Actions to take if you are laid off
Episode 182 - Analyzing Korn Ferry's top 10 actions to take if you're laid off
Losing a job is a stressful and challenging experience, especially in uncertain times like the present. According to recent statistics, millions of people worldwide have lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lockdowns, and economic downturns, which have affected many industries. While there is no way to sugarcoat the reality of being laid off, there are actions you can take to regain control of your career and move forward.
In this blog post and podcast episode, we will analyze two recent articles published by recruitment giant Korn Ferry which together provide 10 recommended actions to take if you're laid off. Korn Ferry is a global organizational consulting firm that helps companies design and execute their talent strategies.
However, as you will learn once you read this blog, I agree with about half of their recommendations. This could be because:
I work daily with private clients and in group coaching sessions with corporate professionals going through job and career transitions. This allows me to obtain the most up-to-date information on how the job market is trending and the successful strategies that work for my clients;
Korn Ferry works with a wider, broader job market, whereas I operate with middle managers and senior executives in the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors.
So my advice is more niche. However, I am confident it works because I see it working daily with my clients. And when something is not working anymore, which has happens often since the pandemic turned the corporate world upside-down, we quickly pivot and adopt new winning strategies.
What is Korn Ferry, and why their advice matter
Korn Ferry is a consulting firm helping organizations handle management and organizational challenges. It is headquartered in Los Angeles, California, and was founded in 1969. At the time of the recording, it has over 100 offices worldwide, operates in over 50 countries, and employs more than 10K people. The key issues organizations reach out to Korn Ferry for help are general management consulting, Digital, Executive and professional Search, and Recruitment Process Outsourcing. For example, if a company needs to hire a new CEO, Korn Ferry has an executive search arm working worldwide. If, instead, it needs a particular type of professional who may be in high demand and hard to find, they have a professional search team to help. They also support organizations with their recruitment process, which can be helpful for companies in rapid growth and in need of ongoing hiring.
As part of its marketing and thought-leadership strategy, Korn Ferry publishes articles from time to time. As a well-known brand, people tend to pay attention to what they say. They have recently published two articles titled 5 Actions to Take If You're Laid Off and 5 More Actions to Take When You've Been Laid Off. Considering the layoffs at scale happening in a few industries this year, I thought the titles and timing of publication were perfect. However, I was disappointed with the content, especially with the first article. The advice was good, but I would not have been satisfied with the content as someone who has lost their job more than once. I also felt it was not empathetic enough, and skipped some critical steps to get a professional back in the game after being laid off. There was also a lack of cultural nuance when providing advice that may work well for the US but not for other countries. When their publication reaches professionals worldwide, this is an important consideration. So I was pleasantly surprised that they quickly published Part 2, i.e., the second article. It addressed some of my concerns from the first article.
I decided to discuss each of their actions with you in this podcast episode. This way, I can better explain what I believe is good about their advice and what my advice is for each of the topics. And if I think there are extra steps they did not include, I will also go through them with you.
Here is what I believe you should know about losing your job
I hope you know this by now, but if you need to hear it again, I don't mind saying it: Career ups and downs are normal and should be expected. This means you need to enjoy the ups and prepare for the downs. It's all normal; it happens to everyone. But if you know that "this too shall pass," you will cope better when facing a challenge, like losing a job, and will not take it too personally. We usually only notice the success when we compare ourselves with other professionals. But if we pay close attention or open up with them and share our stories, we will see everyone go through bad and good times.
We also have a very old-fashion brain that understands rejection as it did 3000 years ago when we lived in tribes. Back then, if we got fired from our tribe, there was a good chance we wouldn't last alone in the wild. Now, it only means better opportunities are around the corner for you. A culture you may feel more comfortable working with, a boss that "gets" you, and a job that is more aligned with your strengths. So we need to balance our old-fashion instincts and trust our intuition. You know you can do a great job; the next employer will be lucky to have you.
Do you want to know more about what to do when you lose your job? Great! Listen to this episode o (182) of The Job Hunting Podcast.
Resources mentioned in this episode
Korn Ferry article - "5 Actions to Take If You’re Laid Off"
Korn Ferry article - "5 More Actions to Take When You’ve Been Laid Off"
Episode 172. I'm a career coach and these are the 7 things that make me cringe
Episode 159. Career Coach: What they do and why you may need one
Other resources from RenataBernarde.com :
About the Host, Renata Bernarde
Hello, I’m Renata Bernarde, the Host of The Job Hunting Podcast. I’m also an executive coach, job hunting expert, and career strategist. I teach professionals (corporate, non-profit, and public) the steps and frameworks to help them find great jobs, change, and advance their careers with confidence and less stress.
If you are an ambitious professional who is keen to develop a robust career plan, if you are looking to find your next job or promotion, or if you want to keep a finger on the pulse of the job market so that when you are ready, and an opportunity arises, you can hit the ground running, then this podcast is for you.
