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By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady Preparing for a Positive ScenarioContingency planning is not the most upbeat topic. It's all about making a backup plan just in case something terrible happens. Instead of predicting doom and gloom, let's update our planning approach and focus on opportunity readiness. Opportunity readiness is about thinking about who you truly are, what you want your work life to be, and living into that future. When you step into that role of being the CEO of you, your focus shifts to what you want to be and positioning yourself for that success. If you've done that, you'll be able to identify what an amazing opportunity is for you--and be ready to go for it! An Opportunity Presents ItselfEven when you like your current company, position, or coworkers, sometimes you might hear about an opportunity that could be the right next step for you in your career. Here's what that might look like:
In each of these cases, you weren't actively looking for a new role. However, once you heard about the opening, you realized it might be just the thing you were looking for and found out more! Opportunity ReadinessOpportunity readiness is a part of career resilience that may not always occur to us. When people are not actively job searching, sometimes they neglect to make new networking connections, keep in touch with people they know, update their LinkedIn, or update their resume. However, these are EXACTLY the things to prioritize. Knowing what you want, staying in touch with your network, and always evolving your skills will position you to move quickly when the time comes. Your ResumeYour resume is the main document potential employers want to see. Even if someone contacts you about an opening, you’ll need an up-to-date resume to be considered. This document needs to summarize who you are as a candidate as well as your most relevant skills, work history, education, professional affiliations, and accomplishments. This is where you can shine! Keeping your resume current is a crucial first step. Including details on your current role, adding newly earned credentials, and highlighting recently used skills can help you shine. Getting a resume out the door within a couple of hours can improve your chances of being seriously considered. It's also a great way to help the person who connected you with the opportunity feel even more sure that you're a great fit! Your LinkedIn ProfileLinkedIn is your professional billboard to the working world. It is an all-purpose marketing tool where people can view information beyond your resume, see which other people and companies you may have in common, and read the content you share in your posts. When people are gainfully employed, they often stop fine-tuning their profiles and interacting with their professional connections. Taking time to polish your LinkedIn profile and posting content on your areas of expertise is a way to remind people of you and your professional value. In fact, continuing to be active on LinkedIn may very well be why someone contacts you about what might be the perfect opportunity for you. A great way to remind people of who you are and what you're good at is by posting relevant content. Sharing a picture of you leading a training session, or an article about a great new way to optimize a project will help people associate you even further with your skillset. Your Work SamplesYour work samples, often called your portfolio, are a way to demonstrate the skills you mention in your resume or LinkedIn profile. These work samples should give the hiring team an idea of your process and finished product examples. Creating a portfolio is not something that most people can quickly throw together. There are several steps, including identifying your overall portfolio goals, developing or selecting work samples, positioning each work sample to showcase your professional capabilities, and determining the technological aspects of how you might set up your portfolio. Since some employers may require a portfolio before seriously considering you for a role, pulling this together and updating it as needed can help make you success-ready. As you complete interesting projects,remember to add those to your portfolio It' s nice to have your portfolio grow and change as you evolve your skills. What Do You Think?What do you think would prepare you to move quickly on an opportunity if one presented itself? Include your thoughts in the comments. Learn More
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By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady The Value of a Backup PlanCareer Resilience is all about being ready to deal with what comes. Thinking through scenarios, or contingency planning, is one way to prepare for possible outcomes. By thinking through your next steps before you are in that situation, you can ensure that you are better prepared. When Work Is GreatWhen you’re in a good place at work, it’s hard to believe things would ever be any other way. Your boss supports your professional growth, your work fulfills you, your coworkers are amazing, and you can’t imagine a time when it could be any other way. Conversely, there are times at work when you’re less than thrilled about your situation. In these cases, you might be thinking about an exit strategy. Here are a few factors to consider. Scenario: It's Time To Move OnFirst, here are indications that might prompt you to start to think about leaving your current role:
