Laid Off? Let Go? Check Out my “Do This Now” checklist Ep 004

This podcast is a summary of tips I offer in my free checklist, "Do This Now."
https://www.mellermarketing.com/dothisnow

This is a checklist for good people who have been downsized, let go, laid off, “restructured out of a role,” or any other fancy corporate buzzwords which means your company terminated your employment for cost-cutting reasons, and you're not sure what to do now.

Compiled by Brenda Meller with input by career strategy experts and VIP job seekers. This list is meant to act as a resource and offer general guidelines based on our experience. Consult an attorney for legal advice.

Here are the key points from the podcast about career transition:

Legal Considerations:

• Review Legal Documents: Don't sign anything without legal review, especially separation agreements or severance contracts.
• Don't Feel Pressured: Employers must give you time to review documents.
• Avoid a Letter of Resignation: If you're being let go, don't give your employer a letter of resignation as it might impact unemployment benefits.

Benefits and Resources:

• Negotiate Benefits: Try to negotiate severance package benefits, such as extended health insurance.
• Check HR Manual: Review your HR / employee manual for additional benefits.
• File for Unemployment: File for unemployment benefits as soon as possible.
• Know Your Worth: Research market rates for your skills and experience.
• Ask to Buy Your Laptop and/or work-issued cellphone: especially if you don't have these at home.
• Save Important Information: Before leaving your job, save important documents, contact information, and work samples.
• Get Clarification on References: Ask your former employer if they're willing to provide a reference.
• Use Available Resources: Utilize local libraries, unemployment offices, and online resources.

Job Search Strategies:

• Utilize Resources: Take advantage of outplacement services and other resources offered by your former employer.
• Leverage LinkedIn: Update your profile, change your primary email, and network with industry professionals.
• Network Effectively: Attend industry events, volunteer, and connect with people in your field.
• Avoid the Black Hole: Don't spend all your time applying for jobs; focus on networking and building relationships.
• Seek Support: Join job seeker support groups and attend networking events.

By following these tips, you can increase your chances of a successful career transition and land your next job.

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Transcript

 In today's episode, I want to review some tips I give to individuals that are going through career transition, and maybe it's not by choice. Something happened to you. Suddenly you were laid off, let go, downsized, any of those fancy corporate words that they say, and all of a sudden you're thrown out by the system.

back into the job search market again. And it does take you a little bit of time to get your bearings and know what to do and what not to do. And for that reason, I've created this and it's actually in a downloadable checklist. If you go to mellermarketing. com slash do this now, you can download this. 

Basically what I've created here is a checklist for good people like you, my friend, who've been downsized, let go, laid off. Restructured out of a role or any other of those fancy corporate buzzwords, which means your company terminated your employment for cost cutting reasons, and you're not really sure what to do now.

Now, I want to let you know that this was put together by myself and some other career strategy experts, as well as some VIP job seekers who are part of my awesome community.  This list is meant to be a resource and offer you some general guidelines and experience, but I do want to encourage you to consult your attorney or your CPA if we're talking about financial advice here. 

Especially if you're looking at legal advice, talk to your attorney first. These are just some general guidelines to help you to get your bearings here.  A couple things under the category to start. of legal documents. Don't sign anything until you've had a lawyer review it. That might be a separation agreement, a severance contract, things like that.

Just make sure you've got somebody with a legal eye who's going through looking out for you because you don't want to have anything negatively impact you in the future based on what you sign when you're in a very emotional state. Okay, related to that, don't feel pressured to sign. If they're saying you need to sign this ASAP, you need to sign this before you leave the building, by law, employers are required to give you some time to review documents before signing anything.

So do make sure that you're not feeling pressured because again, you're in that emotional state, right?  Another thing is if you've been let go, Don't give your employer a letter of resignation. You might want to talk to your attorney about this, but if they are letting you go, they are separating you from the company, if you provide them with a letter of resignation, that could actually negate your unemployment benefits.

