Sometimes Our Greatest Opportunities Come From Our Greatest Setbacks

There is nothing better than having teachable moments of real life with my girls. Recently I had the opportunity to help them learn about life's setbacks as we shared with them the reality of having lost my job. The reality of the world is that you could be doing a good job but consolidations and cost cutting moves happen all the time and you never know if you are completely safe. You do the best job you can but always be prepared for something unexpected happening, because that is part of life. It is never an easy thing to lose your job, but there are a few things you should always be doing.

First is to have a good practice of watching your spending and having a savings account. I know, it is hard to do when it is so easy to get credit to buy a new car or whatever toys you want. Being smart with your money is as simple as spending less than you make and making sure you save something every paycheck. When you watch your budget, and only spend what you have it is easier to save. Start small, even $10 every paycheck will start adding up.

Second, keep your resume updated and ready. If you don't have a resume, then start one. When you have one take it out once a year, even if you take just an hour to look it over and update the content. A tool I recommend is LinkedIn, it is a good place to keep an electronic record of your work experience. Keep it updated along with your resume.

Third, maintain your network. Relationships are important and LinkedIn again is good tool to help you connect with people you have worked with and maintain those professional relationships. However you maintain it realize how important your network is. I've never once gotten a job offer in my career by blindly applying for a job, it has always came about by going through an existing contact or relationship.

Forth, most importantly you need to have faith and maintain hope. As soon as I was notified I was much calmer than I expected I would be. It was still a bit of a punch in the gut but I just felt like this was going to be a good thing. In the end I got a great new opportunity with a great company doing something I believe I am going to truly love. It is a tremendous job that I probably wouldn't have found if I hadn't been laid off.

I may have lost my job, but I definitely think I won.


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