~10 min read
How to Handle Getting Fired
Let’s start with the obvious. Getting fired absolutely sucks. Suddenly, all your plans go out the window, and you have a new, huge thing to deal with.
There have been a ton of layoff announcements over the past few years from
- Tech sector cutbacks
- Banks failing
- And sometimes just layoffs because of economic stress
The purpose of this article is to help those of you facing this job loss now and help the rest of you know what to do if it happens to you.
And, it can happen to anyone. Jerry Seinfeld, Michael Bloomberg and Oprah were all fired at one point in their careers.
I have some personal experience as well. I was fired when my team was turfed at a previous firm.
Getting fired is an awful experience. For many people, it’s a kaleidoscope of emotions ranging from fear to shame to anger.
The most important thing to remember is that it will be ok. It may not feel like that at the time, but it’s probably true.
You may not want to hear this, but like most things in life, the choices you make are going to help or hinder you in this regard. I’ll get into that a little later.
For the moment, I’m going to offer you a roadmap of my suggestions on what to do if you’ve been fired. We’ll start with the moment you get the news.
Handling The Awful Discussion
No question about it…that conversation sucks. That being said, there are a couple of things you can do to help yourself out.
1) Listen more than talk. You’ll have a couple of questions to ask, but overall, you’re taking in information.
The biggest reason is that you’re probably going to be angry. The reality is that no one ever says anything smart when they’re angry.
You may believe it’s wrong and unfair that it’s happening. And you may be right – but save your rant for another time and another place. Find a friend who’ll listen to you explain just how much of a moron the higher-ups in your former company are.
The other key reason is that there’s going to be some important information you’ll need to try to take in. Things like severance, extended health coverage and details on outplacement assistance may be included.
Be as professional as possible and avoid burning your bridges.
2) Ask why you’re being fired. It’s a fair and reasonable question. You might find out it has nothing to do with you personally or your performance and instead is a cost-cutting exercise.
Alternatively, you may discover it’s due to a mistake or failure on your part. While this will probably sting, it’s really important for your growth. It might flag an area you are weak in or simply prove to be a somewhat costly lesson on what to fix.
3) 🚫 Do not sign anything. There are likely to be a bunch of documents written in legalese. Most people will need to read and digest them to understand them fully.
You may even want to have an employment lawyer look at them.
It might cost you some money upfront, but it saves you time and money down the road.
You’ve just had a shock to the system. Take a couple of days to digest and process what’s happened.
You’ll still be dealing with the severance agreement and possibly having a lawyer review it.
However, in my view, you’ll want to start getting the ball rolling sooner rather than later on getting on to the next chapter.
What Comes Next
The basic framework to apply is pretty simple.
Step 1. Figure out what you want
Step 2. Plan how you’re going to accomplish that and
Step 3. Execute that plan.
This is going to be iterative. If you’ve been working for a while, you probably haven’t interviewed in some time or updated your resume, let alone developed and executed a job search plan.
You are going to have to tweak and modify the plan along the way so don’t view this as a one and done. In the course of talking to people, you might discover something you were interested in is not nearly as appealing as you thought.
But let’s not put the cart before the horse. Step 1 is figuring out what you want.
Step 1. What Do You Want?
Figuring out what you want the next chapter to be is mostly driven by questions.
- Do you want to get a similar job in a similar industry?
- Do you want to change industries?
- Do you want to change jobs?
- Is this an opportunity to go back to school or get some retraining?
- Do you want to try something entrepreneurial?
- Are you willing to relocate for a job?
These are some of the questions. The tricky part is that you have to pair the “What do you want” assessment with the “What does my background position me for.”
Let’s keep things simple for argument’s sake since many people will be looking for a similar job.
This is where the rubber hits the road because that means it’s time to plan.
Step 2. Make A Plan
Planning for most people is going to come in two parts simultaneously: job search planning and interview prep planning.
Job Search Plan
Now that you’ve figured out that you’re targeting a job similar to the one you had, I recommend making a list of possible companies to target.
Before I get any further, let me STRONGLY recommend you use the app Notion as we go forward. It will be a real help in keeping everything in your job search organized and help keep you on track.
Keeping everything organized is going to be an enormous help, far more than it seems at first.
If you don’t already have a really good job search filing system and you’d like to avoid spending hours of your time building one, you might consider purchasing my Job Search Organizer in Notion.
Ok, back to the plan…
Start by making a list of companies with jobs similar to yours in your city. Depending on what you do, you may find that there are too few (<5) or too many (>30) possible companies.