And by the way, you paid into the system. If you want to withdraw some of those unemployment benefits while you are unemployed, it should be your right. But if you are providing a letter of resignation to your employer, It may negate that. So be very careful about that. Okay, let's talk about benefits.

Sometimes employers are going to offer you some benefits as part of a severance package. I want to let you know that you can negotiate some of those benefits. Maybe you get an extension in your health insurance, for example, that can help to increase your benefits. ease some of the burden and not have to go into COBRA benefits.

For example, also make sure that you've checked your HR manual. You might have details for additional benefits that you've forgotten about. And when you're out the door, my friend, the employer's looking to make sure that you leave as quietly and as quickly as you can, they're really not looking out for you anymore.

And I'd love to think that they are, but really they are looking out for the company. They are not looking out for you. So make sure that you've read through that HR manual, that employee manual that you have.  Also, I encourage you to file for unemployment. As soon as you can. Again, this might be one of the issues that you want to discuss with an attorney or your CPA, but make sure that you're not waiting too long because there is a time period in which you have to file in order to qualify for those benefits.

And again, nobody's telling you this unless you know that you should do it. Okay? And get clear on what's next. You are in an emotional state. I was there once myself. And I know that first week I just caught my breath, really spent a lot of time crying and processing emotions and things like that.

And before I even started putting myself out there, I just needed to get my bearings. So give yourself some time and then get started in that job search.  Let's talk about a few resources. Now, you might not have a laptop or a cell phone of your own. You might have a work issued one. You might want to ask your employer if you can purchase that, or if they might be able to gift that to you as a part of your separation agreement.

If you don't ask, the answer is always no, right? And a lot of times this equipment is either, it's reached the end of its useful life and they might be discarding it anyway, or they might give you a greatly reduced rate knowing that You're having to go out and do a job search, right? So if you don't ask, the answer is always no.

So I think about asking to purchase your work laptop or your work issued cell phone. Another thing is before you leave the office, try to make a note of coworker emails and maybe some work samples. I encourage you to do this. If you're still working right now, create like a rainy day file or occasionally email some stuff to your home email, things that you might want to pull up in interviews as work samples, things like that.

I remember when I last. My last job, all of my coworkers birthdays, I had saved in my work Outlook calendar, and I didn't have it saved in my personal calendar. And a dear friend, she turned 60 and I forgot that it was a 60th because I didn't have notes of it myself. So just make sure that you're making those notes in a personal calendar or emailing it to yourself. 

Use all of the available resources. Often employers will give you a list of resources. outplay misplacement services, things like resume help, job search strategy, and you might feel like I don't want to take anything from them because they did this to me, but I want to let you know that they are paying these outplacement companies whether you use the services or not.

So why not take full advantage of the investment that they've made, right? You're really just penalizing yourself if you don't take full advantage of those resources. So  swallow your pride. Take advantage of those resources is my advice for you there.  Another thing is get clarification on whether or not you can use an employer or your former boss or co workers as a reference.

They may offer to give you one and if that's the case, get that reference from them up front, whether it's a letter of recommendation or possibly a LinkedIn recommendation. Do it when they ask or when they offer that out to you.  I'd also encourage you to look for local resources. Go to your local library.

Go to your local unemployment office and ask what resources are available to you to help with your job search. You're going to find some great resources that way.  And another resource is to know what you're worth. And you might know what they used to pay you at your last job, right? But do you know what the market rate is for your current job?

level of expertise, the type of industry, the type of company that you're looking for. I want to encourage you to go on some of those salary websites. Some of my favorites are salary. com, payscale. com, and glassdoor. com. And I would encourage you to do so because your last salary might not be the market rate.

You might be underpaid, you might be overpaid, but you should know what your market rate is, know what your worth is inside there.  Alright, let's move on. Let's talk now about the job search in general, contact information, and your resume. And if you're using LinkedIn, make sure that you change your email address, your primary email address, on your LinkedIn account.

If you've been using your work email as primary, make sure you get in there as soon as you can, and change your primary email to your home email address. Okay? On the subject of email address, make sure that you're changing your email address elsewhere. Maybe you've been using your work email for newsletters, for memberships, for other subscriptions, even your Zoom account.

