How to Turn Your Layoff into a MASSIVE Career Advantage

Getting laid off is tough, and if it has happened to you, the first thing Jeff and I want you to know is that it’s not your fault. It’s a failing of the company, not a reflection of your worth. 

This week, we’re talking about how to handle the immediate aftermath of a layoff and how to turn this challenging moment into a massive professional advantage. We want to help you process the news, manage the logistics, and get back into the game stronger than ever.

In this episode, we’re talking about:

• The very first thing you should do after being laid off
• How to share the news without damaging your professional reputation
• The one thing you should never do in a LinkedIn post about your layoff
• Why a layoff doesn't actually look bad on your resume
• When and how to explain employment gaps to recruiters
• Using your time off to upskill and become a better candidate
• Creating a job-search schedule to avoid burnout and stay motivated

Listen in to help us, help you give yourself the best chance of landing your Next Job… NOW :)

Download Greg's FREE Layoff First Aid Kit: 

https://greglangstaff.kit.com/layoff-first-aid-kit

Greg’s FREE Resume Template is available here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/resume-templates

Greg’s FREE Resume Writing Course is available here: 

https://youtu.be/z9oEbG1GhqM?si=qOCB3yLLnETzFEJY

Greg’s Resume WRITING Services can be found here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/must-hire-packages  

Greg’s Resume REVIEW Services can be found here: 

https://greglangstaff.com/resume-linkedin-reviews

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Here's my advice. If you get laid off, this can be a massive advantage because you have time available now to make yourself a better candidate. So go look at job descriptions of jobs you want. See what skills they're asking for people to have, and then go study those topics.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:19

Get your LinkedIn Learning or Coursera wherever you want to go. We have no alliances yet. Um, unless we get a sponsor, and then like study those. Get some certificates, get those skill sets, add them to your resume. You're ready to talk about them in interviews, and you are gonna come through so much stronger than you were before the layoff that you'll be you'll feel like it was an advantage.

SPEAKER_03 0:47

Welcome to Next Job Now, the podcast where we help you get your next job right now.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Welcome to the podcast. I'm Greg Langstaff. I'm a certified resume strategist. I have written over 2,000 resumes, and I love helping people get new jobs.

SPEAKER_03 1:12

And I'm Jeff, and I have a lot of questions about job searching. Together, we're gonna talk about everything you need to know about landing your next role. Today we're gonna talk about recovering from a layoff. There is it's a it's emotional. We talked a little bit about that in our last episode. Like getting laid off sucks, and we hope that you never experience that. But if you do, listen to this episode because we're gonna help you bounce back.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

And if you haven't been laid off yet, go take a listen to last week's episode because we talked about how to spot a layoff coming and also how to get ahead of it so that you can make sure you don't have a gap in your experience from you know from the layoff. Uh, also, we're gonna be talking a lot about today recovering from a layoff in terms of like your emotional recovery, but also like job-wise, logistically, how do we get back in the game as fast as possible? How do we come back better and stronger? We're gonna talk about all these things, but first, if you don't mind, Jeff and I would very much appreciate if you took a moment to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you're enjoying it on. Like us, like the video on YouTube, leave us a comment. We're gonna start integrating some feedback, some questions from the audience through our YouTube comments as well. So, yeah, uh engage any way you can. It really helps us and makes us want to keep on going. So, thank you.

SPEAKER_03 2:41

And thank you for being here. So, let's chat about how to recover from a layoff. Greg, what is the first thing you should do after being laid off?

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Uh, you might think I'm gonna say after a layoff, you should apply to a zillion jobs, update your resume, tell everyone you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

No. What? I want you to just take a moment, just process it. Relax. Like the difference between applying to a job today and applying to a job in two days after you've sat in it for a little bit is not gonna change the course of your life, but it is really gonna help you with your mental health, with your processing, and we just want you in a good headspace, applying to jobs that you actually want.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Yeah, especially if that layoff came out of nowhere and you weren't ready for it, it will take a toll.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Right? For some of us, it might be motivating and go home and work on my resume. Sure. But for a lot of us, I think even if that is your thing, take take the space because it's just gonna hit you later.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

So take the space that first you're saying that first day, first 48 hours, 24 hours, like yeah, whatever whenever it feels good, but at least 24 hours of just let it sink in.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

Yeah. Well, from there, where do we go? Like, how do we tell people that we've been laid off?