If there are too many, focus on listing your preferred companies.
If there are too few, consider if you are being too narrow in your thinking.
Are there smaller companies that might be a possibility? Are there companies with roles slightly adjacent to your target that might be suited to you?
Once you make that list of companies, list the people you know at each company in the next column. These are people who you can have a coffee with to
1) help you understand the culture and environment at those firms and
2) potentially connect you with the right people for when an opportunity emerges
Basically, you’re going to get your job one of two ways.
- You might see a posting and be one of the hundreds of resumes submitted, or,
- much more likely, there will be a hiring need, and someone says, “You know who would be great in this role…” and your name comes up.
Given that, your job for the next while is to connect with as many people as possible who might be in a position to say that.
In addition, you want to have already gained some understanding of the firm’s culture, so you’re ready for the interview.
Interview Prep Plan
There’s a chance that you haven’t done an interview in some time.
There’s way too much to get into now about interview prep – check out other things I’ve written – but make sure to work on this. A good interview can make all the difference.
A couple of things I’ll highlight…
1) During your time between jobs, do things to upgrade yourself. Develop a new skill that’s relevant to your job.
Everyone does the mental exercise of “Wow, if I weren’t so busy at work, I’d…”
You want to be able to go into interviews saying, “I’m not the kind of person who sits around watching Netflix all day. I took advantage of this time to…”
2) 📕Develop a reading habit, either physical books, audiobooks, or even podcasts. This is just a shorthand for learning: learning about your industry, learning about self-improvement, or learning how to be better at your job.
3) Get smart on AI and GPTs. This is potentially going to become more and more relevant as time passes.Once you get past the basics, becoming good at using prompts is what it’s all about. This skill will help you in many jobs and is great to mention in interviews as you highlight how to apply it.
4) Follow valuable content creators. Hopefully, you find my content helpful, but make sure to also check out others like Austin Belcak, who produces enormously valuable job search content.
Step 3: Execute The Plan
There’s not much to say here, really.
By this point, you’ve thought things through and laid out a plan. All that remains is to start.
As you start to receive feedback, evaluate your work and integrate it into your plan.
For example, you’re going to be continuously evaluating your interview skills: how you handle questions you’re asked, and much more in your after-action report.
You may conclude that you need more practice interviewing. You can get some coaching, work on the content of your answers and/or record yourself a few times and critique yourself.
Keep going with this, and hopefully, it won’t be long before you’re back to work again, frantically trying to get it all done!
A Couple More Things To Consider
I want to mention two other things before wrapping up for this week.
Staying Mentally Strong
Depending on your situation, you could be experiencing a lot of stress. Maybe you have young kids or are the sole breadwinner. These or many other circumstances can amplify the pressure of being out of work.
It’s easier said than done, but maintaining a positive attitude is incredibly helpful. You’ll come across better in interviews, and there is plenty of evidence that we’re less able to access our creative resources when we’re stressed.
Maybe it’s meditation, maybe it’s playing with your kid, or maybe it’s working out (which I’d highly recommend to burn stress) – whatever healthy option works for you – embrace it.
Putting The Unfairness Behind You
When I came home after our team was let go, I explained what happened to my family. The first thing my kids said was how unfair it was.
While I appreciated their support, I resolved to put it behind me as quickly as possible.
One of the things I reminded them of was that we live in a safe first-world country with the rule of law, where their mother and I both had good educations and where we weren’t really worried about food and shelter. They had two parents who loved them.
In the cosmic scales of “fairness,” we are among the more fortunate. I suspect that is generally true for many of you as well.
Looking at it this way really helped me. I hope it helps you as well, but if not, you need to find your own way to make peace with what happened.
You may have gotten a raw deal. It may have been utterly unfair the way it played out for you. The termination may have had nothing to do with you.
I promise you that no employer is looking for someone with anger and emotional baggage from their previous job loss. Over the years, I’ve had lots of coffees with people who’ve been let go from their jobs, and it is very quickly apparent who is mentally ready to move on and who isn’t.
You will help yourself a lot in your job search if you get past the unfairness of what happened. Find a friend or your spouse who’ll let you rant when you need to get it out of your system, and then let it go.
Parting Thoughts
Hopefully, none of this will be useful for any of you dear readers since you’ll never be in this situation. If it proves useful, I’m glad you were armed with it beforehand.
Please email me back and let me know if there’s anything I wrote that you weren’t clear about or want me to discuss in more detail.
Also, don’t be shy if you want me to address any questions.
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