How To Deal With A Sudden Job Loss

If you just discovered that you’re losing your job, you’ve come to the right place. I’m going to share how to deal with a sudden job loss if you’ve just found out you’re losing your job or dealing with a very unexpected income loss. 

It can be pretty scary. Trust me. I know firsthand. I dealt with a very unexpected income loss and had to pivot/adjust, and in fact, that’s the genesis of this particular article. 

In my role as a senior recruiter and career coach, I help people navigate through very uncertain times in their careers.   And layoffs are one of the most disruptive things that you’ll deal with in your adult life.

So I want to give you some ideas on how you can address the income loss in a way that’s the most productive for you and your family. So let’s talk from a high level. 

11 Tips on How to Deal With A Sudden Job Loss

Evaluate Your Current Situation

The first (and most obvious) thing that we need to do is take a look at our current financial and employment situation. 

And specifically what your financial situation is at this exact moment. And we all know about the idea of having an emergency fund. You should have an emergency fund setup that will cover six months of your expenses. 

The longer period of time that you can survive on that emergency fund, the better you’ll be able to ride the waves.

You may be facing not only an income disruption but having to pivot altogether to an entirely different career. Or dealing with a considerable change of lifestyle due to a reduced income. This new reality is probably in the beginning. It’s likely going to be a little rocky for you.

If your situation allows, start building an emergency fund.  Once you have an emergency fund, you’re covering your minimum baseline. You’re establishing your ability to just simply survive. 

Come Up With A Strategy

The next thing that we need to do is come up with a strategy. Generally speaking, when you look at the post-layoff strategy, look at the required steps in the order needed to achieve your goal. 

So if you’re trying to replace your income with an equal or equivalent job, your strategy is going to look a little different than somebody in touch to pivot entirely out of their chosen career path.

So then we really need to sit down and look at the skills that are required for that career path and see where we gap. And so what we want to do is write down the steps in order. 

And I suggest that you write out the things that you want to achieve in the chronological order that they need to be accomplished.  Once you put it on paper, you can start to massage it a little bit. Move things around, erase and add things as necessary. 

Budgeting

So once we have our strategies set, then we want to look at our potential liabilities. And if you’re in a situation where you’re gonna have a potentially long-term income disruption, you need to be very aggressive with your budgeting. So I suggest printing out your bank statements. 

Start looking at where you’re spending is happening because a lot of times, you’ll get budget creep if you haven’t been paying attention to it.   It’s a good exercise to go through an audit occasionally to cancel those pesky recurring expenses you forgot about.  (if you haven’t done this recently, it’s eye-opening!)

And you also want to look at if you got an expensive car payment or some debt that you need to try to reduce. 

Now is the time to really see if you can start to tackle them and bring your monthly cash flow requirements down because you start to Hone in your budget. The amount that you need to make each month is going to get smaller, and it’s gonna equal less stress for you. With proper budgeting, you can deal with how to deal with a sudden job loss.

Should You Consider Relocation While Laid Off?

For those living in high-cost of living areas, it may be difficult to reduce expenses. Moving to a lower cost of living area might be a viable option. In fact, that’s exactly what my wife and I did back in 2020. 

We were living in Chicago and decided to move south to a much cheaper area that had tax advantages.  As an added bonus, we landed in a warmer climate with a strong job market.

We also were able to get closer to the family by making a move. So there was a support structure, and we didn’t really have that where we were. So if you’re unhappy with your current living situation, maybe you should really look long and hard about whether it is the right place for you. 

And is this the time that you should be making all of those changes in your life?

But is it the right time to move? 

If you think about it…maybe while you’re laid off is the best time to move.  You’re already going through the upheaval. Might as well get it all done at once. And you could find yourself more mentally happy in a place with a fresh start. 

Assuming that you’ve got your budgeting down, you’re in a place where you can realistically survive, you’re relatively happy, and you’ve got the emergency fund. Relocation can help you deal with a sudden job loss.

Tune Up Your Resume

Now let’s start looking at the tools necessary to get you there. You’ll need a finely tuned resume in order to get noticed by the recruiter. But you’ll also have to have some strategy for how you use the resume to get the best possible results. 

Writing a solid resume is one of the most important skills you need to learn in your career. 

I would strongly suggest putting the energy into learning how to write your resume, but also how to use it. And if you’re somebody that has not updated your resume in several years, you really need to start making it an active document going forward in your career. 

Brush Up Your Interview Skills

While you’re at it, you might as well also look at those interview skills because you’re likely going to need them pretty soon, too. So if you’re somebody that gets overly nervous in your interview, check out my videos on how to improve your interview skills and truly impress the recruiter.

Don’t wait until you NEED those skills in real life. Focus on acquiring them now. You’re going to have enough stress on your plate as it is. Trying to play catch up while you’re dealing with upheaval in your life is just an added stressor you don’t need. 

Starting Your Targeted Job Search

Okay, so we’ve got a great resume, and we know how to interview effectively and sell ourselves. Now, we need to look at the targeted job search. So if you’re in a certain company, a certain industry, or a certain part of the world that is dominated by a certain type of employer, now is the time to start looking at who are the potential employers in your market, specifically local. 

