re: I lost my job yesterday.

I'll try to help. I got laid off back in August. Sucked.

The worst part is that when they announced my company was being bought out last June, I was panicking and all my superiors told me not to worry, I am fine. Lying bastards.

I didn't even get a severance, because they used a stupid meaningless argument I had with a female employee 3 months prior as justification to fire me with cause instead of laying me off. That's another story for another day.

I was out of work for 6 months. It sucked. I got an offer in August, but I backed out at the last minute because they decided to redefine my role at the last minute and I thought that was a bait and switch.

For the rest of 2018 I was interviewing like mad all over the country. I got flown out to 6 different cities for final interviews, none of which worked out, for various reasons. Many were lowball offers, others the company went with another candidate(presumably because they were taking less money than I was asking for), I had an company in Salt Lake turn me down because I wasn't the right cultural fit(aka not a mormon)

It was extremely stressful. Part of the problem was, that I was in no mans land. I've always been really good at what I do, and have advanced in my career much faster than others, so I didn't have the raw years of experience that companies were looking for in order to land a role equal to what I had been doing. I was looking at having to take a step down, but if I did, I was overqualified for positions a rung down the ladder. Some companies thought I was bullshitting my resume because I had reached director level status in a short time.

My lowest point was when I got flown to Idaho right before Christmas for a 3 day onsite interview. The hiring manager was an a-hole, and I think it was his role to knock me down as much as he could and set as many traps for me as possible, so that way he could justify his lowball offer. I did a good job interviewing anyway, but at the end of the 3 days he offered me a $35k salary. I laughed in his face and flew home for a miserable Christmas.

But I finally caught my break in January. Saw a posting, thought it was a longshot, but applied anyway. Job was a step up, not lateral or step down, from what I had been doing. Knocked the interviews out of the park, got hired at end of January. I beat out 80 other candidates, with much more impressive resumes and titles, for this role.

I am extremely grateful the jobs I interviewed for in 2018 fell through, because this job was far better in title and pay than the others I interviewed for. My patience paid off. It was stressful as hell, but it paid off in the end.

I will say I did take a part time bartending/serving job at a restaurant when I got laid off. This allowed me to not have to cut into my savings as much, give me something productive to do and take my mind off the job search stress, and allow me to have an income source so I wasn't desperate to take any job offer out there.

My advice is to hold true to your standards. Know what you are worth and don't be desperate to take a role below your standards just to get back in the workforce. Companies/interviewers/recruiters can smell desperation and will prey on that, I believe thats why I got so many low ball offers. Keep quiet about you being out of work. Be firm when companies ask for salary ranges. I am in a role now where I am doing a lot of interviewing/hiring and I love when candidates are firm and confident about their salary asks. Know what you deserve and don't be afraid to ask for it.

I don't know what you do but don't be afraid to apply for jobs all over the country. I wound up in California(blah) but I applied for a job probably in almost every state. Cast a wide net and don't be afraid to move.

This too shall pass. It was the hardest 6 months of my life, but I came out on top. I also can't stress the importance of a strong savings account. When you do get back to work, build up 6 months of savings in a savings account.

If you have any more questions let me know. I want to pay it forward - I went through the same shite and am glad to help

TD needs a jobs posting board
seriously...it would be great for seekers and for employers

Don’t get down on yourself. Confidence, go out there and sell yourself,bud. You got this

I recently got out of a multi month unemployment and I can definitely tell you that it sucks but if you’re patient something better will come around. One of my goals was to try and apply to every “new” posted job on indeed that matched my skills but the problem with that is that employers sometimes take weeks or months to start reviewing applications (I’m getting calls or emails returned from January apps.) I started applying to older jobs or 30+ days jobs and I found more success as they are more likely to be in the middle of setting up interviews. Also, if you’re observant enough and notice that a job is reposted jump on it immediately because they clearly weren’t satisfied with the first round of applicants. Good luck!!