Imagine this has just happened.
Well, what did happen when you lost your job? How did you feel? Were you expecting this to happen or were you taken completely by surprise? Depending on your answer, you might be distraught, overjoyed, sanguine, disappointed or something else.
How Did This Happen?
How, if at all, were you involved in the decision to let you go? Have you lost your job because of something you did or something you failed to do? Think about such issues and make your best effort to work out why you have lost your job.
- Were you marched out of the building and left at the gate?
- Did you accept a redundancy package?
- Did you leave after a terrible row which ended with your dismissal?
- Did you work your notice?
What Now?
Think of the present and then think about the longer term. Do not spend too much time looking back. Decide if you want to find another job as soon as you can get it. Do you want to stay in the same industry and follow the same career path? Do you want to take time to rethink your plans for the future?
There is one important task to work on before you take the next step in your career. This is to gain an honest and accurate appraisal of your current expertise and capabilities. Whilst you could ask all those who know your work just how good you are at what you do and what you need to work on to make yourself more employable, there are other ways of taking action.
Assess Yourself
Remember than when you ask other people about your capabilities they may not want to hurt your feelings by speaking about your shortcomings and the areas in which you need to improve. After all, you have just lost your job! Also, when you ask people to make judgements about you, they may not know enough about you to be in a position to comment.
You could seek out career profiling advice, or looking to speak to a career coach. Before you do this, note that such a course of action could be very expensive. Also, there is no guarantee that you will get results that will help you.
Provided you go about this in an honest way, you could use self-assessment to help you to work out your strengths and your development areas.
If you would like guidance, take a look at:
Are You Ready To Succeed At Work?
This is a set of self-assessments you can use to help you with your important next step.
Find it on Amazon.
There are no questions in this guide which ask you how good you think you were in your recent job. The self-assessment tests cover ten different themes. You are offered the correct answers to look at once you have completed the self-assessment tests. The guide also helps you to identify your areas for development. I wrote Are You Ready To Succeed At Work? for people looking to take an important step on their career journeys. Dealing with what to do after losing your job, is certainly an issue to consider very carefully.
Finally. . .
If you have lost your job, or recently left a job, assess your strengths, achievements and development area BEFORE you make any job applications.
Watch out for the second part of this article.
For the moment: good luck with your endeavours.