☑ This Checklist is Key to Leaving Any Company Successfully

The 25-point layoff success checklist that tells you what to do when you’re laid off.

Photo credit: JD Hancock

Some companies are ruthless with layoffs, locking you out from their computer network and walking you to the door as soon as notification has been given.

Don’t wait until you’re saying “I’ve been laid off, now what?”

Even if your ex-employer-to-be isn’t that harsh, prepare yourself in advance once you feel a layoff might be coming your way.

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25 actions to achieve layoff success

1. Ask for recommendation or reference letters from ‘higher-ups’ – or even LinkedIn Recommendations – and agree how to collect them.
2. Update your resume or CV.
3. Research your employee termination rights and what to do if they’re not respected.
4. Calculate how much money the company owes you in unpaid salary, vacation time, bonuses, etc.
5. Learn about severance pay: how much to expect, the company’s deadline for paying by law (e.g. in Israel, within 30 days of dismissal) and what you need to do to collect it.
6. List the documentation that the company is required to give for e.g. unemployment benefits, income tax, joining another employer, etc., such as a pink slip or other end-of-work certificate.
7. Find out which documentation the company will expect you to sign before leaving.
8. Chat with an HR representative about getting your rights.
9. Ask about access to outplacement services or a parent or sister company that can take you in.
10. Get your personnel folder.
11. Have a last chat with your boss. Where relevant, discuss the possibility of returning as a freelance consultant.
12. Find out which remaining work tasks you need to accomplish before you leave.
13. Know to whom you need to transfer your responsibilities and start doing so.
14. Contact business partners & clients about the change in contact person on your now ex-projects. Start with the contacts you know are hiring. Ask for job referrals at the same time and attach your newly-updated resume. A nice touch is to remind them of some success you had with them or for them, and then thank them for their business during your time at the company.
15. Say goodbye to colleagues. If possible, take time to walk around the office on your last day and say goodbye personally. Then send a goodbye email to people out of the office or at another location. Ask for referrals and attach your updated resume. You never know where a job lead can come from.
16. Get all your colleagues’ and business partners’ contact information and connect with them on social media so that you can network with them later during your job search.
17. Collect recommendation or reference letters.
18. Complete remaining work tasks and the hand-off of responsibilities.
19. Make copies of your work to add to your work portfolio (where relevant).
20. Backup information related to your work achievements such as statistics, emailed compliments and thank yous.
21. Remove all personal files from your work computer.
22. Give back equipment such as your company car, cell phone, laptop, uniform, security badge, etc.
23. Confirm that the company has respected your rights and given you all money and documentation owed.
24. Sign company documentation as requested but only if you’ve received all your entitled rights.
25. Pack up all your personal belongings to take home.

Bonus #26: Leave a good impression

Layoffs are never easy for everyone involved. Deal with them like a professional and the good impressions you leave will only help you in finding your next job. If the company’s situation improves, they might want you back or if you get laid off from another job, you may want to come back later.

Here’s an inspiring story of why you should never burn your bridges:

“Fairly early in my career, I had to implement a RIF (Reduction In Force = layoff) for 1/3 of my department about 15 people in the terrible economy of late 2001. This was purely a monetary issue for the company all these folks were decent performers, however, they were chosen because they were in the bottom 1/3 in terms of performance.

The one thing I learned, is that you get to see a side of a person that you would never see outside a termination : how they react to the worst work news they could possibly get. Out of the 15 people some people were angry at the company and really angry at me, some people cried, and some people handled it amazingly well – so well that in 2 or 3 cases I decided that this person was so reasonable and so mature that I would have been better off firing someone else. In fact, one person said to me, “I’m really bummed out because I love working here, but I understand. Wow, this must be incredibly hard to fire all these people, how are you holding up?”.

While I could not reverse the fact that these people were being RIF’d and I had tried to help all 15 people with new jobs and references, it was hard not to work extra hard for the people who I thought handled it well.

To this day I have a great “last impression” of them. It made me feel better about recommending them for a new job, and in one case I was actually able to hire one person back 6 months later when I got additional head count.”

Share this checklist with anyone you know who just got laid off or is worried about it. Best used when printed out.

