A friend of mine was laid off in mid-2023, battled job hunting for months, and after five interviews AND a PowerPoint presentation, finally landed a solid job in March of 2024.

A few weeks ago, she was laid off—again.

I noticed that there are lots of LinkedIn posts about what to do when you get laid off, but I've yet to find any of them helpful. "Update your resume." Thanks, Captain Obvious.

I know this drill. Better than most.

I worked for two companies that went out of business, got fired once, and I've been laid off three times (twice by the same guy).

Here are three things that have served me better than any advice I’ve ever read on LinkedIn.

1. File for unemployment immediately. Seriously, within an hour of getting the boot. Even if you don't intend to use it, do it. It can take up to 30 days to kick in, and if you didn't get severance, every little bit helps. It kills me that no one ever talks about this.
   
2. Skip the self-pity session. As much as you want to “take the weekend” to drown yourself in your sorrows - don't do it. Update your resume and put the feelers out FIRST. Then drown yourself in your sorrows. You'll have plenty of time for that once you've exhausted your resources but do that first. I've had multiple opportunities to test this theory. It took me two company shutdowns and getting laid off once to learn this lesson, but once I embraced it, it was a game changer. By feeling sorry for myself I missed opportunities. By getting my shit together first, I had work within days of my second and third layoffs.
   
3. Flip the script. This is happening for you, not to you. I'm in the best professional shape of my life, but here's the thing: I had to get here the way I got here. Don't skim over that—I had to get here the way I got here. There was no other way. I'm under no illusion that there are no more bumps in the road, but I've learned to trust the process and look for the lesson.

I think that last one is so important and relevant to much more than just a job layoff.

Everything in life happens for us, not to us.

Can you think of an instance when this has proved true for you? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Katrina "flipping the script since 2019" Turner

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