Redundancy Diary - reflections on the whole journey

Now that I have signed a contract and am looking forward to starting a new job next week, I have taken the time to look back at my journey over the last 2 months since I was made redundant before I move on. Many of you have been following my experiences; you have shared your own experiences of being made redundant, given me great advice, and kept me positive. One thing I haven’t felt is lonely, so thank you to you all for helping me and others to get through this together.

The hardest part of being made redundant was, without a doubt, struggling to keep my self-confidence and learning about myself (what I enjoy doing and what I am good at). When you are in a job, you get into a fairly mechanical way of doing things and you don’t tend to take time out to reflect on these things. When, all of a sudden, the security of employment is taken away from you, the feelings of loss and helplessness take over and it takes a lot of effort to go through the learning curve in order to move on to something new and different. Old friends and new contacts were key in helping me to appreciate the skills I have and to understand what it is I am good at, giving me the guts to apply for new jobs and sound confident about my abilities. I guess, as a result, I do now feel more in control than ever over my career.

A great life skill I have developed is learning how to control feelings of anxiety, panic and stress. I have a Chinese proverb stuck on the side of a photo frame in my bedroom that reads: “A problem will never be as bad as it seems”.How true. I have had to learn to live with a high level of uncertainty, not knowing what I am doing day to day, which for me has been hard as I like to be organized and have plans in place for everything! I have dealt with this by keeping healthy, improving my diet and fitness, and not being afraid to sit down and have a good cry every now and then to release the pressure. My friends have been great at distracting me from things by taking me out for coffee and just listening to me when I need to share my frustrations and worries – you all know who you are, and I thank you.

I have had to learn to stand on my own two feet and make my own luck rather than relying on a company to give me opportunities. This has been empowering, and I have learnt how to ask for help from both friends and professional experts more assertively than I could before. I’ve also had to be far more resourceful in finding out information and getting support – a friend put his finger on it when he said that you could spend your whole day knocking on the same door but if the people inside can’t hear you, you will never get an answer. Instead of banging on the same door all day, go and look for another entrance or way to get to the people you need. Another skill that has been important is being able to ‘wing it’ – you may be in a situation that you don’t feel 100% confident as you don’t have all the answers or experience, but by coming across as confident and assertive you will be able to give a great impression.

I guess the obvious final conclusion is that there are no jobs for life anymore. None of us really know how long we will be doing the jobs we are doing now, so the key thing is to keep your skills up to date and keep up with technology. Before I was made redundant I had no idea what a blog was, how to set up a website or manage multiple email accounts. A business colleague helped me to see how vital it is to keep up with new technology and, more importantly, how easy it is to do as software has become far more user friendly and there is a huge amount of free support available on the web.

I hope that all of you who are facing changes in your employment situations manage to find a solution that works for you. I don’t know how my new job will work out but I can only give it my best shot and have the confidence to face whatever challenges I get given in the future. I will try to remember to glance back, but look ahead.

I will continue writing about my experiences on my blog, so please do continue to share your experiences with me.