I Just Lost My Job. Now What?

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Life just threw you one of its trickiest curve balls. You’ve been told by your boss you are out of a job. Regardless of the reason, you feel overwhelmed by conflicting emotions, economic pressures, and the uncertainty of your future.

Stop. Take a deep breath. You’re not alone, and a little knowledge is a lot of power in your inevitable climb back into the workforce.

It’s natural to feel lost, scared, and discouraged. In this day and age of an increased focus on corporate profitability and shortening career tenures, the experience of losing your job – either through layoff or getting fired – is increasingly common.

Time to refocus. Effectively managing the situation and preparing for your next step can often enhance your success in getting prepared to reenter the job hunt. Many others have successfully navigated such situations, and so will you. Even if this unfamiliar territory, having a good map and the right tools can get you to your destination. To paraphrase an old Irish saying the road will rise up to meet you.

Step 1 – Identify What Happened: The how, when, what, and why you lost your job directly impacts your approach to finding a new position. You’ll likely face more difficult questioning if you lost your job for performance issues than if your position was eliminated as a result of a merger or acquisition. Then think about the professional skills you’ve acquired and how they’ll impact your positioning in the market, the roles you’ll pursue, and the value you’ll add to your next employer.

Step 2 – Assess Your State of Mind: Losing a job can be traumatic, so be honest with yourself – are you ready to go back into the job market? Maybe you live paycheck–to–paycheck, and you do not have the luxury to wait until you are truly ready, but any extra time you are able to devote to yourself will ultimately be helpful in your job search. Perhaps you have severance, or savings, or a whole lot of travel points you can use to give yourself the necessary time to assess, decompress, and rejuvenate. If you need time to get right, and you can make the financials work, it may be worth consideration.

Step 3 – Craft Your Story: Conventional wisdom is that it is easier to find a job while you’re still employed than when you are unemployed. When you are unemployed, you are subject to an extra level of scrutiny, and even those who suddenly find themselves out of work due to no fault of their own can find themselves on defense during the hiring process. You’ll need to open any conversation with a potential employer by explaining what happened that caused the separation from your past employer. Here’s why – if you can set the tone and deal with the tricky parts first, you’ll be able to move onto more important topics. Write down and polish your version of what happened, massage it, and practice it like you’re going on an audition for the biggest starring role in town. The “What happened” question will come up in every interview, so be prepared.

Step 4 – Build Your Toolbox: You’ve determined you’re ready to get moving on the job hunt. Time to actively evaluate and upgrade the essential job hunting tools. You’ll need to look at your:

Resume: Is it updated with your last position and all the accomplishments, skills, and experiences you’ve acquired there? Is it Applicant Tracking System (ATS) ready, so that it has a chance of making it through to the recruiter? And is it clean, accurate, and free of errors?

 LinkedIn Profile: Recruiters comb LinkedIn to find talent, so you need to be ready. Just like your resume, have you updated your profile to reflect your latest experience? Is it robust and detailed, with a detailed job history? Have you uploaded a recent profile photo? And work on getting some recommendations for your profile from former peers and clients – employers look at these and place value in them.

 Job Boards: Have you uploaded your latest resume to Monster, Indeed, and CareerBuilder?

 References: If you’ve been let go from a job, these are going to be even more important that you may anticipate. Your last boss may or may not be willing to speak favorably about the quality of your work. Find peers, past supervisors, internal customers, or other individuals at your last company who are willing to sing your praises. It’ll help reassure a potential employer that you’re a good risk. It bears saying, make sure you choose co-workers or supervisors you know will provide favorable feedback – I’m just saying, vet your references. I’ve seen people get burned by inadvertently providing poor references.

 Wardrobe: Don’t forget to get modern, appropriate outfits and shoes for interviews. Get your best professional attire dry cleaned and ready for action. And Buy a new pair of shoes that are for interviews only.

Step 5 – Tap Into Your Network: There is no reason to go it alone. You likely have a professional and personal support network, and generally speaking, people are willing to help. Assess your network and determine your best options. Bear in mind, your network is a matrix with multiple degrees of separation. Don’t be afraid to give your resume to friends – networks are large and often unpredictable, and your resume may land on a hiring manager’s desk and you’re a perfect fit. It happens, and a lot more than you may be willing to believe. But people can’t help you if they don’t know you need help!

