Lost Your Job? A 9-Step Plan to Job Success

The following question was posted on Quora: “I got fired yesterday from my programming job. I have 35k usd in savings. What should I do now?”

I shared my own answer to this question, and the response to it was tremendously positive. To anyone that needs a bit of inspiration or guidance as they search for what’s next, I really hope this helps. Here it is below:

Taken in Bagan, Myanmar by Cesar Rufo

“I got fired yesterday from my programming job. I have 35k usd in savings. What should I do now?”

Congrats! You have a very exciting opportunity ahead of you to shake things up, take control of your path, take chances and learn something new.

Here is my 9-step plan to job success, and it starts with taking out a pen and blank piece of paper:

1. Understand why. Be honest with yourself, and identify the key reasons for why you were fired. Was it a gap in your skill set? Or maybe the company was restructuring? Regardless of the answer, it’s important to learn from the past so you can move forward. Put the reasons down on paper.
2. Define what you want. Whether it’s a particular job at a specific company, or to have your own business, or to travel and explore, or it’s just a state of mind — whatever it is, clearly define what you want your end goal to be. Then you can work your way backwards from there. This also happens to be Habit #2 of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: “Begin with the end in mind.” (read it if you haven’t.)
3. Update your resume and LinkedIn, now. It’s very easy to forget all of your previous work, contributions, and achievements. Write it all down on paper while it’s still fresh. This will come in handy for updating your portfolio, for future interviews, and for remembering just how awesome you are.
4. Assess your current situation — financial, health, personal, etc. What are some expenses you can cut back on? What were you doing before that didn’t give you happiness? Now that you have a wealth of time, what are some things you’d like to do that would increase your happiness? Perhaps you’d like to travel? Or invest in yourself and learn a skill, or re-connect with family and friends? Whatever it is…put it down on paper!
5. List out your network and contacts. Create a spreadsheet or list of all the people that you can reconnect with, whether they are friends, recruiters, acquaintances, former coworkers, or friends of friends. Cast a wide net. This is your pipeline. These people are leads that you’ll want to reach out to that may lead to future opportunities. Also, meeting people for coffee/lunch every other day or so is a good way to just get out of the house and keep yourself busy, moving, and focused.
6. Learn something new. Was there a skill that you always wanted to learn, but never had the time? Perhaps there’s a course that you were previously interested in to further your education? This extra time you now have is a gift, so take advantage of it and use it to learn new skills, read, and discover more about yourself.
7. Work out. If you already do this, then great. If you don’t, then now is the time to get started and invest in your most important asset — your health. Aside from the obvious benefits, working out provides you with an opportunity to focus on yourself and nothing else (which is good!), be productive with your time when you’re not job-searching, get out of the house, and let out any excess energy.
8. Read. Readers are leaders, leaders are readers. Mix it up with fun reading material and career-focused/business reading (i.e. books to learn new skills, business management, design..).
9. Most importantly — set goals and milestones for your next opportunity. Write these goals down and share them with people close to you. Make these milestones achievable and bite-sized. Perhaps it’s something as simple as “I will apply to 15 jobs each week”, which translates into “I will apply to 3 jobs per weekday.” Or perhaps it’s “meet with three contacts from my network each week”, or “Read XYZ business book by Jan 30th”. Whatever your goals are, it is of the UTMOST importance that you write them down on paper, vocalize them and share them with people (i.e. your best friends, your partner, family, your landlord, etc). I can’t emphasize this enough — publishing, vocalizing and sharing your goals is a powerful action that drives incredible levels of accountability.

Why all the emphasis on writing things down on paper? When you write your goals down, they’re no longer just something in your head — they become very real.

Side note: nice job saving up $35K. To some that’s a lot and to others it’s not much — but if you manage your expenses and cut costs the right way, $35K should give you enough runway to learn, travel, and invest in yourself for a long time. If that’s not the case though, then find ways to cut back soon.

I am very excited for the path ahead of you, and you should be too! Hope this helps…Good luck and enjoy!