When You’re Facing a Layoff

This has been my first year in charge of the Crossroads Career blog and I hope if you’ve been reading for a while you’ve felt our boards desire to reach you where you’re at in these difficult times. We don’t just pray for you and seek to give sound advice. Many of us are have been or are right there with you.

Six weeks ago I got an early tip that my company was in trouble financially and layoffs were coming. I knew my position would be on the list. It was time to act.

It has never been easy for me to ask for help. I normally subscribe to the belief that working harder can fix most things. But layoffs are rarely about work ethic or even performance especially during this pandemic. Some companies quite simply don’t have the money (or business) to stay fully staffed. I knew I needed to ask my network for help.

A few days after I caught wind of the upcoming layoffs I sat down and individually texted the people in my network I knew would both pray for me and be willing to put my name out there. After I did that, I spent some time pouring over the available jobs in my area and asking myself what would be a useful longterm pivot. Ultimately to get the job I want down the road, I need to get accounting experience. For a few years now I’d known I needed to round out those skills. It just never seemed like the right time, until now.

After finding the job that most interested me I realized someone in my network had a close relationship within the company. I called and asked for help. Later the same day, I was speaking to the connection there, followed by a phone interview. Within a week I had a job lined up and was ready to take that pressure off my current boss. I pray that my moving on helped save other jobs and salaries while also giving me the chance to get the skills I know I need.

I know that many of you are experiencing similar circumstances. Layoffs, the fear of layoffs, you’ve already been let go, your business is going under, etc. We want to help! Our entire board at Crossroads has been and continues to work to help provide tools to combat these difficult times and help you not just get a job but get the job the Lord has for you.

For the next three months on this blog we will be helping you build and use the right tools to get a job. THE job. In August we will focus on interviews. When you get the chances for phone, face-to-face, or the now ever popular Zoom interviews we want you to be ready to wow future employers! In September we’ll tackle resumes. With so many people in the job search right now it is vital to have a resume that stands out. Then in October we will teach you about the different avenues to finding a job from LinkedIn to Indeed and beyond.

We are here to help! We want God’s best for you in your career and we’re going to do our best to bring the resources you need to get there. Please take advantage of these free tools and share them with others in need. Also, if you can learn anything from my own experience I hope it’s this: ask your network for help. Do not be too proud to ask people to advocate for you. In these times it’s more valuable than ever to ‘know someone’. You’ll probably be pleasantly surprised at how willing people are to help because many of them have needed it along the way.

Becca Christensen is a Crossroads Career Board Member and the editor of this blog for 2020. She recently moved into accounting within the automotive industry. She’s an avid reader, an enthusiastic football fan, and competitive at any and all board games.

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Comments 2

  1. Great message
    I have been out of work for a year now. Very dis heartening and frustrating. Had a good job lined up but the company I was going to work for froze hiring the day I was going to get my offer.
    A prayer would be nice. I’m healthy and so is my family and God has blessed me in so many ways. My challenge is small compared to others but our world is delivering a lot of stress these days!
    Jack

    1. Post
      Author

      Hi Jack –

      Thanks for reading and for sharing what you’re going through. I just stopped and prayed for you and your family. I pray that the Lord will provide for you and your family and continue to bless you with health as well. These are tough, unprecedented times but I admire your positive attitude and believe God has something great in store for you.

      Becca

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