Made Redundant? It is the Position, Not You or Your Skills

Made redundant or laid off from work? It’s normal to grieve the loss of a job. However, you need to regroup and move on quickly. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Now it’s the time to cheer up! It’s important to know that it’s only the position that’s been made redundant, not you or your skills. Explore these 15 tested and proven tips to help you if you are made redundant at work so that another employer can scoop you up and right into your dream job.

By Catherine Adenle

If you have been laid off or made redundant at work, although you don’t currently have a job, remember that you were originally hired because you impressed the hiring manager with your skills and personality.

What your former employers saw in you before hiring you is still there with you – your skills, personality, attributes or past achievements. These things haven’t disappeared; instead, they have multiplied because of the experience gained over the years. So, why the long-drawn face? Suck it up, dust yourself off and cheer up!

Quit watching daytime telly in your pyjamas while you get upset with yourself or anyone for not having a job. Instead, get cracking – you are still alive, breathing and kicking; don’t let anyone or any organization dictate the rest of your life for you as from this minute. Stand up and look for another job with the great skills that you still possess.

The current job search situation in today’s economy is tough for everyone. So, stop feeling sorry for yourself. Instead, explore how to navigate the job search superhighway and quickly set yourself aside so that you are ‘the one’ that gets the job of your choice.

See Need a Job? Search these Databases

The good news for you is that it’s not too late to cheer up as it was your former position that was made redundant, not you or your skills! So get with the programme using these tips:

1. Be pragmatic! If your position is made redundant, you can’t change the situation, so accept it now. You’ve already become unemployed and you are now one of the thousands of people competing for work and survival.

Don’t brood over the rights and wrongs of the society today and don’t be resentful. Do something every day to improve your chance of getting another job or making some money.

2. Register for Job Seekers Allowance. If you live in one of the countries where they help job seekers, register to collect your job seeker’s allowance right away but you may need to declare your severance package.

Regardless of how little the amount you are given is, it will still take care of a few things for you. In some countries, you are able to claim a form of financial support whilst you look for a job regardless of your circumstances.

3. Cut your coat according to your size. When you experience a loss of income, you still need to pay your bills and mortgage. So, you need to switch to “survival mode.”

This includes:

• Freelancing
• Selling your services on PeoplePerHour, GigBucks and TenBux
• Selling what you don’t need in your house – if you haven’t touched it in three months, you don’t need it – with web sites like Craigslist, eBay and Amazon Marketplace, the world is your garage sale.
• If you own your own house, rent out a room for extra income.
• For-going eating out, make your own meals to save money.
• Cancelling any planned holiday but check first to know if you can get any money already paid back.
• Cancelling cable or satellite television
• Avoiding impulse buys.
• Looking out for coupons and deals in the newspaper to use on wanted items.
• No new clothes, wear what you have instead of buying new ones
• Downsizing your car to a less expensive one, save on petrol
• If you are renting, downsize to a smaller house or apartment
• Always check your budget for any other ways to save money
• Can’t pay your bills? Take the following steps:

– Create a budget. Download a free budget planner
– Allocate the minimum payment to your creditors and pay something to every creditor. Send a copy of your budget to all your creditors with a letter of explanation and a humble request for them to reduce the interest or accept what you can afford to pay.
– Enclose a cheque to each creditor for the amount you have allocated. If they accept your proposal, pay that amount faithfully every month until it is totally repaid.
– Avoid further debt by not spending frivolously.

4. You are still you. Again, remember that only your position at the organization was rendered redundant and not your skills, capabilities, and past achievements.

You still have all those special qualities and no one can take them away from you. Just look for a better you. Keep your level of commitment and sprinkle a touch of confidence on it during your job search just like you were when you sat in your cubicle or office.

See 10 Effective Ways to Manage Your Career in a Tech-Driven World

5. Step up your game. You are capable of doing better now because you know better. You have gained loads of more transferable skills. Look for the jobs that will allow you to showcase the skills. Know where and how to target jobs. Plan your work by covering all the steps in your job search.

First, develop an overall plan listing all of the steps involved in your job search. Under each step, list the actions needed to finish that step. Then, access your skills and research on the job market.

6. Don’t hide your situation, speak up. Be vocal about looking for a job. Talk to or contact the people you know to find job leads as this is one of the most effective ways to find a job. Most people find a job through personal contacts. People we already know such as our friends and family, our former colleagues and people we meet when we go out and during our normal everyday lives can help.

Only a small percentage of jobs are advertised in local newspapers and only a small percentage of people who find a job get one from answering an advertisement in a local newspaper.

7. Have a ‘Job Search office’ space at home. Remember that you are now the CEO of ‘YOU Inc’. Your ‘Job Search Office’ space is where you will go to every day and spend most of your time while you job hunt. Use a space where you won’t have a lot of interruptions and distractions.

It’s time to package your brand and make your efforts count. Be visible to all potential employers online. The Internet is bursting in the seams with various Job Boards, get in there and get noticed.

8. Always be ready. The way to always be ready is to have all these things ready for when you spot that job:

• A stunning smile – Your smile says I am genuine, like and trust me.
• A catchy elevator pitch – You never know when the opportunity will come knocking. The elevator speech is intended to prepare you for very brief, a chance encounter with any potential employer or anyone that can influence your current situation.
• An Effective Cover Letter – This will accompany your well-crafted CV or Resume

  See Your Cover Letter Is Your Sales Rep!

