Who's got two thumbs and no job? This guy!
Well, I got laid off today.
It isn't incredibly shocking as our team had was getting smaller as work got sent overseas. Still, now a few hours removed, in starting to freak out.
This is the first time it's ever happened to me and this was my first "adult" job, I was with them for six years.
Luckily I'm still on payroll till Nov 1, and then I'll get some sort of severance package.
So what tips do people have? How do I not go crazy?
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Was kind of an attorney liason, making sure foreclosures were occurring timely.
Specifically you may want to look within your local Department of Housing and Urban Development for foreclosure relief offices. Pay will likely be lower than private but usually it comes with top of the line insurance.
That will be the hardest part. When I've been off work in the past it was extremely hard to get up the motivation to treat the job hunt like a job and in truth I wasn't able to work like that. In both instances I got a new job because of the people I knew, either personally or from an old job. So my advice would be to mine your contacts to see if they know of anyone hiring and just generally put it out there that you are looking for work. There might be someone out there who is well connected and knows of good leads for you.
I'd actually suggest applying to as much as you can now. It's been my experience that I get way more offers and interviews when I check the 'currently employed' box than I did when I was unemployed.
Satan's advice is good too: do take some time off between jobs, even if you get an offer right away . Most places will allow you at least a few weeks before your first day, just ask.
If you do end up without an offer at a new place, gather up all your paperwork from the old job and file for unemployment. You are getting "laid off" (downsized?) so you should qualify. Termination letter and as many previous pay stubs as you can find. Sometimes there are reasons not to file, depending on your individual situation.
Maybe also see if you can grab some letters of recommendation before everyone scatters to the winds? Their contact info too.
If you're looking at major time between jobs: Keep a schedule, get into a hobby, look into volunteering (major bonus if it's related to your job). Oh, and always be applying for jobs.
All the other advice I had to offer has already been said, but I'll add this:
Start the application for unemployment sooner rather than later. It can take a while to get through the process and get approved and and for payments to actually start showing up.
So holding off to figure out if you'll really need it or not can leave you hurting financially between "Yeah, I do need it" and "Okay, I'm just got money deposited".
Conversely, cancelling the unemployment is really quick and easy, so if you do get a new job quickly (like while you're still on the current employers payroll) it's easy to shut it down.
Best of luck in the job hunt.
Chicago Megagame group
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Chicago Megagame group
Watch me struggle to learn streaming! Point and laugh!
Yeah, Plano is getting a bunch too. I know of some big insurance ops going into Plano soon, as well as aforementioned Toyota and another big firm.
Luckily I built up tons of social capital running a meetup, so I had plenty of friends being supportive and sending me links for applying at their respective places. It'll also help me keep me social.
I'm working on my resume this weekend and should hopefully start job searching on Monday. Are Monster.com and Careebuilder still decent options? I should probably get a linkin account. Right now I'm planning on looking at the mortgage side of things as well as just about anything that I may be capable of doing.
The upside to all this is that my benefits won't expire till Nov 1, I'm getting a 14 week severance and I had 4 weeks of vacation that I didn't use that's being paid back, so money won't be the huge concern that I was dreading (naturally still planning on tightening the belt).
Definitely get a LinkedIn account, it's how I found my current job (or the one I'm starting in a couple of weeks anyway), it and indeed are the big ones right now.
I've found that LinkedIn has a good job search feature, and Indeed is a job search engine so those are the two I recommend.