In addition to The Job Hunting Podcast, on my website, I have developed a range of courses and services for professionals in career or job transition. And, of course, I also coach private clients
Timestamps to guide your listening
13:18 - Take a Break
17:52 - Prep a backstory
22:54 - Network like it's your job
27:47 - Find organizations that thrill you
32:15 - Inch your way in
37:57 - Absorb and process the news
40:13 - Get clear on your direction
42:57 - Build your dossier
46:39 - Hire a coach
49:27 - Don't trash your old employer
Transcript of this episode
Recently, I saw two articles that listed ten actions that You can take if you're laid off.
The articles had a point when we were laid off. We want guidance. We want to know what to do and how to proceed to our next destination, our next job. But do these ten strategies work? What should you do when you lose a job?
Even the experts disagree on what to do if you lose a job. And I wanted to discuss these ten strategies from these two articles on the podcast with you and give my opinion on them. So let's do this.
Before we talk about the ten strategies, I want to thank you so much. Thank you, all the followers, the new followers, for being here with us today. If this is your first podcast episode on the Job Hunting podcast, please remember to subscribe to all of my loyal job-hunting armies. You are awesome. Thank you so much for all your support in endorsing us, rating us, and writing reviews.
I couldn't be more excited and proud of how fast this podcast is growing. I don't know if you know how good the metrics are that I'm going to share with you. Ah, if you're in marketing, you probably will understand, but my newsletter has a 48% open rate. It's just insane. I've been working in marketing for years, and I've never had an open rate this good.
Sometimes it's over 50. It tends to fluctuate between 40 and 50. But for the few last ones, there is consistency on the 47, and 48%. So it's insanely high. Thank you so much. It's such an engaged community. And if you are not yet subscribed to the newsletter, you can do so. There's a link in the episode.
Show notes or just go to my website, renatabernarde.com. But describe wherever you found this. It could be Spotify. It could be iTunes, it could be Audible, it could be, you know, Google. Subscribe, and press the button wherever you find this. So Korn Ferry is a consulting firm many of you may have heard of, specializing in helping organizations handle management and organizational changes.
So the key issues organizations reach out to Korn Ferry for our general management consulting digital challenges, executive and professional search. That's why many of my clients have dealt with Korn Ferry now or in the past. And recruitment process, outsourcing.
So, for example, if you are a C E O or a C-level executive or director, Korn Ferry is one of the executive search firms that you would aim to work with all over the world. They're in over 50 countries. And if you are an expert professional in your field, it could be that you work in a specific industry that's very specialized.
Again, Korn Ferry has a professional search team, and there is specialized in finding those in din-demand professionals all over the world. And they also are very good at wholesaling and scaling recruitment processes. So if you are an organization and you are going through massive growth, and you need to get lots of people on board very fast at every level from, you know, very junior staffed to senior execs, they have recruitment process rollouts that work, you know, apparently really, really well.
Korn Ferry is headquartered in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1969, so it's one of those bricks and mortar institutions that has transitioned well to the modern world. They're a very popular, well-known brand at the time of the recording.
It has over a hundred offices worldwide. It operates in over 50 countries, as I said, employing over 10,000 people. If you want to see all of the statistics and insight about Korn Ferry, go to their website. You can find it easily. There's a link to it in the episode show notes as well.
So they have a blog, and they publish articles regularly. You can follow them on LinkedIn. I recommend following organizations like Korn Ferry on LinkedIn to see what they're posting. And they recently wrote an article listing five actions that you could take to deal with being laid off, and I read the article.
Had my thoughts about it, agreed with bits of it, didn't agree with other bits, though it was not very comprehensive. Like if I had been laid off and I looked at that article's title, I would be so excited, but then reading it, I would be like, oh, you know, I want more. And then I wasn't surprised that a few days or weeks later, I can't remember, it was fast.
They came back with another five actions to take if you're laid off. So it was like a combo. Two articles in total with 10 actions now being laid off is, you know, most people would say not exciting. Funny story. Some of my clients love it, very few, but they have a very interesting reaction when they made redundant or when they leave an organization, usually things are not working out anyway, and so they're happy to go.
If it's a restructure and the position has disappeared, it's being made redundant. It usually has nothing to do with their performance per se. It's just the sort of ebbs and flows of organizational restructure that happen from time to time. And they offer benefits for the people that are being laid off that helps you plan for, being without a job for some time.
And some of them can be very generous depending on the country you're in. And the laws and the rules are around being made redundant and clients love it. Very few though. I would say like 5%. I was looking at the list of my clients that I've had over the past three years and I would say 5% of clients really love it, want the break, want the money feel confident about moving on.
And I'd say about 95% have to go through, an emotional rollercoaster before they find another job and they go through grieving. And we're gonna talk about those emotions as we go through the 10 actions that Korn Ferry has proposed.
So I have found as a career coach that usually I'm very busy with one-on-one consultations towards the end of the year and early in the year from people that have been laid off.
I find it really heartbreaking that most people that are laid off are usually laid off at the end of the year. It's very common. It has to do with the end of the company's financial year, which usually tend to be calendar year as well. Here in Australia, you know, we do have a bit of a Nicky period around June, July, but most people are laid off made redundant at the end of the year, and it has a, a financial explanation for it, but it also means that it's Christmas time and it's the holidays and it.
