Do you have a Plan B if you lost your job tomorrow? If not, here’s how to get started on one …
Everyone needs a Plan B. A healthy mix of pessimism is required when it comes to 21st century employment. For employees and the self-employed, no matter how great you are at what you do, external factors such as we have all seen with economic climate can make us all vulnerable if we let it.
Too many people make the decision to ignore (or stress about) the situation yet basically just hope it does not happen to them. Nothing is worse than inaction. It offers you no alternatives and no control. So take control and manage your career rather than letting it and other factors manage you. Create your Plan B when times are good; this will help you through both the good times and the bad times.
Having a career risk management strategy, which is essentially what your Plan B is, is nothing different to what you may do in other parts of your life – think of your home, car or health insurance. Last year I watched a TV show on risk that assessed how people react in disasters. Essentially it came down to the fact that those who were more observant of their surrounds had a much higher survival rate. One scenario was building evacuations, where research showed that those who had paid attention to emergency procedures, exit strategies and so on were the ones who were more likely to get out in the event of an incident. Those that did not consciously assess their surrounds were more likely to panic (as they had no plan) and were less likely to leave unharmed.
Going back to unexpected job loss, not everyone will receive a nice redundancy payout; and for professionals and executives in Australia today you can expect to take 9-12 months to secure new employment! Without a significant payout, what risks does this expose you to personally and financially? Think about these now and take actions to address them. Have your resume up to date, keep your networks alive and active, look at your finances and what your options are.
Four Key Areas to Cover off in your Plan B:
1. A top quality current resume and other personal branding tools that are ready to distribute ASAP
2. Having current and active networks, online and offline to leverage when the need arises
3. Know what types of jobs you are going to target and prioritize. What are you and are you not willing to do? Where will you find them?
4. Have a realistic picture of your financial situation, today and in 12 months time without an income or a significantly reduced income. How does it look? Do you need to re-finance or change some things?
If you do lose your job, the emotional blow will still be there. However, it will be softened if you can swiftly put your Plan B into place. It is a part of every successful person’s career risk management strategy.
We welcome stories, advice and tips from those who have always had or have recently created their own job or career Plan B.
3 Comments
Lost my job recently at GM Holden due to the global decline in
new car sales and the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed by GM in U.S.
It is very hard to survive going back to depend on the dole where
you have to spend about 55% on it just to pay off the weekly
rent. Realising the need to get another job, you try to apply
via internet websites or the newspapers and what do you get
out of it for all the time and effort you put in. Nothing but
countless rejections stating that you have some of the required
skills and qualications for the job, but somehow you do not meet
their specific requirements. The worse thing that these
recruitment companies do is that they are not prepared to
reveal to you what these specific requirements are.
So where do you go to secure employment when you can’t even
get job interviews at all for work that you have the skills,
ability, professional qualifications and experience in. In
desperation you look at alternative areas of work that you have
not worked in before and question yourself whether you can do
them and whether you can secure any job interviews. Again
you stumble on the same entry barriers with employers asking
you whether you have any working experience doing them.
Even for a job like a sandwhich hand the employers ask you
have you any experience making sandwhiches? So it is a real
catch 22 situation that you have to face.
Getting another job or getting any response from an employer
is extremely difficult in the current recession when these
employers are swarmed with hundreds of job applications. So
how do you beat the competition and secure that job interview.
Well you can say that you need an outstanding resume, but it
does not always work that way.
Instead of going for a full time job where there is intense
competition you think about trying for part time or casual
employment where your chances of securing employment appears
to be better. Again you find another huge deterrent. Being on the
unemployment benefits means that if you do any part time work
your unemployment benefits will be greatly reduced. For instance
if you earn $100 from your part time work your unemployment
benefits will be reduced by $70( a 70% deduction rate). In
reality you are just working for peanuts – at a 30% pay. So there
is not much incentive to get part time work. On the one hand
you want to get a full time job so that you do not have to
depend on the miserable amount that you get on the dole, but
then you can’t even get it. On the other hand you want to do
some part time work to ease your fiancial burden, but then
you find that you end up working for peanuts. For the
unemployed you are screwed both ways by the government in that
they want you to get back to work so that you are off the
dole. In reality until employment picks up again you can’t
get a full time job, but if you do a part time job you are
severely penalised loosing 70% of every dollar you earn.