SPEAKER_01 4:06

Uh okay. So there's a few ways to tell people that you've been laid off that will help you actually get a job again. First, I'd go one-to-one to anyone you trust, anyone you've had a great time working with in the past who wouldn't know this happened. So, like, your old boss. Like, if I got laid off for some reason, I would go back to each of my old bosses who I who I liked. And I'm I'm lucky because I've liked all my bosses. I was gonna say you've answered your boss. I have, I really have. Yeah, I would go to them first, or colleagues you've enjoyed working with, past clients, and just let them know hey, this this happened, I've I've been laid off, I will probably start job searching soon. Please let me know if if anything comes up in your organization, on your team, or if you know of anyone, because I know you know what I bring to the table, and you would be able to put in a good word for me at a place where you feel like I would be a good fit. Those like that closest inner circle of allies, one-to-one, I would let them know first. Then there is also a phase where you would tell everyone that you were laid off. This is typically a social media broadcast, a LinkedIn post. Yeah. I'd hit LinkedIn, I'd hit your Instagram story if you're an Instagram user.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

And in that, how we craft that message is so important because you could tank your entire career if you tell people about your layoff the wrong way. If you say, I was just laid off, I was blindsided, how dare they? Yeah, no one is gonna want to hire you after that kind of a backlash, unprofessional behavior. But if you come in and say, I'm so sad to announce that after X great years at this company, they have made the difficult decision to downsize their team, and I was affected during this change. I am now taking some time to recover, regroup. And if anyone knows of any position you think I would be a good fit for, I'm definitely interested in speaking more about that. Please don't hesitate to reach out. That's a nice message.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Yeah, if you let your emotions drive your response sometimes, you're going to be job searching longer.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Yes, and no one's like, and that's gonna taint everyone's impression of you. So handle it with grace, even if they were very, very like uncool about it and they did blindside you and all that stuff, kind of like what happened to you after you cut your budget 40% for them, and then they fired you anyway.

SPEAKER_03 6:50

Yeah, it hurts. And like I think that next my next question is how do I bounce back emotionally and professionally?

SPEAKER_01 7:00

The way to bounce back from a layoff emotionally is to first know that it's not your fault. Right, getting laid off is a failing of your company, not a failing of you. If they were making enough money to keep your position on, they would. If they had strategically made a mistake in creating your position, they shouldn't have done so. Like both of those things are their fault. And I just hate when I hear from people that getting fired because the company was downsizing, getting laid off as it is, like shocks their confidence, and it shouldn't. Like, if you got fired because your boss is like, you have underperformed your targets every year for the last three years, sure, that should hit you. You should feel bad about your performance. But if you get laid off because the industry is just disappearing, which is often the case, or your company was bought by an external company that just wanted to keep their people, that's not your fault, and you should not feel bad at all.

SPEAKER_03 8:09

Yeah, that's reassuring, right? I think uh we get so caught up in being frustrated of losing our job and the worry, right? Like we are all human and we have lives that we need. We have houses, we have rent, we have food. So being employed is really important. So I'm sure like advice of like go and find out what your local benefits are, unemployment benefits that might be available to you, because those are you'll need to apply, and like there's some um like life admin, I imagine, that you gotta get going.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Yeah, we cover that actually a lot in the uh layoff first aid kit that you created, Jeff. Yeah, we created, but you did most of the work on that. Yeah, you did. So Jeff, Jeff and I co-created, but he did all the work, um, a layoff first aid kit, which covers like yeah, the administrative pieces, like what do you need to do to make sure you're you're getting your unemployment, get your insurance squared away, and then stop making student loan payments if you're eligible. Like, there's a bunch of save money. There's a bunch of stuff to do. And then, like, we also talked about the networking. We've got like word-for-word scripts for networking and getting your resume like fired up, up to date, ready to go. Um, that's all in our layoff first aid kit, which is on my website, GregLangstaff.com, and it's free.