• A winning CV or Resume – This is what an employer scans for 10-15 seconds to determine if you are worth an invitation for a job interview.

 See How to Write a Winning CV

• Your Skills Portfolio – This says look at my skills as demonstrated in the past and see the results of using my skills. I have the required skills and can do the job.
• List of past achievements – this says, I have done it all before, I can even do it better this time around, I achieve great results, I am the person for this role.
• Relevant certificates or list of on the job courses attended – this says I have the knowledge, I am a self-learner and knowledge seeker. I will continue to learn on the job.
• References – These says I have some great people that will vouch for me.
• Knowing how to ace any job interview – This will convince a potential employer that you are the one and this will put your foot in the doorway of any organization.

   See Ace Your Job Interview

9. Remain current on any issues or developments in your field. Read trade journals or professional publications, and subscribe to free pertinent RSS feeds online.

It is extremely impressive during an interview if you know about the latest merger or takeovers in the industry. What this will do for you is that you will blow all your competitors out of the water because you can offer trending knowledge and competitive skills, which cannot be easily found in anyone else, and certainly, will wow the potential employer, knock their socks off and get you the job.

10. Look sharp! You might want to spend some time to revitalize your image. You can experiment with that new hairstyle you have been thinking about. Upgrade your wardrobe to ensure that you have just the right outfit for your job interview.

Ensure that you do whatever will make you look good and feel good about yourself. It is important that you package yourself like a professional. My point here is that a polished physical appearance, a winning CV, an effective covering letter, presentation and professional attire do matter!

11. Own your brand. Let your brand be what it says on the tin. You need to sprinkle some stardust on your candidacy packaging. Flicker with the right brand as a subject matter expert and with confidence aimed at the right audience; look chilled and have a swag that is cool, calm, and collected but above all shows confidence and not cockiness.

12. Your skills are your prime selling points, demonstrate them. Be courageous and blow your own trumpet a little, promote and showcase your skills through all what you have achieved in the past.

Don’t make the mistake of not tooting your own horn, I bet you don’t want a rusted horn. Ensure that you can ‘radiate’ your competency on cue. Trust me, if you exude that special ‘je ne sais quoi’ and a bankable glow; someone is bound to scoop you up and right into your dream job.

13. Network, connect and participate. It’s who you know first before what you know. If you are not online, then they can’t find you! Trust me, potential employers will Google your name. Are you on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook? These Social Network sites and the Internet are powerful and they can help you to get back to work fast.

If you are not using any of these freely available Web Tools yet, this is the time to start using them. They give you the opportunity to promote yourself and your skills. They provide multiple formats, platforms and tools to allow you to tell the world about ‘YOU Inc’.

See Ten of the Best Career Related Sites and 30+ Best Job Search Engines & Boards for Finding a Job 2021 to view hundreds of thousands of job listings.

See this list of the Best Web 2.0 Tools for Job Seekers.

Utilise Twitter and all that it has to offer regarding job search. Know the people to follow. Below is a list of people to follow because they have their fingers on the pulse of career development,  job search and job vacancy tweets:

@LinkedIn, @AlisonDoyle, @CatherineAdenle, @GayleHoward, @myFootpath, @AMAnet , @TalentCulture,  @philreCareered, @CareerBuilder, @MonsterCareers, @Glassdoor, @phyllismufson, @OnlineResume,  @CareerBuilderca, @Careertip and @BrazenCareerist

Also make these hashtags your daily tags to search through on Twitter:  #Jobs, #Jobseekers, #Jobsearch, #Career, #Resume, #CV, #Interview #hiring.

Whatever you use Social Media, always remember to be positive and professional in the way you present yourself at all times on networking sites.

14. Be positive. Don’t get sucked into the ‘I am unlucky and I have no choice’ inside head talk phase. Don’t get disgruntled if you are still looking for a job and it seems like everyone you know has an offer. Most experienced job seekers often search for months before finding the right opportunity. You have to unplug yourself from negativity and create positivity to improve your job search.

Focus on what can be instead of the obstacles, create a new opportunity in your mind and work towards it. Remember that job hunting takes time and energy. You have to dust yourself off and set your own agenda. You have to see yourself as someone who is self-discipline and can be his own “boss”.

15. Have a plan B. When you are searching for a job, your current role is that of a ‘job search manager’, so searching for a job is your job! Don’t take your jobless period as the period to roll out of bed at 1pm, potter around your house in your Teddy Bear pyjamas, vegetate and watch day time TV while you snack.

If after a few months, there are no job leads, think of what you can do as a business to bring some money in. What are you passionate about? Can you start a business based on your passion? Discuss with your mentors, friends and family. You never know who can help you to own your own business. You can always start small and build it up.

See Should I Be My Own Boss

See How to Be Your Own Boss

Now that you’ve explored being made redundant at work and how to bounce back, it’s vital that you know that it’s only your position that’s been made redundant and not you or your skills. What else can you do that is not listed above once one is laid off or made redundant? Leave your comment in the box below.