I first published this on LinkedIn in April 2022, after my first round of layoffs. It wasn't the last round. The advice kept being relevant, so it lives here now.
It's been a month since I was let go from my HR job in tech. It wasn't a huge surprise (half my feed was posting the same news) but it still came as a shock. Knowing something is coming and having it actually arrive are two different experiences.
The first few days were rough. I sat at my computer from morning to night and applied to everything that looked even vaguely relevant. It felt like doing something. It wasn't. I was anxious, I was wiped out, and I had nothing to show for it except a list of jobs I didn't really want.
So I stopped and rebuilt the day. Here's what I landed on.
Job searching gets office hours
At least two hours a day. Real ones - reading postings, messaging people, looking into companies, actually writing the application instead of firing off the same CV twenty times.
And then I'm done. No searching at night, no "just one more look" before bed. The work has a start and a finish, the same way a job does. That one rule did more for my anxiety than anything else, because the search stopped being something I could always be failing to do.
Stress isn't helping, and it's costing you
Easier said than done, I know. But it's worth saying out loud: this is a phase. I'll find a job. Panicking doesn't make that happen sooner, and it makes me worse at the parts I can control, like interviews and conversations and writing.
So I put reminders in my calendar. Small ones. A note that pops up to say this isn't permanent, and that there's something to learn here too. Slightly ridiculous, genuinely useful.
Get out of the house
Walks. Coffee with friends. Something outside every day that has nothing to do with finding work.
I recently read The Nature Fix by Florence Williams, which lays out what being outdoors actually does to your head and your mood. Turns out the walk isn't a break from the job search. It's part of the equipment.
Have a goal that isn't a job
Everyone has a list of things they'd do if they had the time. Now you have the time. It's a strange and unwanted kind of gift, but it's real.
Mine is learning data analytics and studying for my coaching certification. The point isn't that it makes me more hireable (though it might). The point is having something in the week that moves forward whether or not anyone answers my email.
The routine is what holds it together
None of this survives without a shape to the day, so I built one. Search hours, a walk, time on the thing I'm learning, people.
On the good days it keeps me moving. On the flat days, when I don't want to open the laptop at all, it's the only reason anything gets done. That's really what it's for.
I don't have a tidy ending here, because I'm still in it. But a month in, the difference between the version of me applying to forty jobs from the couch and the version with a routine isn't that one of them is more hopeful. It's that one of them is sustainable, and this takes however long it takes.
If you're sitting in the same spot right now, feel free to reach out.