SPEAKER_03 9:35

It's 100% free.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

And it's totally free.

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Like, we made this resource because we wanted to help people who experience the layoff.

SPEAKER_02 9:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 9:46

Right? In there, there are scripts, email templates, how to tell your community that you've lost your job. Like, because the emotional labor of a lot of this life admin and then telling people and then like coming up with what to say, we have taken care of that. So download this resource, send it to a friend who uh recently lost their job. It's called the Layoff First Aid Kit, and it's we're really proud of it.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

Yeah, it's here to help.

SPEAKER_03 10:12

Ton ton of resources. But I think this is this is where I get upset, is this is what a lot of people say. It looks pretty bad on your resume if you get laid off.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

No, it doesn't. It does not look bad on your resume if you get laid off.

SPEAKER_03 10:33

Agreed.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

I don't know why everyone's so upset. Why? What do they what do they what do they mean? Okay, so I think people carry this weight of like, I should have saved my position by doing better. But it's so rarely is that the case. If you get laid off on your resume and you want to say that, go for it. Like, you can have your little overview of you know, recruited by this large footwear apparel manufacturer and held responsibility for strategic planning and manufacturing and supply chain, and then and then your little overview ends with like position was terminated during a layoff in 2024. Like that just explains away any reason they would have been worried about why you left that role. Now you don't have to say you got laid off in your resume. Only reason I would do this is if you have a few short stints in a row. If you were here for six months, here for three months, here for eight months, and you can't seem to string together like a year plus anywhere because you keep getting laid off. I would explain that in the resume just with like a phrase like that.

SPEAKER_03 11:45

So, say we had a contract and then next position we were laid off, and then a contract, and then next position we were laid off, like a series of unfortunate situations, economy's not great. Are you explaining each one?

SPEAKER_01 11:58

Yeah, I would. You would if you've been staying in a jobs in jobs like a year plus, you don't have to explain why you left in your resume.

SPEAKER_03 12:06

Is that the threshold? One year.

SPEAKER_01 12:08

I would say so. Or even if it's one stint under a year, you're good. Yeah. What they're looking for is patterns because what we don't want is anything that makes them think, oh, you seem to only stay at jobs for eight to ten months, and then you leave and you don't explain why. I'm gonna assume you're either quitting or getting fired. Yeah. Then I'm gonna assume if I hire you in eight months, I'm gonna have a big problem.

SPEAKER_03 12:35

Now you we've talked about how to how to bounce back. So, like it sucks, we're at a we've lost our job. Let's move on. Let's get something better.

SPEAKER_01 12:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:47

Let's we got time. Let's use this time. How can I use my time off to find something even better? Hmm.

SPEAKER_01 12:57

Okay. I mean, step one obviously is we gotta update the resume. Yeah. Um, that is, you know, go back, listen to our first few episodes, check out on my YouTube page, uh, Greg Langstaff Career Coach. That will we're that will cover how to write your resume. We're not gonna get into it right here in this episode, but update your resume, update your LinkedIn profile, um, and just make sure like you're ready to apply when good jobs come along. The other thing to do in your spare time while you're off is to actually use this to our advantage and like upskill ourselves. So, like, here's my advice: if you get laid off, this can be a massive advantage because you have time available now to make yourself a better candidate. So go look at job descriptions of jobs you want, see what skills they're asking for people to have, and then go study those topics. Yeah, get your LinkedIn Learning or Coursera, wherever you want to go. We have no alliances yet, um, unless we get a sponsor, and then and then like study those, get some certificates, get those skill sets, add them to your resume, you're ready to talk about them in interviews, and you are gonna come through so much stronger than you were before the layoff that you'll be you'll feel like it was an advantage.