Budget ImplicationsOnce you decide that you need to leave your current job, it’s important to take a look at your financial state. Your ability to pay your bills without the income you receive from that job will be a major factor in your next steps and timeline for leaving your role. If you have other streams of income, household members who can cover bills with their income, or savings that you can spend on your core living expenses, you may consider leaving your job right away without a new one lined up. Be sure to think through the insurance implications of making a job change, too since your healthcare coverage might end with your job. You will need to determine how you will pay for any health-related costs. This could include switching to a family member's plan, finding and paying for other health care coverage, or determining how to handle possible healthcare costs outside of an insurance plan. Each of these options has a different price tag and level of risk. Act Now and Figure It Out LaterKnow, too, that if your current position is bad enough, you may decide that leaving right away is worth the financial hit you’ll take. Be sure to pause and think through the implications of potentially not having a main income stream and how you will cover your basic living expenses in that interim. Maybe you'll get a roommate, sleep on a friend's couch, or just deal with issues as they come. Regardless of what may make sense to others, you get to make the decision that is right for you. Launching a Job Search While WorkingMany people will choose to stay at their current job until they are able to find another one. This way, you’ll still have a paycheck coming in while you also search for a position that is a better fit. From a purely financial standpoint, this is often the best choice. Looking for a job while you’re already employed is a different challenge. You’ll need to get your job search toolkit together so that you’re opportunity ready and can apply for new roles when you see them. You’ll also need to juggle doing your current job while also actively searching for another role. Since finding a new job takes as long as it takes, you may have to live in this state of uncertainty for a while until something new works out. Maintaining Job Search MomentumWhen you’re working and also looking for a new position, maintaining your job search momentum can be a challenge. As you face job search rejection, you may be discouraged and not put in as much time looking for a new role. You may apply for roles only sporadically and not make much progress. You may also find that you’ll have good days and weeks at that job you’ve decided to leave. You may also have times when things are going well enough at your job that you temporarily slow down your job search activity. Then, you may have a rough week at work and renew your commitment to finding something new. Possible Contingency Planning StepsBefore you are in a position where you realize you need to leave your job, it’s valuable to do some preliminary thinking about how you might manage each of these factors. Consider doing the following to help inform your contingency planning: Your Income
Your Expenses
Your Savings
What Do You Think?What questions do you think you need to focus on as you do your contingency planning? Share your thoughts in the comments. Learn MoreBy Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady Managing Job AnxietyRecently, I was at a professional development event where we shared best practices for delivering effective virtual training sessions. During networking time, I talked with a woman who had been laid off, and then called back to work for the same company (which is rare for someone working in the field of learning and development). While she was glad to be employed again, she was having a hard time being happy in her new/old position without constantly worrying about her job unexpectedly ending again. To Worry, or Not To Worry?When you've been laid off before, or just seen people around you lose their jobs, it's hard not to worry about it happening to you. Whenever you read about layoffs in the news, hear that your company's sales numbers were lower than expected, or hear rumors about a company merger, your mind might jump to conclusions. Instead of letting a wave of panic run through you each time your boss invites you to meet one-on-one, there is an alternative: changing your overall mindset. My Old Operating Modes: Either/OrEarlier in my career, I had two operating modes when it came to work: “I’m happy with my job” and “I need to find a new job right this minute.” When I was happy with my job, I did excellent work at my day job and didn't worry much about the future beyond that role. I would learn new skills for the job, but I didn't always think about my overall career trajectory. Conversely, when I knew I needed to launch a job search, I shifted away from the work I was doing and started focusing solely on taking my next steps outside of my current role and organization. Only then did I shift to developing skills applicable to another workplace, meeting more people to help me get a new job, and planning to exit the organization. My New Mindset: Both/AndI finally realized I didn't have to pick between these two operating modes. Instead, I needed to shift my overall way of thinking and adopt the both/and mindset that was also more long-term and sustainable. I started focusing on myself as a working professional and what