In today’s nomadic world,  a lot of us are able to work remotely so the possibilities for employment have opened up considerably.  Look beyond your local market, you may have more options than you realize. 

And If you’re somebody that’s looking to make a break into an entirely new industry, I suggest that you check my video out about it here.  

Build Multiple Streams of Income

The next tip is something I strongly believe to be a critical component to your survival and adverse employment decision. Focus on building multiple streams of income. It is the single most effective method to navigate uncertainty. 

Multiple streams of income come in many different forms.  For some, it’s starting a business. For others, it’s doing consulting work on the side.  But there are many ways to earn additional revenue streams on the side.  And some do not even require your time. 

Investing in Dividend Stocks/Cryptos

Not interested in a proper business? There are ways to earn residual income without lifting a finger. Find some stable, dividend-paying investments and sock money away each month.
Learn how to invest and reap the rewards of dividends or passive income.  There are also cryptocurrencies that pay out residuals for doing things you’d already normally do, like the Brave web browser. 

(As a disclaimer, you should consult a certified financial investment professional before making any investment decisions.)  

Sell Products or Services Online

People also start blogs, YouTube channels and sell on Amazon. There are so many ways that you can make alternative streams of income than just having a corporate job. And I think that’s absolutely a great thing because you can build something on your own that you’ll entirely control.

No more being at the mercy of an employer, and you can grow your side hustle on nights and weekends. 

Sell Your Knowledge!

If you have a particular skill or knowledge you’ve spent years learning, consider selling your knowledge in the form of a course!  It’s easier than you think now that there are tools to do so. I personally use Teachable, which is initiative and you’ll be up and running in a weekend!

If you’re faced with a situation where you’re gonna be dealing with a sudden income disruption, you probably have a little bit more time on your hands than you normally would.

Think of all the energy that you can put into that business to make it successful. That’s exactly what I did with A Life After Layoff. I had a period of time when I was unemployed, and I worked feverishly to start my YouTube channel, build my website, and build my business while I had the time to do it.

And I tell you what; I would not have been able to do this had I not been unemployed. So consider building multiple streams of income now because they do take time to build.

Build Your Networks

The next tip as you’re exiting your employer is to start to really think about building your networks. Think about the people that you most closely worked with at your current job, and it could even be vendors that you worked with. 

If you’ve not built your network at all, think about who you went to school with, any classmates that you might be able to lean on, or people in previous jobs that you used to work with.   

LinkedIn Networking Can Be Powerful!  

While you’re building your networks, be sure to add them to your LinkedIn profile. You do have a LinkedIn profile, correct??  It’s a great place to keep up with industry trends and see what your networks are up to.   

Another advantage to building your networks on LinkedIn is that you gain access to the networks of EVERYONE you connect with! If you’re not familiar, 

Keep in mind that it’s better to network with those companies and hiring managers who already have jobs posted.   So that should be a critical part of your job search strategy.  

Not sure where to start? I created a course called Unlocking LinkedIn, which shows you exactly how to do this! 

Consider Consulting Instead of Contracting

There are also people with that you can potentially market your side hustles. And if you’re 

somebody sitting there saying, “gosh, I don’t know what to do. All I know how to do is what I’ve been doing forever, and I won’t be able to do it anymore.” You might want to consider consulting instead of contracting. 

So if you’re somebody that’s built up a very niche skill set and you have a lot of intellectual property that you’ll be taking with you from the employer. 

That might be an opportunity to go back to your previous employer and offer your services as a consultant and make sure you value yourself very appropriately. There’s likely a high value to the information that you have stored up in your head. 

Do you have “tribal knowledge” to share?

Let me give you a quick example. I know somebody that is losing their position that they’ve worked out for 20 years, and they have a very high degree of tribal knowledge.

The company that they’re working for is going to really struggle with this opening because they’re just aren’t a lot of people that do that type of work.

So this person is going to position themselves as a consultant. Go back to the company as they try to pass on the tribal knowledge. And this person is going to be likely able to charge an elevator rate because the company doesn’t have a lot of options.

That’s why the networks are so important because you can potentially go back to previous coworkers, bosses, and companies that you’ve worked for and offer your services as a consultant. It’s a great idea for somebody that’s really kind of stuck on what to do next. 

Do Not Freak Out

The last thing I want to suggest is not to freak out. Have to trust in your own ability to provide the path for yourself. But again, it does take hard work, but I’m confident, and I speak with 100% experience in this if you’re truly motivated and dedicated to what you want to do. You will be able to accomplish it. You just have to be smart, and you have to take proactive measures starting today. 

Conclusion – Surviving a sudden job loss

That was all about how to deal with a sudden job loss. There are some ways that you can survive and deal with that unexpected income loss. If you’re somebody that is in this situation and you’re looking for more help, it’s actually something that I specialize in. 

I mentioned that I have some training courses in there that you should check out. And if you want to set up that private one-on-one consultation to unpack your situation specifically, I also offer those as well. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments section below!