READ NEXT: the opposite article: 21 Evil Things To Do On Your Last Day On The Job

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🎁 Why Holiday Job Searches Lead To The Best Presents

Here are 7 reasons to job search during the holiday season.

Photo credit: Phil Dolby

This is a guest post by Dave Thomas.

Could finding a job actually be easier during the holiday season?

While the holidays are a very busy time of year for most people, the time period can also be great for landing a job.

Unfortunately, many individuals in need of work figure that now is the time to take a break, no one is hiring with all the rush of the holiday season, and the only jobs that may be available are entry-level jobs such as low-paying retail gigs.

Think again.

As it turns out, many employers do take on new employees over the holiday season such as in Western countries, where many companies not in the retail business are winding down their end-of-year operations, giving them more time to focus on what they need from a manpower standpoint heading into the New Year.

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This article is brought to you by Zazzle, which is having 50% off all gifts through Sunday, November 20th, 2016.

7 Reasons To Job Search This Holiday Season

In the event you’ve been toying with taking a break over the holidays from the job hunt, keep some of these factors in mind:

1) Staying motivated

All of us at one time or another has found ourselves on the job prowl. Looking for a job is often a full-time job, meaning it is not uncommon to want to take a break. The problem with taking what is sometimes a prolonged break (a few weeks or months) is that we have trouble becoming motivated once again.

Don’t find yourself in a rut that might become too hard to get out of after the holidays are done.

2) The number of job hunters is likely to dwindle

While you may think there will be countless people searching for work during the holidays, keep in mind that many of them may be thinking like you too, that it’s time to take a break.

If that’s the case, you’ll have more access to employers as the number of resumes they’re likely to receive will decrease.

3) Network, network, network

If you’re invited to holiday parties, what better time to network?

You may be a little hesitant to attend holiday events given you’re out of work, but that is exactly the time to get with other professionals who escaped the layoff bug and network. Ask them to give you some leads they may have on job openings, who exactly to contact.

Heck, they may even put in a good word for you.

4) Work desire can be rewarded

Granted, probably the last thing you want to be doing before and during the holidays is job hunting, but it could work to your benefit: some employers will view this as motivational, along with being an eagerness on your part to find work while others are looking to take off time from work over the holidays.

Showing a potential employer that you’re hungry for work is half the battle.

5) Get your foot in the door before the New Year turnover

In some cases, companies will be dealing with turnover in the New Year. You can use this time of year to interview, and if all goes well, replace those who are on their way out.

6) Go with the holiday flow

Many bosses will be in a more relaxed mood with the holidays coming, so take advantage of it. The majority of employers (unless they’re retail managers) are winding down their year, and if it was a good one, could prove more receptive to the job you are seeking.

7) Give yourself a present

Lastly, what better holiday gift could you give yourself than a new job?

Many people are out there looking for work. Take the initiative to find yourself a job during your holiday season so that you have something positive to kick-off your New Year.

While there are no guarantees that you will actually find a new job, the holidays really are a good time of the year to roll up your sleeves and go for it.

Better yet, you may get your foot in the door somewhere while your competition is stuck in the mall parking lot looking for a spot.

More holiday season job search tips

• Holiday Weekend Job Search Do’s and Don’ts
• 7 tips for job hunting during the holidays
• Holiday Hope! How to Leverage the Holidays for Successful Job Search

This article is brought to you by Zazzle, which is having 50% off all gifts through Sunday, November 20th, 2016.

About the Author

Dave Thomas writes extensively for Business.com, an online resource destination for businesses of all sizes to research, find, and compare the products and services they need to run their businesses.

Question of the article

Have you tried job searching during the holidays in the past? Tell us in the comments.

Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter for more ideas on how to find jobs when others are on holiday.

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💗 15 Surprisingly Simple Ways To Find A Dream Job

Most people work because they have to. What if you could work because you loved to?

Learn how to find a job you love.

Dream jobs are not what you think

You probably have an ideal job you’ve fantasized about: movie star, professional athlete or something else rich and famous, right?

Many people do get to do those things, and they don’t always love it. Far from it: it’s hard to be in the public eye, stressful when people only appreciate you for fame or money, and just tough to make friends who understand your problems.