Basically spoils it for a lot of people, people feel, you know, like they shouldn't be spending much. They might have to cancel holiday plans. Christmas is not as exciting and so forth. And I hope that by having a one-on-one consultation with me, that it helps them deal with it. So I usually work with clients that contact me directly because they've been let go.
Or I, in addition to that, work with companies that want my help as they support their people that are leaving the organization. So that's why I'm so busy towards the end of the year and early January, which is fine by me. I actually don't like to travel during that time. I find it very stressful to travel around that time.
And I love Melbourne in summer, so it's our summer here, and I don't really mind helping and supporting people during that time as somebody that has been made redundant. In November. I can relate and I like helping people. That's my job anyway, so I need to be around when people need.
So yeah, usually it towards the end of the year, but I have n I have noticed that especially 2023, it has like a tail effect. There's a lag effect, and I have clients that have been made redundant just last week, and I'm recording this in April, 2023. And there has been a lot of people that have been made redundant in the first few months of 2023, especially in tech, IT and FIN services.
If you're in the us you're, you're going through that economic downturn. At the moment in Australia, we have found people are not losing their jobs as much as in the us but they're feeling more burnt out and they may, you know, opt out of work because they just can't cope anymore. After extended periods of lockdowns here in Australia, people are feeling like they really need a break.
So, you know, when I look back at my career and even earlier than that, my parents' career, my family's career there has always been ebbs and flows in certain sectors and industry. I remember IT being very bad in early 2000s, for example. I remember working at the university sector in Australia in mid two thousands and, you know, the faculties of it shrinking and letting go because there were no students that wanted to study it, study it at the time.
So, you know, that demand for the profession also started disappearing. And then all of a sudden, five years ago, or even a little bit longer, seven years ago, the interest in it became. Huge, bigger and bigger, and the faculties of it all around the world have boomed and they're now oversized in lots of interest for the past five years, I'd say.
So those ebbs and flows that kind of self-correct the market a little bit. So I want you to know that there will always be in everyone's careers ebbs and flows, ups and downs, and if you have been let go now or in the past it's okay, it means that you're going through a downturn and there is a crisis, and we are going to overcome that in maybe one year, two years, three years from now, you're gonna look back and say, oh, all right.
You know, I remember going through that. And it happens and it could happen again. That's the other thing. The better prepared you are the better for you. And you can also help others that are going through this and not, I don't want any professional to feel like they need to disappear or fake it or feel rejected by the job market, because what people don't realize is that most professionals will go through situations like that at some stage of their careers.
So the message from me here is ups and downs are normal. We forget to pay attention to them when it happens to other people. We just see other people's successes. We have that biased view about people around us, and we tend to focus on how successful they are, and we tend not to think about the times when they weren't doing so well.
Then when it happens to us, we feel horrible. We feel alone. And like I said, you know, some people have an interesting reaction to it where they can see in the horizon the opportunities of being laid off. And I find that most people tend to have a negative reaction to it, but they overcome it, and they learn to love it.
And they look back at the times when they didn't have a job, and they say, oh, I should have enjoyed it a little bit more. Have you felt that? I hear from my clients all the time. Now I know what you mean. I should have enjoyed it more.
Okay, so the first action that Korn Ferry is suggesting, by the way, I feel like I'm doing a reaction video.
It's not a video, it's a podcast, but you know what I mean. When you go to YouTube, and people react to other people, I find it quite funny. So maybe that's what I'm doing. All right. Number one from Korn Ferry. Take a break. Really. So that's how they headlined it. Take a break.
I agree a hundred percent with taking a break. In the paragraph below the heading, though, they didn't focus on taking a break, and that's when I had an issue with it. So they're saying that unless you're under substantial financial constraints, that will force you back into the job market immediately.
Experts suggest taking a short break can allow you to take stock of what you've done, figure out where you want to go, and crucially craft the story with which you'd like to move forward. Don't rush without understanding what your narrative will be and what your corresponding resume will look like.
So the thing about taking a break, however, that I think wasn't captured in their advice is this, you need to take a proper, real break, like in a wintering kind of concept, like in. Hibernating kind of concept. Rights of passage like this are important, and you will grieve, and you will feel many emotions.
And ideally, you don't want to be thinking about your next move and crafting a story because that story and that narrative will be tainted with your emotions for some time. I recommend at least a week. I prefer that my clients take at least three weeks off if they can afford it. I understand that financially you may not be able to. Still, I want you to understand at least that your decision-making during that time of stress and sadness and being upset may impact your decision-making and the decisions you take. And I want you to be careful, maybe find somebody to run ideas by so that you are making the best ideas for your future. You will see that you can afford to take those three weeks off, and you will do a better recruitment and job-hunting process after that. It may sound counterintuitive, but taking a break resets your brain, re-energizes you, makes you more productive, makes you'll be sleeping better, and so on. I'm working with a client at the moment, and he has taken a long break. So in April, he lost his job in December, and he's only now looking for work.