Step 6 ­– Consider Alternative Employment. Temporary or contract work can do a fantastic job of paying the bills while you’re looking for a full-time role. A temp job may also become permanent, or you might learn of another opening that’s even better through that temp job. Contract positions have the added benefit of expanding your network of people, affiliations, and skill sets.

Philip Roufail contributed to this article.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.

Should I Drop Off My Resume In Person?

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You see a job advertisement online, and it suits you to a T. You could do the job with one hand tied behind your back, you'd enjoy the work, and it's at a company you've always wanted to work for.

As it turns out, the company is located just down the street from you. Although the company is directing you to upload your resume, rather than simply posting it online as the advertisement asks, why not take a trip over to the company's office, ask for the corporate recruiter, and hand them the resume?

It'd be great! Why wouldn't they want to meet you? You'd be a perfect fit for the job, and they'd know – on the spot, no less! – that they could end the search right here and now!

Unfortunately, things are a bit more complicated. Showing up unannounced with your resume could cause you more harm than help.

Why?

In the days before everybody had email and the internet (think: the 1990s), if you were interested in a job you saw in the newspaper (!) you'd print up a resume and a cover letter on a nice linen stationery, and drop it in the mail to the company. That meant that from the day a job was posted to receiving the first resume, it was usually a few days before a recruiter would get anything in the mail. So, if you showed up with a resume the day a job opening was published in the paper, there was the possibility the recruiter and the hiring manager were itching to get the job filled. It showed that you were a motivated job seeker with spunk.

In fact, this was how my wife snagged her first job when we moved to Miami; she's an editor and a journalist; she ran in to drop off a resume to a magazine publisher that was preparing to open up a new editor's job. She gave them the resume, they handed it to the publisher, and within a few days she had an interview then a job offer. She spent the next nine years at that magazine.

It doesn't work that way anymore. Generally speaking, it is not considered a welcome gesture these days for a job seeker to drop off a resume at an employer for a professional-level role.

What's changed? Basically, the entire recruitment and hiring process, and this shift was enabled by two factors:

First, email. This change allowed job seekers to send a resume to somebody at a company instantaneously. The person receiving the email could check out the applications at their convenience, but still much more quickly than a resume sent by traditional mail.

Second, online job applications. This started with job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder, but grew into several other job portals. Then came along applicant tracking systems (ATS's) – in short, these are software applications that recruiters use to collect, sort, and process resumes; once these ATS's were implemented, they also enabled companies to build out their own job pages on their web sites, where they could collect resumes directly through their system.

As these systems arose, the practice many companies had of running "employment centers" where they would take walk-in applications of job seekers waned. Some companies still operate walk-in employment centers, but they're primarily directed at finding manual or hourly labor, where job seekers wouldn't traditionally have a resume they could email (if the employer does run one of these, by all means feel free to stop by).

Here are three reasons it can be a risky idea for a job seeker to drop off a resume:

1. The recruiter's job is now database and systems driven. They're managing massive amounts of data; it's not unusual for a recruiter to collect thousands of resumes through their ATS, which assists them in prioritizing job seekers based upon fit. Since the process is all digital, presenting a paper resume (without uploading it into the system first) presents a hassle and an inconvenience that needs to be scanned, entered, and prioritized.

2. It's an interruption for the recruiter. A recruiter's day is typically filled with candidate sourcing activities, phone screens, in-person interviews, meetings with hiring managers, strategic projects, and other activities. In other words, they're really, really busy. And here's the conundrum; companies and recruiters are very sensitive to the customer experience for job applicants. They want the employer to be perceived as an employer of choice, and so while it may disrupt the recruiter's day to drop what they are doing and meet with the candidate who showed up unannounced, they may still greet them in order to provide a positive experience to the candidate so they don't feel snubbed by the company – but the recruiter may actually resent it, hurting your chances in the long run.

3. Showing up is outside the process the company asked you to follow. Employers like to hire people who demonstrate a propensity for following directions. It's highly likely they employer asked job seekers to apply online; conversely, it's highly unlikely they asked job seekers to up unannounced. It's a demerit.

What should you do if you feel you're the perfect candidate, and you want to make a positive impression and stand out?