I needed to do to succeed personally, regardless of who my specific employer was. This included focusing on my ongoing learning and development, building my professional network, and planning for contingencies. This built up my career resilience, which helped me feel more confident that I would thrive regardless of my current work situation. Learning and DevelopmentWhen people think of learning, they often focus on formal degrees, certifications, and completion certificates from instructor-led classes. While these are valuable, and often a great foundation, ongoing learning can take many forms. Whether you attend a webinar, watch a TedTalk, read an article online, or listen to podcasts on your area of interest, you are continuing your professional development. Staying current with industry trends and continuing to learn and grow helps me perform well in my current role while also allowing me to be future ready. In an ever-changing world, continued professional growth is the best way to manage whatever happens next. Building My Professional NetworkToo often, networking is depicted as a superficial act that involves making initial connections with people, then dreading the next day’s “Would you like to buy something from me” calls. I approach networking differently. My goal is to build mutually beneficial relationships with people. Interacting with these connections provides opportunities to share information, learn from one another, and help one another out along the way. I use LinkedIn to track my professional network. I connect with people I've met before and with whom I share something in common. My LinkedIn network includes former coworkers, individuals I've sat next to at in-person events, people I've attended an online event with, and professionals working in the same field as me. Contingency PlanningRegardless of my role, and even if it seems to be going well, I always have a backup plan, a backup backup plan, and then a couple more backup plans after those. After weathering many layoffs and the unique challenges of each, I have a broad sense of the situations I may need to mitigate. Those include an unexpected job loss, choosing an interim health care option, and how to launch a post-layoff job search. Here are a few steps I have taken to help prepare for possible situations:
What Do You Think?How do you help yourself not worry about being laid off? Share your thoughts in the comments. Learn More
By Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady The Value of a Backup PlanCareer Resilience is all about being ready to deal with what comes. Thinking through scenarios, or contingency planning, is one way to prepare for possible outcomes. By thinking through your next steps before you are in that situation, you can ensure that you are better prepared for whatever does come to pass. After seven layoffs, I know the importance of ensuring my financial security. Here are my best practices for preparing for a possible job loss. The Scenario: Unexpected Job LossWhat would you do if you went to work tomorrow and found out it was your last day at work? If you've never had this experience, this prospect might be almost unthinkable. Let's take a few minutes for you to think through how this change might impact your life. Here are a few key areas you would need to address. Budget ImplicationsOnce you find out your job is ending, you'll need to figure out how to pay your bills without what may be your main income stream. You would need to find out about any final money you would receive from your employer, including your last paycheck, a vacation payout, and maybe even some kind of severance package. You would also need to explore other possible money you could access to pay for your main expenses until you could find a new job. This might include unemployment payments or your savings. In addition, realize that your health care coverage might end with your job. You will need to determine how you will pay for any health-related costs. This could include switching to a family member's plan, finding and paying for other health care coverage, or determining how to handle possible health care costs outside of an insurance plan. Each of these options has a different price tag and level of risk. Budget Questions To Ask YourselfAsk yourself these questions about your current budget for your household:
Possible Contingency Planning Stepshile all of these questions might seem big and scary to contemplate, remember you're not in that situation at this time. Right now is a good time to do some research and preliminary thinking on how you might manage each of these factors. Consider doing the following to help inform your contingency planning: Your Income
Your Expenses
Your Savings
