CAREER SURVIVAL GUIDE TOOL KIT

When the company cuts the cord, it can take a long time to find your way back into employment. We’ve compiled some information to help you manage your career in a volatile environment and some resources to help handle things on the personal front. Feedback, suggestions and insights? Email us at boss@afrboss.com.au

Losing your job is the eighth most stressful event on the Homes and Rahe Stress Scale, a psychometric tool used to assess stress levels. That puts it behind the death of a spouse (1) and divorce (2) but more stress-inducing than sexual difficulties (13) or the foreclosure of a mortgage or loan (21).

Psychologists have also compared job loss to the trauma that follows the death of someone in the family, as it results in grieving for something that has been a central part of someone's life. It can break up marriages or expose problems with addiction.

The shock of being laid off suddenly can be a rude awakening for employees whose identity has been so tightly linked to their position. People who have been very much in control of their careers, successful, highly active and self determined, can suddenly feel adrift.

Sally Laughlin, executive chair of Laughlin Executives, who has experience working with management and executives during a major downturn, says the moral of the story is what a lot of corporate people forget. "Live each day on a personal level as well as business. Life is about rhythms, and being able to let go and ride it out."

With the help of Directioneering, Sally Laughlin of Laughlin Executives and Julie Cogin of the Australian School of Business, we've compiled a nine-point guide to assist you.

1. FINANCES: Securing the finances as fast and as far as one can ensures that money woes don't add to your problems. Sit down with your partner and review the finances immediately, especially the outgoings. Postpone large expenditures, limit day-to-day spending, and set aside money from the package to cover upcoming expenses. If you are unable to meet mortgage, insurance, private school or other payments, contact creditors to discuss partial payments or moratoriums. Do not treat the payout as a bonus. Using it to pay down the mortgage or putting it into managed funds is not a good idea, as the money might need to keep you going for some time. Allow some money each month for recreation. It is important to have something to look forward to.

2. EMOTIONS: Job loss can be traumatic. Be honest with your partner, family, friends and business associates about what has happened early on so that you can ask for their emotional and professional support. It is particularly important to involve your partner. This is not a time for keeping things back due to misplaced pride. Support from those closest to you could be the single most important influence to help you recover. Feelings of loss and grief are valid. Loss of job for a main breadwinner can leave people feeling depressed and inadequate. Allow yourself time to grieve; it is normal to feel a sense of loss of identity, self-worth, structure, routine and loss of business "family". If necessary, see a counsellor if you think you need professional help.

3. REPUTATION: Leave with respect and dignity. No matter how stressful or badly treated you are, do not attack your former employer or workplace. It just looks unprofessional. (You might also need a reference). Negativity results in more negativity and no one wants to employ a bitter person.

But how to explain your situation? It helps to prepare and rehearse a BBQ line, a standard line for the queries about your job loss.

4. SKILLS AUDIT: It is time for a serious analysis of your skills. Do your homework. Invest the time in getting your CV right. Reflect on your work history, achievements and failures. Aside from technical skills, what are the valuable, intangible skills you have and what would you bring, genuinely, to an organisation? Understand what the employer's drivers are likely to be. Register with a quality recruitment firm. Be creative when you analyse your skills; don't limit them to the narrow band of your workplace, or industry. Look at emerging growth sectors.

Think also about some different ways of keeping up your skills. A couple of examples: finance execs who’ve helped out not for profits just one or two days a week, in a volunteer capacity. (Its never too early to think about ways of doing this.) It keeps up your skills, and also connects you with another network; plus you are doing something positive for someone else.

5. NETWORKS: Just sending out resumes is a waste of time - what is more effective is working your network. Think of consultants, former colleagues, partners in law and accounting firms, senior associates and executives in established companies, even your kids school network, or the local coffee shop. In short anyone who can help you penetrate an organisation. Make a list of everybody you know. This is important because 90 per cent of all new jobs are found through hidden networks, rather than through job advertisements.

6. PATIENCE: It can take six to 12 months for a senior person to find a new role. Job hunting is a full-time job. It means having numerous conversations, perhaps seven to nine a week. These are not job interviews. It is more about getting leads, guidance and advice from people in your network. Don't ask these contacts for a job. Tell them instead that your circumstances have changed, and you would like to have a chat, just to seek some advice and listen to their insights. In a market like this, jobs are not advertised, but people are headhunted. Consider contract positions and also relocation. When a job finally comes up, it is often delivered by a secondary contact. But expect it to take time. Many lose patience and end up rushing into another job that might not suit them. It shows up in resumes later on. Beware the career bounce.

7. YOU: Remember you need to care for you. Make sure you eat good food and spend time on some enjoyable activities. Get outdoors, get to an art gallery or a concert. Have a massage and keep up the exercise. Getting back to nature, enjoying some good simple home cooked food and finding something to laugh about helps heaps.

8. PRE-EMPTIVE: No job is secure. The important thing is to be proactive and prepare while you still have a job. That means developing your networks, keeping your resume updated and getting out to events and forums to stay current. Stay involved and engaged, and keep your radar on.

9. BUILD SOCIAL CAPITAL: Julie Cogin, senior lecturer in organisational behaviour at the Australian School of Business, told a recent BOSS Club that it is important to pull back and try to get some perspective about the dominant “anchors” in your life. For some we are mostly anchored in our work. For some it is family, others possessions and status. You’re aiming not to have any one of these dominate too heavily. What would happen if the work anchor were taken away?

Also, its time to rethink the notion of the career ladder. Cogin says it is really only Baby Boomers (those older than 45) who are clinging to the idea of the career ladder. Younger workers have grown up accepting that success means different things to different people and that hierarchy and power don't appeal to everyone.

Alternative career paths are "expert", where people become valued specialists, or "spiral", where they spin off into an associated field, or "transitory", where they change into unrelated jobs every two to three years. Cogin says career success depends more on who you know, rather than what you know. It is no accident that chief executives have better and more extensive networks than those who work for them, she says. "If you have higher social capital, then you are more likely to be in a senior position - it is all about having relationships and networks."
This is important because, when it comes to getting sought-after jobs, hirers pay more attention to recommendations from people they know than they do to someone's qualifications or references.

It’s never too late to try to build social capital.

RESOURCES
* Layoff self defence: www.job-hunt.org/layoffs
* Australian Psychological Society: http://www.psychology.org.au
* Beyond Blue: http://www.beyondblue.org.au
* What Color Is Your Parachute? 2008: A practical manual for job-hunters and career-changers, Richard Nelson Bolles (Ten Speed Press, 2007)
* Uncommon sense from an uncommon mind, Paul Gordon (Messenger publishing 2008)

* Winners in the second half: A guide for executives at the top of their game, Julie Perigo (John Wiley & Sons, 2008)
* Australian Government website for job seekers: http://www.workplace.gov.au
* Mental Health Council of Australia. http://www.mhca.org.au