• Apply online first – promptly. Yes, it's a pain in the rump, but go online to the company's website and upload your resume and fill out those boxes, or respond however the online job ad says. But this shows you respect the company's processes – and their employees' time. Besides, the company representatives will likely send you back to this step at some point anyway, so why not get ahead of it?

• Reach out to an appropriate contact online. There is nothing wrong with finding the recruiter or hiring manager and sending them a brief note via email or through LinkedIn. A well placed, well timed note such as this (indicating that you've already applied online, of course) can often elicit a positive response from the recipient if you're a good fit. And they can review it and respond to it on their own time, rather than when you show up.

• Leverage your network. Do you know somebody who works at the company? Ask them to put in a good word and route your resume on your behalf. They may have the inside track on the opportunity, and a respected referral source is usually held in high regard by the human resources department.

One more thing: Should you feel vitally compelled to drop off a resume at that company, just leave it with the front desk. Don't ask for the recruiter to come out and meet you; they'll get the resume anyway – the receptionist will give it to them. And dress professionally.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.

High-Impact Resume Strategies For Creative Professionals

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The most substantial asset graphic designers, art directors, interior designers, photographers, fine artists, marketers, and other creative professionals possess is their ability to translate a concept into an attractive visual presentation. It is both their tool and their trade.

When meeting with hiring managers or potential clients, creatives need to demonstrate their ideas and experience in a professional fashion.

The first piece of work such an applicant usually presents is their resume. A beautifully designed resume, with nice fonts, illustrations, layouts, and graphics can quickly demonstrate to a hiring manager at an advertising agency or within a corporate marketing department a candidate’s visual design and copy writing skills.

But, the realities of the corporate job application process get in the way. Companies often use applicant tracking systems (ATS) to gather and sort resumes, and on top of the challenges they present to every applicant, they can even more quickly derail applications for creative professionals.

Creative professionals tend to focus on form, building complex layouts in programs such as Adobe InDesign that incorporate graphic illustrations and other elements. Applicant tracking platforms, on the other hand, generally require a plain, simple design in order to parse resume data – this means a resume created in Microsoft Word, with a single column of text. These systems often disregard (or can’t read) anything presented in text boxes, graphics, or tables, and recruiters will generally pass over resumes that the system hasn’t been able to fully understand. A resume with a complex design will appear at the bottom of the applicant tracking system’s ranking of the applicants against the job description.

So, how can creative professionals increase their chances of securing an interview and, ultimately, the job?

• Build an ATS-Friendly Version of Your Resume. In order to make it easier for the applicant tracking system to parse the data and, hopefully, give your resume a higher ranking, use a single-column format. Don’t include large tables or graphics, as these can make a resume hard to scan. Even if you follow these guidelines, there could still be issues parsing data – if so, try saving your resume as a .txt file and uploading that version. And use your ATS-friendly resume for all online applications.
  

• Keep a Graphically-Designed Version of Your Resume Handy, Too. Yes, you’ll want to have two versions, because the hiring manager will use the designed version to evaluate your creative eye. If the applicant tracking system lets you upload attachments along with your resume, absolutely upload your graphically-designed resume, along with samples of your work. And print out copies of this resume to hand out during an interview.
  

• Develop Your Portfolio and Put it Online. A nicely designed portfolio of your work is a fantastic way to highlight your skills and achievements. Create an online version with your best work samples, and include a URL link to your portfolio in the header of your resume. You can also post this in your LinkedIn profile for greater exposure.
  

• Don’t Rely Solely on Your Online Application. There’s a lot you can do to get noticed. After applying online, try to identify the decision-maker for the position on LinkedIn. Then send him or her a brief note – via LinkedIn or through email – to inform them that you’ve applied online, and ask where you can send your resume and portfolio samples. A well-timed message can potentially improve your changes of being seen by the hiring manager, regardless of how the applicant tracking system scores your resume.

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Scott Singer is the President and Founder of Insider Career Strategies Resume Writing & Career Coaching, a firm dedicated to guiding job seekers and companies through the job search and hiring process. Insider Career Strategies provides resume writing, LinkedIn profile development, career coaching services, and outplacement services, including a free resume review. You can email Scott Singer at scott.singer@insidercs.com, or via the website, www.insidercareerstrategies.com.