And when I spoke to him and I asked, you know, how are you going? And he said I'm sleeping better. I'm dreaming again. It took me a long time, but I finally knew what I wanted to do next. And it was because I was rushing into it. So admire people that can do that. And you may think that you can't afford it, but I want you to make sure that you can.
Sometimes I talk to clients, and they say, oh, I can't afford, and I'm like, okay, tell me about your finances. And then I find out that they can't afford it. They're just worried about not having a job and what it means to the world. And you know, we've been educated to always be at work. So I want you to be tough on yourself and understand that taking time out is actually really important for you.
So I take this take an actual break, like the headline says in this article. Then, you know, the second step here that I think is not included in this paragraph. Sort of splitting things up, right? Take an actual break, if possible, three weeks, at least a week, to relax and go through the emotions and not have them tainting your decision-making.
Then work on a plan for your future. Only then work on a narrative because the best narratives are re-engineered from your future goals. That's how you decide on the next best steps for you. They are not a consequence of your past. They are an activity that you do based on where you want to go next on your future.
So, future thinking about your career, long-term planning comes after the break, and only then you would work on your narrative. So I want you to be proactive about your future jobs and not reactive about your future jobs. All right. Number two, I will link the two articles from Korn Ferry of course in the episode show notes, so you can read them there as well.
So number two from Korn Ferry Prep, a backstory they say here in the article, you need a good, crisp explanation of what transpires and here's an example of a narrative you can share with prospective employers. So this is from the article. You were part of a broad economic business cycle in which companies over hired and then scaled back.
You can use this narrative to pivot to explaining what you were able to accomplish in your role. I like that idea of focusing on having a backstory prepared and not brainstorming it on the spot at the job interview. So, my take is, yes, I agree with this advice. I want you to be careful, however, not to sound like a character from succession.
You know the TV show where they talk about work all the time using what I call cultural codes. It's basically jargons and words like circling back and stuff like that. when I read this, you know, I felt like lots of the business is scaling back and pivoting and I don't know, I don't like those words.
I have to be honest with you. I spend a lot of time working with clients on preparing a backstory and working on narratives. I was just with a client right now who's been working with me for a while and his pitch is really good. Like I told him the what you need to do next with your pitch is just go out and test it.
But he keeps coming back and saying, look, I thought about this other thing and maybe removing that. And I agree with clients like that. I love clients that preload the work and so that when they, when go out into market, they're not plasticy and artificial in reading from a script. That's not the point.
But they have worked on their pitch in their backstory so much that they can just. Say it, it flows out of their mouth without them having to think about it cause they've prepped it, they said it out loud. If they're working with a coach, they said it out loud to the coach. They got feedback from the coach and they're ready to go to market with it.
So be careful with the words you use. Be careful not to sound too generic. Be genuine and, as much as possible be vulnerable. I recently discussed in a previous podcast I will link it below it's number 1 72. I discussed an article from the Harvard Business Review. On the article was on how to address a weakness at a job interview.
And it just made me think of this, you know, when you're preparing a backstory when you've been laid off and you might see that as a weakness. The advice in that Harvard Business Review article was, Very bad. it was so disingenuous and so terrible that if you go on Instagram and you look at the comments, a lot of people have identified that the advice given in the article was bad.
And a lot of professionals in hr commented on Instagram. I actually forgot to see it on LinkedIn. It's probably there as well. But on Instagram, a lot of HR professionals said, look, I am a expert interviewer. I do not agree with these points. And I, ideally, what you want to do is be as genuine and vulnerable and practical, and don't worry too much.
P people are way more interested in what you can do for them in the future than what happened to you in your past. They want you to move on, and you need to understand that sometimes those sort of concerns live more in your head than you in and not in other people's heads. Right. So something to think about, but definitely I like what they said, you know, in terms of having a crisp explanation of what transpired.
I like that word crisp. Crisp is good.
So just to finalize this, working with a coach could help you unlock the answers to those difficult questions. You need to come to terms with what happened to you. You need to know what happened to you. You need mentors and former colleagues who can be honest with you on what you excel at work, and what you could use some help with.
You know, what you could delegate or escalate or try not to apply for jobs that include those responsibilities. So all of those things are important to brainstorm and reflect before you go to market again. Because you can learn from these situations. You know, a lot of people say this, oh, you learned from failure, but this is how you learn it.
You learn by analyzing it and knowing what you can do differently next time, and focus on the success patterns of your career and remove the areas of your career where you don't thrive and you're not interested in.
The third action from the Korn Ferry article is this network, like it's your job, and here's what they say in the article, because networking is your job.
People always tell me that they are busier now than when they were working full-time. Says the writer. That's how you know you're doing it right. Contact all former bosses, colleagues and employees with whom you have worked well. Let them know what types of roles you are interested in and ask them who else they'd suggest you to speak to.
They say you should not be embarrassed to call them and say, I've left the organization. Have you heard of anything opening? Would you recommend me? And so on. Now this is my take. This is when things get complicated in my view, because I work with clients all over the world, including the United States and other countries, and this advice I find is fine for the United States, but not for Australia, for example, or the uk and many of my clients that work in Southeast Asia.