On top of that, many people’s perceived dream jobs are just unrealistic: the jobs might require a lot of natural talent, expensive training, maybe even friends in high places.

In this clip, everyone has a dream job but almost no one is working it:

(Clip taken from 50 Uber Popular Job Search Videos You Need To See)

On the other hand, many more people have jobs they absolutely love, jobs they absolutely did NOT dream about.

I’ve been there too.

From 2000-2001, I worked as a web developer at Amazon.com in Seattle and then Paris, France. I had never dreamed of being a web developer, my dream was to be a professional ball player. But I loved that job. It was so much fun, I didn’t want to leave in the evening and couldn’t wait to get to the office in the morning.

While I was there, that was my dream job.

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Then what makes a dream job?

Your dream job depends on a number of things, and it changes as your priorities change.

UK charity The Centre for Effective Altruism went through over 60 studies about what makes a dream job and these are the six key ingredients they found:

1. Work you’re good at
2. Work that helps others
3. Engaging work that lets you enter a state of flow (freedom, variety, clear tasks, feedback)
4. Supportive colleagues
5. A job that meets your basic needs, like fair pay, a short commute and reasonable hours
6. A job that fits your personal life

Most importantly, focus on getting good at something that helps others.

When I look back, my job at Amazon definitely met all those conditions.

If I had to choose a definition: a dream job is a job you love.

A dream job is a job you love ♥Click To Tweet

How do you find your next dream job?

Get Rich Slowly is a terrific blog that focuses on helping people make and save money. They asked their readers what they did to find jobs they love. Here are the best answers in the long list:

1) Create a fertile environment for “accidental discovery”

If you’re still in school, increase your chance of lucking out in finding a perfect job by studying broad topics like business or art.

Why this works: by definition, specialty topics will limit your focus. Going in the opposite direction will give you more exposure to new ideas and concepts that could in turn lead to a new dream job.

2) Follow your dreams

If it’s still possible, try for that job you fantasized about in the past.

Why this works: you’re more likely to achieve your objective if you have a clear vision of what it is.

3) Look into your past for your future

List your happiest childhood memories or past successes – school or work – and try to understand what made them so.

Why this works: it’s often easier to duplicate success than create it the first time.

4) Know your strengths and choose a job that leverages them

Why this works: people tend to like the things they’re good at.

5) Test yourself

Take aptitude tests like the Myers-Briggs and Strong Interest Inventory tests to determine which directions you should investigate first.

Why this works: although the tests usually require a fee, they’re short and give you almost immediate results.

6) Be open to friends’ positive suggestions…

“A friend jokingly suggested it to me… it was something I never saw myself in, but it fits.”

Why this works: a quote- “most people aren’t capable of being honest with themselves about what it is that they truly love. Too many outside pressures — family expectations, peer groups, societal issues, and plain old “noise” — compromise our ability to really be clear on what we enjoy.”

7) …while ignoring negative opinions while pushing forward

Professor Deepak Malhotra of the Harvard Business School gave a fantastic speech to graduating MBA students where he mentioned how the only reason he found his dream job was because he was “a good quitter… who quit often, and quit early.”

He changed college majors 5 times, including changing schools in the middle, and changed jobs many times before settling on his dream job, which was something he didn’t even know existed back in college, and would never had know about if he hadn’t kept quitting and pushing forward.

(The entire speech is worth watching below, but he gets into it around the 10:45 mark)

Why this works: people learn more by doing than regretting.

8) Experiment with different possible career choices

Try out various jobs on a part-time or volunteer basis, perhaps while still holding a full-time job. Sean Aiken tried to do 52 jobs in 52 weeks.

Why this works: there are many jobs that people simply don’t know exist. Also, some people stop enjoying a passion when money, deadlines and client expectations enter the picture.

9) Pay the bills first

Focus first on finding a job you like that can also provide the resources to do the things you love.

Why this works: not every passion translates well into a job and a standard of living you’re comfortable with.

10) Consider lowering your salary expectations

Also known as the “I’d pay to play” effect.

Why this works: by lowering your price, you open the door to more employers that can afford your services.

11) Appreciate good people

One of the reasons I loved my job at Amazon was the fun I had with my colleagues on a daily basis, but also the things I learned from them.