If that's the case, make sure that you're logging into those accounts and changing it to your home email.  Another thing is ask for help. The job search process can definitely be lonely and there's a lot of job search resources and groups out there. I'll give you names for just a few individuals that offer some resources.

Mindy Stern has a job seeker support group called the Accelerator Group. Kenneth Lang also is a big advocate for the job seeker community. And even my friend Christopher Johnson, he does a zoom call. I believe it's monthly. It talks about different zoom tips that can help you whether you're working or in job search mode.

So don't be afraid to ask around about job search resources. Those are just three individuals that come top of mind for me, but there's certainly others that are out there.  Another resource to look at is a website called Jobscan. If you go to jobscan. co, I believe, you can compare your resume to job postings.

Now they only let you do that for free a few times and then you have to pay to upgrade, but it might be worth just looking at, especially initially, as you're starting your job search. All right, let's move on. And the final category I want to talk about is networking. So if you're in career transition, not by choice, you may not have done networking for a long time, if ever, but at this point, if you are experience rich, I want to remind you that there really is a great possibility that your next career will be found by way of someone that, so networking is really a important.

So my first tip under this category is to say yes to offers of assistance. And, people might be offering to meet you for coffee or looking at your resume or, just giving you some advice. Don't say no, right? There's this analogy of, don't ignore the boat. If you've ever watched the movies, The Pursuit of Happiness, that references it as well.

But basically, when people are coming to you, offering you assistance, Take their assistance, right? Another thing is volunteering, maybe if you are finding yourself with a lot of time and you are just, not wanting to be at home all the time, look for volunteer opportunities, get yourself out there, keep active, and you never know when those volunteer opportunities might lead to a full time position. 

Another thing is begin networking, I'd say almost immediately. Give yourself that first week or so to catch your bearings on things, but then try to get out there and don't focus only on applying for jobs as your job search, because that can be very from a psychological perspective, almost it's depressing.

You're applying to job upon job. I refer to it as the black hole of job search and it's energy sucking and just, it's, soul crushing, right? So try to get out there and meet people in addition to applying for jobs online, right? Focus on your targeted industry, but also your local geography, Chambers of Commerce, professional groups, things like that. 

Another tip is to always carry a business card with you, but just some general information, your home email address, your LinkedIn URL. You never know who you might meet at the grocery store. at or at a family event, a kid's sporting event, et cetera, and even conferences and things like that. So have that with you can always carry your resume with you, but you can certainly carry a generic email business card with you with your email address on there. 

All right. Speaking of the black hole, I want to encourage you to avoid the black hole. By leveraging LinkedIn, searching for a new job is very challenging. And you're often going to feel like you're in that black hole. And that's why I want to encourage you don't spend more than half of your time job seeking, applying for jobs.

Spend more time networking,  inviting people to connect on LinkedIn, participating in conversations on LinkedIn, even doing some resource checking again. So if you've applied for a job on LinkedIn, follow their company page, comment on a recent post, find employees at the company to connect with, warm up your connections and warm up your potential for being referred into that position. 

All right. And my final tip for you under the category of networking is to sign up for my Friday VIP job seeker office hours. We do this on the first Friday of every month. It's on a Zoom call. Registration is required. It's from 10 to 11 a. m. Eastern time. And I'm joined by a team of all star career strategy experts where we give you the opportunity to ask questions about your job search, As well as to network with other people who are in career transition.

I always talk to the group that this is your team until you're back to work. Cause it can be very isolating when you're in career transition. So I want to encourage you to come on out and join us on the first Friday of every month. All right, my friend, I hope you found this helpful. Again, all of the tips that I reviewed with you today can be accessed by my do this now checklist.

Go to mellermarketing. com slash do this now. And I'll also put that link inside of show notes. I hope you find this helpful. Hang in there. And I want you to remember, I believe in you. This time in your life is temporary. Soon you will be back to work. Until then, I podcast for some great LinkedIn job search tips.