Young Adults: What To Do After Leaving Your Job/Getting Fired

Hey There Dolls,

This post is something I've been wanting to write for a few months now, and especially at this point in my healing process I think it will give me the extra push I need.

In April of this year I was given a promotion at the company I had been working for for three years.  It was a huge step for me, and one I was more than willing to accept.  I went from being a regular Joe to someone with some influence, and a lot of responsibilities.  At the time I was bright, chipper, and so enthusiastic about adding to the new chapter of my life, which started when I moved to Virginia.

Around the same time as I got my new position, I also started to have some very personal problems.  After about four months of working in my new position, the stress and my insistence on being perfect added to the problems I was having, and I left my dream position to work out some kinks and get myself back on track.  On my birthday I put in my two weeks notice, and cried for days.  

My anxiety kicked itself up a few more notches in the next two months, and finally after some soul searching, books, tea, and a lot of hemming and hawing, I finally decided I needed to pick myself back up and put myself back out there.  This leads me to the real part of my post: What to do after you leave a job/get fired. (AKA what my next month will look like)

First things first: 
 Breathe.  It will be okay.  You will get another job, you are not alone, and you are not a failure.  If you need a few days/weeks/months to pull yourself together, then do so.  As long as you can afford your hiatus it may not be a terrible thing to get your mind in the right state before you start looking for a new job.  Take this window to figure out what interests you, how much money you want to be making, are you a full time job person or a part time job person, are you willing to travel, do you want an office 9-5 job or a fluctuating schedule.  Figure out the kind of work environment you want to be in and what you liked/didn't about the job you had before.
Then follow these few little steps to get you started on the next part of your life.

1. Write your resume.  I can not stress this enough.  I had my resume written a full month before I left my position, and kept tweaking it until it was something I felt proud to put out there.  Even if you have minimal work experience don't let that stop you from creating a resume.  Your resume is a reflection of you.  It should be thoughtful and direct, and a representation of how you want the working world to see you.  It is the first and sometimes only thing a potential employer will see before they schedule an interview with you.  Don't lie on your resume, but don't sell yourself short either.  It's also never a bad thing to have a few people look over your resume before you put it out there.  They may be more eloquent than you, or if they are managers themselves, they may know what companies like them are looking for in a resume.

2. Put that resume everywhere, and get involved in social media sites.  Put your resume on Monster.com, jobs.com, theladders.com, careerbuilder.com, etc.  Join linkedin.com and even search Facebook to find potential employers in your area.  It is a great way for you to see all of the jobs open in your area, and for employers to see you. 

3. Take a risk.  Apply for jobs that interest you.  You're more likely to get a job in the field you are looking to pursue if it is something you like doing.  If you want to work in fashion, apply for internships, temp agencies, newspapers, magazines.  If you have no idea what you want to do apply for big businesses you have always desired to work for, and small home grown projects to fill your soul. 

4. Always always call the companies you are really interested in working for and have applied to.  Companies want to know you are interested in working there.  You need to be invested enough in the positions you are applying for to make the effort.  From working in an HR position I know that the candidates that kept calling me and asking for an interview were the first on my call list when a position came up.  Yes it was annoying, but I knew they wanted to interview enough to keep calling me, and that meant something.

The key thing to remember is to not get discouraged and to keep at it.  Don't think losing your job, or leaving a job, is the end of the world.  It is a new beginning.  A difficult, time consuming, scary, expensive beginning.  If you treat it as a chance to start over, to make yourself into the person you want to become as an adult, it can be a positive experience.

Keep an eye out for more job related posts coming up soon.  Like what not to do after you lose your job, how to dress for an interview, some tips for interviewing, and more. 

Happy Hunting Everyone!