right thing for you. Applying for a single role that you think will be awesome can definitely work out, but having one or more comparison points will give you more confidence in accepting an offer.

There are still plenty of jobs out there, so be kind to yourself - you will find something. Of course if there's anything we can do to help like resume reviews, interview coaching or just a general chat about the state of the market, please get in touch.