I think that there is a more subtle way of networking that I recommend for clients that are not in the US if you're in a hurry to find a job, I understand, but being too transactional when you're networking will not help you move things faster, right? So that's how I feel. And I feel that there are some things that culturally are okay to do in some countries and not in others.
So yes, for networking, it should be done in fact all the time, not just when you need a job. If you have a huge gap in your networking efforts and you haven't done. Much networking at all for the past few years, and now you don't have a job, then look, there's nothing you can do to change that. But from now on, just learn that lesson and keep networking going and happening in your career at all times.
It's like brushing your teeth. It's a routine. It needs to be implemented and time needs to be carved out for it. Now what it means, if you haven't done any networking for a long time, it means you may need to be more patient. It means that you may need to be more active on. Platforms like LinkedIn, understanding how to optimize it and automate it.
It means you may need to make sure that your resume and your cover letter and your job applications are ATS compliant. That means that they can be read well by softwares when you apply for jobs and because the networking may take a while to pick up if you haven't nurtured it for a long time, and that's the truth.
Okay? You can speed it up and I have techniques that I work with my clients to speed it up, but they are not sped up by being transactioning and asking for help and asking for recommendations and so forth because it's too much all at once for people that haven't heard from you in a while. So just be careful with that.
If you have been networking for a long time, you will find that as soon. This is the litmus test, everybody. You will find that as soon as people know that you are available. You will be bombarded with opportunities. Now, have you been in that situation? Because if you have, that means that people know you.
Your reputation precedes you, you are top of mind, right? So I have a client, and she lost her job recently, and she has already been contacted by recruiters that know that she's available and know of her as a great candidate to have on a short list. She's been having coffees with recruiters. She's been approached by former colleagues and employers to work for specific projects.
And, you know, that's happening to a couple of my clients. That means that they have a network that is active, that is warm. You know, a warm network is different from a cold network. So just something for you to consider and understand about how networking works.
So my final thoughts about this is, yes, networking should be done at all time. If you have a huge gap, that's okay, but be patient, listen more and ask less. You're there to gather intelligence, ask how they're doing, ask about their jobs, ask about their industries, and instead of asking for help, ask for advice.
What advice would you give me if you were in my place? People love mentoring, but if you ask for help, it might be too much too soon. Alright, moving on to number four. So this is what Korn Ferry has written in the article as number four, actions that you can do if you're laid off. Find organizations that thrill you.
Go to the company's website and look for openings. Jump on LinkedIn to see if any old colleagues or alumni of your school work there and reach out accordingly. They suggesting that this type of networking is called semi-warm because it's with colleagues or alums who are likely to respond trying something like, Hey, we worked study together.
I'm really interested in this role. Would you be available for a quick 10 minute call to tell me about your experience at the company? So again, I partially agree with all of it and I partially disagree. All right, so let's go. What I agree is yes, find organizations that thrill you is super important.
Well done Korn Ferry for recommending that because I find that most people are very reactive when they're looking for work. And then just. Go looking for whatever they can find instead of having a strategic list of organizations that they would like to work for. So yes, for the job market research, a hundred percent agree.
Again, you know culturally sometimes asking too much, too soon of your old colleagues and alumni of the schools you've studied at, depending on the country you're in, it may not be culturally the right thing to do. So just consider that if you are not in the us, in the US alumni is super important.
And we've discussed that in a previous episode of this podcast. I will link it below and how important it is to include alumni as part of your networking and how much easier it is to network with alumni if you're starting from scratch. So things you can ask if you have friends and colleagues that work in organizations that you are in.
Your target list is, the culture, the purpose, diversity and inclusion, innovation, whatever it is important to you. You know, you can find those organizations as well based on rankings, based on awards. Korn Ferry, for example, if you go to their website, you will see that they're a great place to work if you're a woman.
If you like diversity and inclusion, they, they mention that at large. So you can go to websites or you can look for rankings and awards and websites like Glassdoor. You can also look at expenses. So personally, I've always been interested in my career before I became a coach in organizations that invested in r and d in research and innovation, because I was interested in that area.
That was important for me. So I would look at their expenses and if they had an innovation team, if they have an AI team, then that would be a great place for me to work personally. So you can look for that in news as well. You know, you can set up go Google alerts. So finding organizations that thrill you and being proactive about where you want to work is super important.
So over the weekend I worked with a client and that's exactly what we did. You know, we found all the organizations that we could think of top of mind, and then we used Google and Chat gpt to find equivalent organizations. And we built a very thorough R list that he's now following on linked.
Be careful with your approach when connecting about roles with people that you know, that work in those organizations. But yes, do your research. Try to find someone that works in the organizations and if you feel comfortable reaching out to them, then do, because for them there is potentially an incentive on their side in recommending great candidates for roles.
Many organizations have that where they incentivize the staff to come up with recommendations when they're hiring people, especially if there is high demand for specific professionals and it's hard to find them. And yeah, so they will incentivize and give that person a bonus if they end up hiring the person that they recommended.