Ask your politicians whether they are prepared to work for
30% of their Pay? You bet they won’t.
Thinking of career plan B. Where do you go from here? Here is
where you have to plan and think what alternative career you
can do. Although there are a lot of alternative careers you can
pursue, the question you have to ask is whether these careers
suit you and whether you have the interest to do them. Also
you have to ask whether you can apply any transferable skills
from you present or recent occupation.
On a personal level I considered doing a short course at Tafe
to upgrade my qualifications. However I find it important not
to do a course of interest blindly. Go to tafe to speak to a
career counsellor and speak to the tutor there personally
and question them about the employment prospects after
completing the course. It is pointless getting a certificate
from Tafe if after finishing it you can’t even secure any
job interviews at all. It is a pure waste of time and effort.
Considering traineeship or apprenticeship as a means of
reentering the workforce? Well the stumbling block is another
government imposed barrier. You cannot do a traineeship if
you have completed a university degree, Certificate III or IV
at Tafe. I wanted to pursue a traineeship as a means of
reentering the workforce but I find that my path is again
blocked by governmental bungling and red tape. So it is very
frustating. All the present government wants to do is to
keep wasting taxpayers money to send us to do more and more
courses. But then where are the jobs for us to go to when
we finish the courses?
Reading Albert Chan’s article about losing his job, and trying to find one, I thought about my own problem.
I am english, moved to Denmark in 1972, my danish wife and sons and I moved to Spain 8 years ago, where my wife and I had our own Danish Furniture and Carpet store near Malaga, due to the depression, we closed in 2008 and moved back to Denmark. I will be 60 in August and desparately trying to find employment, I will take anything.
You are so right Albert, I have just as many, “thank yous” as I have applications, exactly the same as yours, “your qualifications”, “your profile” etc etc, its making me quite sick and very depressed.
I have started to reply their two lined e-mails, by asking them, which qualification do I not have, most cant be bothered to answer, some get back with the most ridiculous answers, for example, I am over-qualified, and the working relationship with the other sales assistants is “doomed” from the start, (DIY Store) in Copenhagen.
Yes Albert, I even tried Seven Elleven, they started up as a franchise in Denmark some years back, No I dont have experience selling Mars bars or cola over the desk, but I have 40 years experience in the retail trade.
I put it down to age, rather than lack of experience or too good/need of qualifications.
So Albert, where do all we “job Seekers” go from here, especially those of us with a dire need of employment, income and to get back our self confidence and respect.
Plan B; Hmmm, whats that, money is short, no Dole money, two teenage sons, rent, food and unemployment.
Anyone else with some bright idea.
Thru Linkedin I am receiving so called “opportunities”, join this company or that company, MLM sales thru websites based in Canada, we all know that money has to be paid out to “join”, I just dont have the funds, so what else is there. Driving a Cab, in Denmark you need a special licence, which costs money, etc etc.
I resigned just before Christmas many years back and needed income over the holidays. Almost impossible to get a permanent or even serious casual job at that time of year.
I dealt with it by putting my full CV etc to a Professional Temping Agency but at the same time I went to a casual labour hire firm and gave them my CV stripped down to the barest essentials (dropped the MBA and Bachelor degree, downplayed my experience, played up my student jobs, truck driving licence etc).
As expected, no offer at professional temp level but more jobs than I could handle at the other – driving trucks, working on contruction sites etc.
Indirectly, a few weeks in, I ended up working on site at an employer which noticed I was smarter than the average bear and had me apply for a management position. Still with them today, at the highest levels.