Why this works: whether a loner or a social animal, you will get comfortable in a role quicker with great co-workers that understand you. However, people come and go so you should rarely base any decisions just on this one point.

12) Try a different job in your current industry

“A friend of mine switched…both jobs use essentially the same skills for different results, but the second job is a much better fit than the first.”

Why this works: you already have the necessary skills and are familiar with the industry, so the benefits happen quicker.

13) Research the profession that interests you

Use informational interviews, forum and blog questions, trade show visits, radio call-ins, whatever it takes for you to get a better picture of life in your target job. Quote: “you have to know if you’re passionate about the job *or* the subject.”

Why this works: the reality of a job may be different that the one you dreamed about. Another good point is that your passion may change after doing it 40 hours a week.

14) Change your current job into one you love

Probably one of the last things people think about when it comes to dream jobs: what could you change in your current job to make it a dream job?

Why this works: saves you a job search and might be quick to implement.

15) Talk to a career coach

Career coaches and counselors specialize in helping people choose a direction or career path.

Why this works: coaches can draw on their experience and expertise to give you personalized advice that’s more effective than test results.

Question of the article

When I was a kid, my dream job was to be a baseball player on my favorite team, the Montreal Expos. What job did you dream about when you were younger? Tell us in the comments.

Read next

• The Secret To Finding Dream Jobs
• How to Find Your Dream Job (When You Don’t Know What You Want)
• How to Figure Out Exactly What Your Dream Job Should Be
• How To Manifest Your Dream Job

Recommended books about dream jobs

• Is Your Genius at Work? by Dick Richards
• What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson
• How to Find the Work You Love by Laurence G. Boldt
• 48 Days to the Work You Love by Dan Miller and Dave Ramsey
• What Color Is Your Parachute? 2008 by Richard Nelson Bolles
• Now, Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton

Loving it? Subscribe to JobMob via RSS or email and follow me on Twitter to learn about having more fun in your career.

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😒 Why Recruiters Lie When Rejecting You

One of the harsh realities of job search explained.

Photo credit: Phil Dolby

This is a guest post by Recruiting Animal.

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I was going to write about hiring managers being the dumbest people in the world but I decided to write about recruiters instead because, you know, they’re dumb, too.

I’ll often see a recruiter puffing up her chest online and strutting around bragging about how transparent she is with candidates.

So, then, I’ll ask her, “If the hiring manager rejected a candidate because he didn’t like her voice, would you tell her that? Imagine he said, ‘She’s very intelligent but if I had to listen to that all day, I’d shoot myself.’ Would you pass that on?”

Of course, the answer is always “No.” but you have to force them to admit it. They’ll say, “He thought you were very intelligent but it just wasn’t a match,” and try to claim that this is transparent.

What they usually mean when they say “transparent” is that you send an automated email to someone who applies to a job online telling them that their resume has been received. Then you send them another email when they have been rejected.

But the recruiter wants to prove to everyone what a good person she is so she tries to argue that this is transparency.

No recruiter gives substantial feedback. We can't.Click To Tweet

No recruiter gives substantial feedback. We can’t. If you’re missing specific skills and someone else has them we can tell you that because it is a matter of fact. But we can’t tell you that the hiring manager doesn’t like you because you look a bit frumpy or because you’re a drip.

And people get rejected for that. I once sent an HR Generalist to an interview and she was rejected because she didn’t fit her clothes very well and her hair didn’t look nice so the company didn’t want her representing them. I didn’t tell her that. My client didn’t give me permission — and I didn’t ask for it either.

So, remember this job hunters: recruiters aren’t social workers. It’s not their job to tell you how to improve. If they can, they will; but usually they can’t.

About the Author

The Recruiting Animal is a headhunter not a rock star. He’s not even a rockstar headhunter. (That’s @Jerry_Albright). He runs a rowdy online call-in show about recruiting and careers. His website is: RecruitingAnimal.com.

READ NEXT:

• Professional Recruiters: Job Seeker Friend or Foe?
• 10 Little White Lies EVERY Recruiter Tells
• Help! Recruiter Lied. Now I’m Stuck in a Job I Hate!

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