All right, number five. They are suggesting this, they say, inch your way in. So Korn Ferry wrote the ideal company for you might not have the perfect job opening right at this moment. Doesn't matter. Inch your way in. They say they wrote, propose a consulting gig or project that the company might undertake.
Maybe they can't hire you full-time right now, but they do need help with this specific thing. Short-term gigs can be fun and a good way to stay relevant and in view of potential employees. A hundred percent agree. I don't think there's anything here. There's no buts. There are no buts from Renata. I a hundred percent agree.
In order to do this, you will see that I have done lots of episodes on this, just the one two weeks ago with Bob Jordan is incredibly useful if you're interested in contracting work, in working part-time as a senior executive. Or professional. Go listen to that it's episode 180. There's another one with Joe Mullings 1 64, how to Be an Outsider and Job Hunt Successfully.
We tap on entering executive work as well. If you go to my blog, there are articles that Joe have written about it, so go have a look at that in order for you to approach organizations and introduce yourself as somebody who can support them in many different ways, including under a contract or consulting.
Part-time work. You need to have great networking skills. You need to be persuasive and even seductive and, you know, as part of your pitch to them. Plus you need to have the skills, the knowledge, or connections that they may not have. So, in my personal career, for example, I once had several discussions with a large management consulting firm.
And we had several discussions. They couldn't afford me full-time, and they offered me a part-time role and it was really exciting and tempting. It was a great team. I have very high regards for the partner that would be my boss, and I almost accepted it, except that just before I did, Monash offered me the role that I had.
It was my last role. Before I started this podcast. I was made redundant from that role, but I really wanted that role. it was an exciting opportunity for. And, and my goal was to get that opportunity. So when I got the job offer from Monash, I said no to this part-time gig with this organization.
But, you know I would have said yes. If Monash had said no to me, I would've said yes to this. It happened because I knew the partner, they knew me, they knew what was available. They called me in for a conversation. They asked for a proposal. I wrote a proposal. I presented it to the team.
So it took a while because it was not something that was there waiting for me. We had to carve it out, both of us, that he did, you know, have to find the money and the means and the willing people inside the organization to back up his idea. And I had to present and persuade him that I was the right person to step in and support them.
So I have clients doing that at the moment and they are working one day a week for one organization, two days a week for another organization doing, you know lecturing at the university and, so forth. And amalgamating all of these opportunities. Gives them a great salary in total, probably higher than they would have with a full-time job.
And you may think, oh, you know, that sounds like it's risky. It's not, because if they lose one of these opportunities, they still have the others. And it's quite interesting these days. So something to consider. Listen to the other episodes and understand how the gig economy is working for corporate professionals and senior executives.
Cause it's growing and you might step into some, an interesting trend. Alright. Then what happened was, that was the end of the first article. Okay. Great. A few days later, like I said, I saw another one from Korn Ferry with five more actions you can take if you're laid off. And I was like, oh, this is super interesting.
The authors were different. So the c e o of Korn Ferry was one of the authors and a career coach that works at Korn Ferry was the other author. And I can just see this panning out internally. You know, the article went off and the title was super exciting, and then people internally said, oh, well wait, we have more to say about this.
This can't be the end of it. This is incomplete. And I, felt the same. So when I read it, it finished and I was like, This wasn't really what I was expecting. I was expecting more. So I'm glad that they did a second list. And I actually liked the second list better. I think that they went through the first article and said, okay, where are the gaps?
What else can we do here? And they made a second list that you will see. I have more regards for, for the second list. Both lists were great, you know, but the second list is better. Alright, so the first one in the second list, I'll call it number seven cause they're 10 in total. Oh, wait, no, I'll call it number six because they're 10 in total.
Okay. Number six, absorb and process the news. So this is interesting because it's dealing with exactly what I said about my criticism to number one which was in the first article, right? It says everyone responds differently to the news that they have been laid off. If you've been at the company for a long time and have felt a sense of loyalty, the sense of rejection and hurt can run deep.
If you've known this reduction in force has been coming for a while, you may shrug it off as a business reality, and that's true. You know, some people have been informed months and months beforehand that they will be laid off or this find out the day before or the day off. It's, really different.
My take on this is this, the author here is a career coach and the c e O of Korn Ferry. And they went on and said, okay, let's do this. Right? Let's write, you know, what we really know happens to people that have been laid off. We need another article. And they've done a good job with this action here.
But they say many people respond differently to the news. I'd say a lot of people respond very similarly to rejection. Even if you know in advance, look, it sucks. So I disagree with that. I know what they're trying to say, but the truth is even when, you know, my experience is people usually need some time to get over it and, ruminate and reflect and understand and move on. So give yourself time to grieve. Go through all of the emotions. Give yourself permission to be human before going to market. This is super important. You don't want to sort of brainstorm this with the recruiter. You want to brainstorm this hopefully with a mentor or a coach or somebody that will listen to you without judging, without telling you it's time to move on.
