Taking a Break - Forced by Circumstances

As we go through our lives sometimes circumstances beyond our control force us to take a break. Imagine you are going along and due to budget constraints or the Sequester, you are laid off from your job. This would be a forced break. You didn’t ask for it, you didn’t do anything to cause it, you just drew the short straw and now have to consider your options. One aspect of my job has been that it doesn’t really fit any particular mold or category recognized on job search sites.

What should your resume (or resumes) focus on? Is it time for a career change? Should you even be searching for a job or try to build a business instead? It is very difficult and if you are fortunate enough to have finances in place to cover you for 6 months or so, maybe it is time to just kick back and review your life for a couple of weeks. Give yourself time to look over your work history and chart the course that best fits your experience, abilities and interests. Maybe starting a business has been something that you have thought about and maybe even started planning. This would be the time to figure out if the business could realistically sustain you. Barring borrowing from family, friends and retirement accounts, perhaps you need to just take whatever is available and continue to work toward your dream situation.

Reach out to previous coworkers and their contacts to see if they can help you find another opportunity for the interim. It has been said that 71% of new jobs come from networking. This is astounding since most of us think looking for a job entails posting our resume all over the internet and hope someone bites. So break out the rolodex and start calling. Most jobs aren’t even advertised. I know in our company, when we had an opening, we would ask our employees for referrals and offered a nice bonus for anyone they refer is hired. By the time we advertised a position the salary level had dropped significantly. So, if you find yourself on the wrong end of a termination notice, consider your options and reach out to your network for that next position.

Hopefully anyone going through this will have plenty of resources to sustain them so they can take a very deliberate approach to the job hunt but I know this is not the case. In this day and age it is not realistic to consider any position permanent. There is always the chance that you could be downsized. The more you make the higher the possibility. It should be job one to prepare just in case your job is not going to continue until you retire.