What Do You Think?What questions do you think you need to focus on as you do your contingency planning? Share your thoughts in the comments. Learn MoreLooking BackThere are several days each year when people typically look back and assess their lives. This could be the anniversary of a death, a holiday full of memories, or your birthday. For me, the day I reflect is Groundhog Day. February 2, 2006Early in 2006, my life was at a crossroads. My then-husband and I were in the process of getting divorced, and I was figuring out how to transition from a house to two houses and what co-parenting my 2-year-old daughter would be like. The one shred of stability I had was my job. I was happy to have one thing I could count on not changing. …and then February 2 happened. That morning, I went to work. I took a few minutes between meetings to create a spreadsheet to figure out if I could afford to buy a condo I’d looked at the night before on my own. As I saved my file, I got a tap on the shoulder that I had an impromptu meeting. I grabbed a pen and a legal pad and walked into a conference room full of executives who informed me that my position was eliminated due to restructuring because of the company being acquired. Welcome to layoff #2. I was in shock. I returned to my desk, deleted my spreadsheet (which had just become irrelevant), told my coworker Brad “I’m gone,” and found myself sitting in my car with a box containing all of my formerly workly possessions. From the parking lot of my ex-workplace, I called my soon-to-be ex-husband to tell him about my now ex-job. His only response was, “Huh.” Then, It Got A Little WorseThat weekend, I was on a road trip to visit some of my high school friends for a fun weekend of reminiscing and going to the Snowflake Ski Jump. On my way there, a local cop pulled me over for speeding. As I sat there, I glanced at the notification I’d just received from unemployment sitting in my passenger seat—the one that said I’d receive less money than the last time I’d been laid off—meaning I wouldn’t be bringing enough money in to cover my half of the mortgage. As the officer approached my window, I could feel the tears well up. I could not get a ticket, too. I would cry (as I often heard people threaten to do), but this was no empty threat that would come to bear only through theatrics. I was legit going to fall apart if this happened. This moment—sitting in the car with indications of my life failures greatest hits smacking me in the face was a low point in my life—rivaled only by my dad’s unexpected death when I was still in high school. Then, It Got a Little BetterFortunately, I think because of my street cred, which included being a native of a town nearby, I drove away ticket free. One thing had gone okay. Then I saw friends, connected with new people, and spent more time with my daughter. I also had the time and space to figure out what to do with myself now. The Transition BeginsIt was an ugly, ugly few months. I applied for countless jobs. I put our house up for sale. My daughter’s dad (new language from the book Mom’s House, Dad’s House) and I decided to move in tandem to Minneapolis, Minnesota from Madison, Wisconsin. I looked for jobs, made business connections, and stayed with friends on the way to and from my regular trips to Minneapolis. I didn’t sleep well for months. A tree fell down in my front yard the day of my open house, so I figured out how to have a giant tree removed while driving on I-90 back home from a job interview. That May, I found a job, a preschool for my daughter, a new place to live, and reconnected with one of my best friends from high school. Later, my daughter's dad found a job and moved to Minneapolis, along with his new girlfriend (a lovely person and good to my daughter). Then, to mix it up, I totaled my car, dated and broke up with a couple of people, and got Shingles three times in a row. Some days, after work, I would lie on my floor and look at the ceiling in my apartment, my low-cost therapy as I acclimated to all of the life changes. I adjusted to my new normal after going through every significant life change (save a death in the family and someone I love going to prison) I could think of to endure. Then, It Kept Getting BetterIn October, on the same day, I was approved for a car loan and found out that my house in Madison had new owners. Over time, I made two great friends from my job and got comfortable in a new city. I started dating someone who was great, then bought a house with and married that guy--who is an awesome stepdad and cat dad. I got laid off again and got another good job, then got laid off again and got an even better job. Things have gone pretty well through layoffs, reemployments, trials and tribulations. Through it all, my husband is awesome, my now-adult daughter is amazing, and the cats mostly tolerate my presence. A Frame of Reference for GratitudeSometimes, I see people who are unhappy with what they have. The strange upside of having gone through rough times is that it gives you a frame of reference. It reminds me to be grateful for the roof over our heads, my husband playing video games with our two cats in his lap, my healthy, happy daughter, and an ongoing stream of new challenges and adventures. I’m grateful for being active, able-bodied, and having a strong sense of well-being. I am grateful for winter heat, summer air conditioning, and all the machines that do my housework. I treasure mother/daughter movie nights, trips to the skating rink, and building relationships with new friends and colleagues. I value my roller derby skates, my outside roller skates, and my inline skates. I appreciate my cats, Zippy and Meathook, and the combination of disdain and affection they have for me. I am genuinely grateful for it all. Groundhog Day is my annual reminder to remember all these things. Learn More
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Author7-time layoff survivor Brenda L. Peterson, The Layoff Lady, waxes poetic on layoffs, job transitions, & career resilience. Buy The Book!
Were you recently laid off? Need a roadmap for what's next? Or planning just in case? Check out my book, Seven Lessons From Seven Layoffs: A Guide!
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