Okay? That's not what you need. When you're going through the emotions, you need somebody to just tell you, I know how you feel. Yeah. You know, it sucks. That's what you need. And I'm glad, now on the list. Okay. All right. Number seven, get clear on your direction. While being laid off feels like a setback, it can be a great opportunity to intentionally take stock of where you've been in your career and where you're going and they say, here, try journaling, or reflecting on whether you really enjoyed your last job.
This is so true. So when I was laid off at Monash, even though I really wanted that job, it got to a point where it was so stressful for me to do the work at the time that. I remember feeling really unhappy after I was laid off. And then if I was, because I, I'm good at journaling. You know, I, I love coaching and, I've been studying this for a long time.
I thought, okay, on a scale of one to 10, I'm here sitting at a three. I'm feeling miserable. But if I'm honest with myself, I was at a three the day before I was made redundant. Like, I wasn't happy either. Right. You know, it's a different type of sadness. Of course. You know, I was stressed, I was concerned, I was worried.
I was trying to save other people's jobs. It was really stressful. I didn't see mine being on the catch list. But I understood that, you know, we were going through our restructure, so I was trying to save my team. I was under a lot of pressure and not very happy. And, you know, the number three after the redundancy was like, oh, I was feeling rejected.
And, you know, like, I hadn't done my job well. Which is not true. It's a restructure, and my job ceased to exist. So even if you are fired because things just didn't work, you didn't go well during the probation see this as a sign, okay? That there are other opportunities there that will suit you better.
Other organizational cultures, other managers, other ways of working, sometimes even other careers that will suit you. There's nothing wrong with you. It's just a time where you can sit and reflect In doing that, journaling and reflection is so important because all of these ideas, they shouldn't be believing in your head.
Your head is filled with all sorts of different voices, and some of the voices can be very mean to you. So if you only sort of think about these things, you will end up feeling overwhelmed. Whereas if you start putting pen to paper or typing in your computer, you will find the truth, you will find the core of the issues and the core of what you want out of your career, believe me.
And if you don't, just try it. Give it a go. You have nothing to lose. It costs you nothing. Number eight is very similar to number seven in my view. It almost could have been the same because number eight in the Korn Ferry. Second article is Build Your Dossier. It says, once your targets are identified, it's absolutely imperative that you customize multiple resumes, your LinkedIn profile and your cova letters for a specific job you are after for the specific job that you're after.
Career experts say targeting includes speaking the right format, keywords, content, and so on. They also recommend including a short summary section that cause attention to a couple of of the most important points. And they say, yes, this is a lot of work and job hunting often feels like a full-time job.
And I smile, I'm smiling, and the reason why I am smiling is my group coaching program is growing through that at a time. So yeah, I absolutely think this is an an important step. I, in fact, have a formula to doing the dossier and to get that clear direction from journaling. It's called Job Hunting Made Simple.
And all my private clients go through this roadmap that I've devised and all of my group coaching participants go through it as well. And. As I record this podcast, I'm in week five of seven weeks of the group coaching program, and it's, things are starting to get real. Like, you know, we are doing all of that, you know, all of that consolidation of multiple resumes and creating master documents.
I call them your collateral. So you already devised your strategy by doing that. Clarification and having that sense of direction and I'm, all about career planning and design. And thinking both long term and short term about your next move, right? So that's your strategies. If you worked in the corporate world, you know, you don't build an operational plan without having a strategy first, and that's the same for your career, right?
So your operational plan for your career are your documents, your collateral, your pitch your LinkedIn profile, your resume, and so forth. So all of that in the job hunting Made simple program, which is my program, we call it a personal portfolio. A personal portfolio, and once you build it during the group coaching or as a private client, you then have it for life and you can go back to it over and over again.
It's not a crystallized document. It's a portfolio that you go back to and you revise it, and you review it, and you update it, you know, you change it, you think about something that you hadn't thought about before. You go to your portfolio, you add that note into your portfolio. So it's very structured, it's very impactful.
It's forward looking, it's forward planning, it's planning for your career in the long term and short term. We also do assessments and, you know, and, and, and all of that kind of validates your thinking. So I, I ask my clients to, to write and journal and answer specific questions that are part of. Personal portfolio.
It's all very structured. And then after they've done that, we do the strengths assessments, and then that kind of validates what they've written down. Or sometimes they're surprised by why the, what they find in the in the strengths assessment reports. But most of the time it really validates and provides them with a narrative in a more sort of scientific explanation of what they believe their talents are and their career drivers and their personal values.
So it's really exciting to do that with clients. I love it, as you can tell. I get really excited.
Okay, so number nine, we're almost done. Number nine in the second article on what to do if you get laid off. Is hire a coach. Now, this is interesting. It's important to know what you do and don't know when it comes to job search. That's in the article from Korn Ferry and they go on about the importance of, you know, working with a coach and, and no matter what your circumstances, this is a great time to hire a coach.
It helps you understand the best practices and so on. And look, yes, they definitely saw that these articles were a great way. And a missed opportunity with the first one to plug their services. They have career coaching at Korn Ferry and they were probably, you know, using this opportunity to sell that to the readers.
