Looking for a Job?

You lost your job, what's next?

We don't want to lose our job. Having a job and work for your money is a privilege, right?

However, sometimes we have to face this difficult situation.

Either a work force reduction or a termination may occur and then this situation could be a breakthrough or a pitfall for more problems. And the key is how you face this huge challenge!

Firstly, if you have a real career plan, a solid and useful one, this situation can be a little smoother because you have control of your career.

If you don't, no problem. Here we have 3 tips to help you initiate a positive reaction:

1) Keep calm

You are not the first, either the last to lose your job. And let me tell you something important: there is life out there. So being calm is fundamental. I know, it's hard, but you have to keep the balance.

2) Refresh your resume

There are many resume writing services but the first step must be yours.

Take a new look at your résumé. Most of things are very "your former company centric" meaning that make sense just for you and for your former company.

Roles, titles, department names are not quite the same. And worse, they could be similar with different meanings. Just like the Account Manager in most companies is a sales role and in others is a client management role.

Your resume should have a "market language", something that everyone can recognize.

Now your resume is your brand. If it’s a good one, people will call you, if is a bad one, they won't!

And you need calls. You need interviews, right?

So, invest hours (yes, I said hours!) to tweak your resume to make sure it demonstrates your qualifications and most important: have quantitative achievements! That’s what differentiates you, YOUR results!

3) Your LinkedIn

After you refresh your resume, it’s time to update your LinkedIn.

Most of professionals just mirror the resume there but LinkedIn is your spotlight. The spotlight of your brand.

Transferring your “new” resume is important, but you need to boost it.

Your headline cannot be “Looking for New Challenges”.

Your LinkedIn headline is the very first chance for you to engage with someone.

Use it in a clever way.

If you are a sales person, what about: “I help companies to sell 3x more their products!”

Or if you are a plant manager: “Helping companies reduce incidents and increase productivity in their plants”

That’s just some ideas but the fact is your headline must be ENGAGING.

That’s not the solution for all your “issues” once you lost your job, but it’s a beginning.

I hope you found it useful and start to apply now.

If you have any question or want to go deeper, I am more than welcome to answer it, so join the conversation.

Let’s keep pushing!

Rodrigo S. Martineli is the Founder & CEO of Career Ladder Institute. He is an accomplished global business executive with well-rounded experience built in an 18-year corporate career working in Fortune 100 companies and growing billion dollar enterprises.