How To Prepare For Losing Your Job & How To Get Your Next One

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So you’ve heard there might be some layoffs coming and you're worried. You can either put your head in the sand and hope for the best, or you can take action right now.

I Heard A Rumour  

Do your research, go back to the last round of job cuts at your company, and take a look at how your company and its competitors behaved at the time. If you can see obvious things, like physical conferences being moved online, projects being cancelled, pay freezes, then take the hint your suspicions are true. 

Shore Up Your Finances 

Make a list of what you can sell - anything from electrical gadgets, homeware, clothes and then broadened your list again, then using ebay, vinted etc get them listed and sold. Whatever money you get put it aside in a separate account. If you haven’t got a side hustle, already now is the time to start one and if you have one already, redouble your efforts on making money from it, you need to build up your finance reserves.


Get What You Can While You Can 

And no I’m not talking about stealing company secrets, pull together a contacts list of possible referees or colleagues who you want to stay in contact with and you know will want to help you once your technical access is cut off and you are outside of the business. 


What You Need To Know List 

Pull together a need-to-know list containing things like “Will I be paid as usual for the time worked so far this month? “What severance package am I entitled to” etc 


Stay Calm

When you get that mysterious meeting invite that you think could be bad news, hold it together. Not to make the person who’s telling you you’re being  laid-off feel any better, but because this is the best time to get those vital next steps questions that you put down on your pre-prepared need-to-know list answered. You may have been terminated with cold indifference, 


Transparency Creates Opportunity  

Activate your network. Before you pack your desk up, put a message out on Linked in. Share your job loss - don’t be just cry, or feel embarrassed ashamed. Your network can’t help you if they don’t know you need help. It’s as simple as that. By hiding your job loss, you are hiding opportunities - to make yourself seen or to reconnect within your network

Community Multiplies Your Job Search Efforts 

Before you get cut off from your IT/tech, which can happen literally within hours, message your team or department you work with, to see who else was affected. Then set up a ‘Way Forward’ Teams group, or set up a WhatsApp group/discord group where you can all stay connected vent, support, share - you’ve just created your own support group.  


Searching for a new job can be lonely and frustrating, but because you have started your own support group, you are connected with other people who can relate to what you are going through, share job leads, help you prepare for interview, share cvs/resumes, company knowledge eg. what questions they may ask in interview, share wins or losses.


Stay On Budget 

Finance stress can make you desperate. If you are prepared ahead of time, you can afford to wait for the right opportunity and be strategic in your current job search, because you are not under financial pressure. It sounds crazy, but don’t panic and fall into spray and pray - applying for every single job going and hoping that you get it.  In this volatile job market you will find the likelihood is you are either under or overqualified. If you do land a job, 


Networking Will Help You Avoid Spray and Pray  

If you see a job you want, go through your contacts/ network and see first if anyone you know works there, send them your cv/resume to see if it meets the company criteria. Alternatively, contact someone who works at the company via Linked In you want to work in and drop them a message asking what it’s like to work in the company - you have nothing to lose. You also don’t know what can come from that interaction. 


Understanding ATS 

If you don’t have a network, then getting your cv seen by as many people as possible, is even more important, so understanding how CV’s/resumes are filtered is really important. 


Did you know that approximately 75% of CVs/resumes get filtered out by ATS (Applicant Tracking System)? So if you don’t have the right keywords in your cv/resume, you are auto-rejected, before an actual human sees your cv/resume. Your cv/resume has to be ATS optimized to stand a chance of being seen. .


Switch Your Focus  

Instead of applying everywhere and overwhelm yourself, focus on just 5 companies, because they are more manageable to research and spend time customising your cv/resume for.


Research them using my FREE Job Seekers Companies Checklist - see link in bio). 

  1. Hard Skills: Technical abilities, software, and tools (e.g., Salesforce, Excel, project management).

  2. Soft Skills: Interpersonal and work style traits (e.g., cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder relationships, teamwork).

  3. Industry Terms: Specific jargon related to the field (e.g., SaaS, customer lifecycle management).

Once you have finished researching your preferred companies, check out their career pages, select the vacancies you are interested in, cut and paste the job description into a spreadsheet. Breakdown your skills into the 3 categories, this will help you to identify which  keywords show up repeatedly, the ones that show up more than 3 times are your keywords. 

Reformat Your CV 

Summary - make sure there you include 8-10 keywords. 

Skills section - ensure it is in bulletpoint format and contains at least 15 - 20 keywords. 

Experience section - start with an action verb including 2 to 3 keywords per bulletpoint. 

Here is an example of an Experience section bullet point for a graphic design vacancy, starting with a strong action verb and incorporating 2-3 Applicant Tracking System (ATS) keywords

Graphic Design Experience Example

Designed l Created l Managed

  • Developed over 50 unique digital and print assets, including infographics and social media campaigns, resulting in a 15% increase in online engagement; proficiently utilized the Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign).

5 Things to Avoid When Optimizing Your CV for an ATS

  1. Don't Keyword Stuff: Resist the temptation to overload the document with keywords. Instead, integrate them naturally within the context of your achievements and responsibilities.

  2. Don't Be Redundant: Avoid excessive repetition of the same software or skill (e.g., repeating Salesforce multiple times). Use varied language or combine related skills.

  3. Don't Lie About Skills: You will get caught out at interview. 

  4. Don't Use Infographics: ATS software can’t read text embedded in images, charts, or complex graphical elements. Stick to plain text to so your information is scannable.

  5. Don't Use Headers and Footers: Crucial contact information or text placed in the header or footer sections of a document may be entirely skipped by the ATS, leading to incomplete records.


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