And I agree. I am also a career coach and of course, I will tell you this is a great time to get a career career coach to support you. That's my job. That's what I do. I absolutely a hundred percent believe it and I can see the results with my. But I also have done an episode on this podcast where I explain that sometimes coaching is not for you and it won't work for you, and I want you to listen to that episode.
So that is episode 1 32 when coaching doesn't work. I also have an episode called career Coach, what They Do and Why You may need One. That's 1 5 9. So if you're interested to know about coaching and how it can help and maybe why you need it or why you don't need it, 1 3, 2, 1, 5 9 would be great episodes to listen to.
I will have links to it in the episode, show notes, of course, and you know, I could be telling you, you know what I do, et cetera, but you can go to my website and see all my services and read the testimonials that are there from my past clients on how my coaching helped them. It's much better. For me and for you to read how it actually helped real people, rather than me telling you how good a job I do.
So I would recommend you to go to my website and learn more about my services because I have services at every level, you know, every investment, appetite, or budget level. And you can plug and play. You don't have to do a three month or a six month coaching program with me. If you find that that's too much of an investment for you.
There are different ways of engaging a career coach. I have created different ways of engaging with me that might be better for you, more suitable. So have a look at that on my website. There's a link in the episode. Show notes. Number 10, don't trash your old employer. Absolutely. 100% agree. And sometimes we know we are not supposed to do it, but it comes out of our mouths anyway.
I know because I've, you know, interviewed lots of people and yes. And it happens. So in the article, Korn Ferry says, no matter how burnt you may feel by your old employers handling or mishandling of its lay. Your job hunt isn't the time to complain or spill juicy gossip. And they go on and, and explain it.
I'm not going to read everything because I know you get it. Here's my take. Recently I've been working with a client and it's not my first rodeo doing this. I've worked with lots of clients, helping them answer the difficult questions, the questions about why they left, why they resigned, why they were made redundant, why they were laid off.
It is an important preparation. It needs to be done before you walk in to talk to a recruiter. It's worth, it's worth spending time with a coach to get it. Okay. Even if all you can afford is one hour with me, you can buy that on my website and and book and so on. It's really important. It's not just what you say, it's how you react to the question.
It's your body language, it's your tone. People's tones change when you're talking about things that are uncomfortable the words you choose, right? So working on that narrative is so important. Now, I hope you've enjoyed this episode, and if you are looking for work, I have a great free workbook and masterclass that I designed for professionals like you.
The first time I ran this masterclass, which I've done a couple of times, Guess which time of the year? December. It was in December. So it's a time when a lot of people get laid off. I understand that. Now, as I record this episode, it's April we are going through difficult times and challenging times in some industries around the world.
And if you are in transition and looking for work, then I would strongly recommend that you download this free workbook. Listen to the masterclass. It's called Optimized Job Search. It's a workbook and a masterclass in the workbook. It includes three weekly schedules that you can choose from a full-time job search schedule, as well as a part-time schedule and a light schedule.
This way you can see the distribution of tasks that you need to do to optimize your job search, and the masterclass will give you more insight and more detail on each of those tasks and why they are needed as part of your weekly job search efforts. All my clients use this very, very popular resource here on this podcast.
Maybe you already have downloaded it, so if you haven't used it in a while, go back to it. Very popular with my followers and and podcast listeners. I always get good feedback from the optimized job search workbook and masterclass. You can download it from my website is on my front, you know, the homepage.
You can just scroll just after my picture. It's the first thing that you will see very easy. It's fine. Also there will be a link to it in the episode show notes. All of the things that I've mentioned in this episode are linked below. The two articles will be in the episode show notes as well as the links to the podcasts that I have mentioned, and a link to subscribe to the newsletter if you are not a newsletter subscriber yet.
If you don't wanna do any of that, just click subscribe so that my next episode will show in your podcast feed next week. We published every week and I hope to see you back. Bye for now.
I hope that you enjoyed listening to the 10 Actions suggested by Korn Ferry and my reaction to them and my advice. I thought it was fun. I really enjoyed recording this episode. If you are looking for work, I have a great free workbook and masterclass that I designed for professionals like you who are in transition and looking for work.
It's my optimized job search workbook and masterclass. The workbook includes three weekly schedules that you can choose from a full-time job search schedule as well as a part-time and a light schedule. So there's one. Every one of you. This way you can see the distribution of the tasks that you need to do on your job hunting, and the masterclass will give you more insight in detail on each of those tasks and why they're needed.
All my clients use it. It's a very popular resource amongst my followers and the podcast listeners. So it could be that you already downloaded it. If you haven't used it in a while, go back to it. Download it from my website, renata bernard.com. It's on the homepage. It's easy to find. There's also a link to it in the episode.
Show notes. In the episode show notes, you'll also find the two articles from Korn Ferry that we reviewed today, as well as all the links to other episodes that I've mentioned here today. Ciao for now. I'd love to see you here next time. Remember to subscribe and follow us. There will be another episode in a week's time, and then also a big backlog of episodes for you to go into if you're new.
Bye for now. See you soon.