SPEAKER_03 14:20

Yeah, you have the space to put the dedication into each application and not be burnt out.

SPEAKER_01 14:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:26

Now you've created a calendar and a schedule for people to job search.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

To prevent the burnout because you can't apply to 150 jobs a week.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

No. And like we, yeah. So check out again the YouTube channel. Yes. Um, we built like a schedule for someone who's unemployed and has all day to job search because I know from when I've been unemployed uh 10 years ago, that like if you have all day to apply for jobs, that means some days you're gonna apply to a zillion jobs, and some days you're gonna feel like garbage. You're just gonna sit on the couch getting bored of your same video games over and over again, and just feeling like you don't have a purpose in life. So, what we did is we created a schedule that like defines like when should you be working on your resume, your LinkedIn, when should we be upskilling ourselves through you know, study? When should we be applying to jobs? And when should we be kind of networking and uh build using the relationships we have? And like in setting up a nice schedule for yourself like that through the week, you then are also free to enjoy all your spare time. Yeah, because like I don't know if you feel this way, because we both had like some stints of being unemployed. After it's over, your time unemployed feels like such a blip. Whereas it might have felt like eternity while it was happening. And I feel that I it was a huge wasted opportunity to just enjoy a little bit of relaxation for once in my life, and I wish I had done that.

SPEAKER_03 16:04

Well, let's end with something a little bit more fun.

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:07

This is our unusual interview where we ask each other questions uh that we hope you don't get asked in an interview. This one's connected to our topic today. What is one hobby or random thing that you got into during your time? You're five months unemployed.

SPEAKER_01 16:25

I was also dealing with like a physical ailment at the time. I have like, what happened was I had like some brutal whiplash from a flag football game, but I thought I had a concussion. So I was not doing any sports at the time because I thought that would make it worse. Uh I got really into walking up and down the mountainside. And because we I I was shipped away to the Appalachians. Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 16:55

I was like, that's a beautiful space. That's a beautiful space.

SPEAKER_01 16:58

It was yeah, it was nice, um, a little out of my element. But uh yeah, that's like that's the only thing that kind of kept me going because again, my girlfriend would get up and leave at 8 a.m. to go to work and come back at like 5:30, and I didn't have a car, there wasn't civilization around us, I was just there alone. Yeah. So nature and walking kind of helped. Nice. Yeah, I like that.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Thank you. It's a healthy hobby to get into.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 17:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:32

Uh, Jeff, I have an un completely unrelated question for you. Yeah, perfect. Unusual interview question. You told me not but five hours ago, that essentially listening to a movie or television show with the speakers ingrained in your TV was absolutely unacceptable.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

It is unacceptable.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

You first question, do you know that that's a very rare opinion? And second question, explain yourself.

SPEAKER_03 18:03

Um, it is certainly not a rare opinion, and this video is about to go viral with everyone in the comments telling you that you're wrong because listening to a TV show or a fantastic film on a nice big screen television while the audio sounds like you're listening through a tin can is disrespectful.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

I don't think my nice TV has tin can audio. I think it's pretty much fine.

SPEAKER_03 18:31

Your TV's audio is garbage compared to just get a hundred dollar soundbar. Your TV speakers suck. I will not listen to built-in speakers. And I love my friends who have their televisions at their homes with their built-in speakers and they don't have soundbars, and we can hang out, but we don't need to watch movies together. We can do other activities. Come over to my house if you want to watch a movie.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Alright. Well, I had to I had to give you the chance to talk about it. Uh thanks for coming, everyone. Jeff and I are going to watch a movie. No, we're not. I will not watch a movie here.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

All right. What are we doing next week? Oh. Thanks so much for listening. Uh, I hope this episode helped you and I hope you land an amazing rule. Please like, follow, and subscribe to our podcast, uh, and leave a comment. Tell us how great we're doing. You can don't forget to please grab Greg's Layoff First Aid kit for free at greglangstaff.com. Join us next week where we talk about gaps on your resume and how to talk about those gaps during the interview. See you next week.