How To Bounce Back Up After Being Let Go

Even if you have been increasingly disliking your job or fighting to cope with a passionless career, termination of employment is a stressful experience to go through. Primarily what you do in life defines you, your job is part of your identity; losing it is like losing a part of yourself. However, it is just a temporary phase and emotion that you are feeling. Eventually, you will move on and feel great again. And we like to share with you four tips on how you can get your head get back in the game.

1. Turn to people you trust

Most of us will have a few trustworthy people in our life that we can rely on whenever we need a boost. These people may be a family member, a spouse, a close friend, an ex-colleague or a career mentor. Most importantly, they are someone who cares about you. Share with them your thoughts, seek feedback on your actions, let them help you identify your strength and weaknesses. Listen to them closely without being defensive, analyse the advice given and work on improving your shortfall. 

2. Reframe, Refrain, Regain

Once you have received all the insights you need, it is time to get your engine started. 

Reframe the situation and change your perspective. Losing a job doesn’t define you or your capabilities; what you are going to do about it does. Turn your loss into an opportunity, think of it as a chance for you to reset your career goals, to learn something new, to help others or to look at life differently. Our mind is agile and able to adapt to change quickly, just that sometimes we need some references, success stories to help convince ourselves that we could do it as well. 

Refrain from comparing yourself with others who didn’t go through what you did. You wouldn’t want to get riled up about others’ success and put yourself down. No two person goes through the same life experience. 

What you could do instead is to re-evaluate your shortcomings and work on how you could improve them. For example, if poor time management was the cause of the termination, instead of whining that the employer was too rigid with the schedule, try to understand the reason behind. It could merely be the turnaround of your work is time-sensitive. For some jobs, time equals to profit. 

Regain your self-confidence by getting active physically. By now, this could be the umpteen time you hear this that exercising is proven to improve a person’s mood and decrease feelings of depression, anxiety and stress. To adhere to social distancing during COVID-19, instead of selecting large group exercises, you can opt for digital classes, where you still have your community to socialise with and be active at the same time. 

Aside, you can also participate in activities where you can give back to the society like shopping from your local business, support local animal shelters, volunteer at a food bank, organise virtual singalong activities for orphanages or old folks home, etc. The satisfaction gained from helping others will help also help you to gain boost your self-esteem. So, let’s cast out the negativity and get jiggy with it!

3. Set your action plan straight and move forward

When your mind is clear and no longer clouded with self-doubts, it is time to get serious with your next move. Firstly, focus on updating your resume, if needed, seek help from a professional to curate a tactical resume allowing application tracking system (ATS) to pick up your resume quickly. Secondly, cast your net wide by applying for jobs mindfully. Pick only jobs that match your skills and experience. You wouldn’t want employers or recruiters to identify you as a desperate job seeker. Thirdly, improve your interview skills by conducting researches and practices. Besides, you can set up a job seeker’s schedule where you can have a clear picture of your progression and easily track your daily activities.   

4. Seek help from a career professional

Last but not least, reach out to recruitment firms for help. Although the pandemic has severely impacted many companies, there are many more who are actively hiring. To ensure you have the latest updates, follow recruitment companies’ social media accounts and link-up with recruiters via LinkedIn. If you are fortunate enough, some might even organise collaborative events with employers to help job seekers.

A great example, Adecco Malaysia is a total solutions recruitment firm where we help not only employers to scout and place the right talents; our services include outsourcing and payroll as well. Hence, we have an abundance of job opportunities for our fellow job seekers. 

Apart from offering all levels, permanent and multi-functional job positions, we also provide various jobs catering to the gig economy community. That aside, Adecco has recently started a series of collaborative Free webinars with GoGet Malaysia (a Malaysian technology company that caters part-time job opportunities), which will run from October – December 2020, aimed to support job seekers during this challenging time. If you are keen to join the upcoming webinar on Thursday, November 5th, 2020, sign-up for free here: https://forms.gle/TCZQrKg1CJ4EefsD6.

Summary

1. Turn to people you trust to speak about how you felt and things that are burdening you. Listen to their feedback about you and improve your shortcomings from there. 
2. Follow the 3Rs (Reframe, Refrain, Regain). Reframe your mindset and flip your loss into an opportunity. Refrain from feeling like you are not good enough, comparing with others will only bring you more harm. Alternatively, learn from those who have successfully overcome the same situation. Regain confidence by getting active and help others who are in need. 
3. Set your action plan straight by ensuring you are applying for your next job strategically and well prepared to stand out from the crowd.
4. Seek guidance from recruitment firms as they have the latest insights about the employers and job market. 

Remember, “every cloud has a silver lining”. As long as you don’t give up, good things will come to you. 

To learn more about how we can help, drop us an email at marketing.my@adecco.my or ring us at 603- 2781 0000. We care and are ready to help you!