What to do After You Lose Your Job!

On this week's episode of Press Start Leadership Podcast, we answer some more questions:

What do you do after you lose your job?

How to Min-Max in leadership?

Link to my FREE ebook: 5 Heroic Leadership Skills

Music by: Joey the Mad Scientist

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Transcript

Joey The Mad Scientist: 0:38

Hey there press starters and welcome to the press Start leadership podcast, the podcast about game changing leadership, teaching you how to get the most out of your product and development team and become the leader you were meant to be leadership coaching and training for the International game industry professional. Now, let me introduce you to your host, the man, the myth, the legend, Christopher Mifsud

Christopher Mifsud: 1:08

Hey there press starters, and welcome back. This week we're answering more questions. Hey, press Start leadership. What do I do after I lose my job? That's an excellent question. And not an easy one. But I've got eight tips for what to do after you lose your job from my own personal experience. All right, so you've lost your job. Now what is your job can feel like the end of the world. But it doesn't have to. I have a list of steps you can take to help you gain one up after you've been let go. First step number one, don't panic. I know it's easier said than done. But take some advice from The Hitchhiker's Guide. And don't panic. the gaming industry is a highly volatile one. And it's likely you'll find yourself in the midst of a restructuring a pivot or redundancy, or any of those other fancy terms for that go. At some point in your career. I did multiple times. And this is part of the game. So don't be too hard on yourself. Number two, take some time. If you've been let go, take some time to unwind. Sleep in, catch movies, take walks, catch up on the things you haven't had time to do. While you were busy working on project after project. Your job loss is a loss. So it's important for you to take the time to process and grieve it. Take a few days or weeks to rebuild your energy before diving into the job search, you're going to need the power up. Number three, update your resume. Once you're ready to get back to work, the first order of business is updating your resume. the gaming industry is constantly changing. So it's important you're showing off all the new skills you gained at your last job. Not a resume wizard. No problem. You can hire someone to help you or if you're short on cash, you can ask a friend for help. There are also plenty of free resources out there to take advantage of like resume genius or canva.com. For post it I know that may sound obvious, but it's important. You didn't just do all that work on your resume so you can sit around and wait. Get it out there. There are many places out there you can post it, but make sure you hit LinkedIn jobs. In my opinion. It's the best job search option out there. If you want to work in the video game industry. It's entirely possible you'll have a recruiter reach out to you to number five. tell your story. Let everyone know you're looking for a new job. share it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, tik tok. Whatever your platform you use. There's a reason they call it social networking. And it's time to use your network. Once you've posted it, keep posting the way social media algorithms are set up. Not everyone sees your posts every time you got to keep at it. And as always, ignore the haters. Number six. Build a routine. looking for a job as a full time job. And it's important to treat it like one. Make sure you build a structure like you would a normal work day, designating time for emails, follow up calls, lunch, etc. Most importantly, make sure you set an end time for your work day. When you're off the clock, you're off the clock. And that goes for worrying too. curious how to set up a routine while routine lists. This is what I suggest. First, set your work hours. If you're used to working nine to five Monday through Friday, great start there. If not, make sure you establish set working hours and respect them. set your alarm just like you would when you're were employed and go home at the end of the day. Don't let your job search bleed into your weekend. job hunting is stressful. You'll need this time to rest and recuperate. Next, designate times for emails. Set aside an hour a few times per day to send out and respond to emails and close your email client and between keeping it open can be distracting, especially when you're waiting not so patiently for some good news to hit your inbox. Then follow up after a few days. There are many different schools of thought on when the follow up but I don't believe you need to wait a full week after sending out an email or resume. If you're polite and respectful. Two to three days is just fine. The folks that do the hiring can be busy and following up shows them you're eager and interested in their company. If you're not sure what to say. Try to add a new piece of information about yourself and why you'd be a good fit for that job or company. Next, send out your resume daily job search is a search. It's unlikely you'll get hired after sending out one resume and crossing your fingers. I recommend looking high and low and sending out several resumes daily. Even the places that might feel like a long shot or like they're not quite what you want. Don't be too picky about each job you apply to being the perfect fit. While I don't suggest you settle, you never know where something will lead. It's possible someone will see your resume and call you about a job that hasn't been posted yet. Plus, it's always feels nice if someone responds even if you don't want the job. Finally, schedule breaks and take them. Like everything else on the list. I recommend you add breaks to your calendar. Take a full lunch break and several screen breaks throughout the day. Leave your house if possible. Then, when you're done with the day, allow yourself to take a break from worrying as well. Just like the old eight bit system, we need to hit the reset button to number seven. Refine as you go. In addition to job searching, now's a good time to do some soul searching. You may find yourself being pulled toward a part of the industry you didn't anticipate. And now is a great time to explore your options and refocus your goals. Allow yourself to refine your searches and tailor your resumes as you learn more about where you want to go. Eight, be good to yourself. This is going to be a hard process. You'll experience disappointment, hear back from less people than you expected. And you may even get ghosted. However, if you aim high, and continue being good to yourself, you ultimately get where you want to go. Everyday often hardship in my life has led to bigger and better things an extra life if you will, not a game over. So get out there and press start. Well, there you go. Those are my eight tips for what to do after you lost your job. I hope they'll all right. Next question. hey presto leadership. How can I min max my way and leadership? Interesting question. All right. Well, my recommendation is by playing the people's strengths while growing their dumps that, if you will, in gaming, it could be advantageous to maximize your character strengths while minimizing their weaknesses in life. However, it can be more dangerous to ignore important traits that need development. So what do you do when one of your team members is high in constitution, but low in wisdom, or overflowing with intelligence but short on charisma, ready to learn min maxing leadership? Alright, I've got three tips to set your team up for success. Number one, get to know your teammates. Spend time finding out what each member of your team is good. How do you do that? Ask them but don't stop there. What do their teammates think? What do you think conducting a pseudo 360 degree review can be a great way to find out what your team's natural strengths are. to prioritize skills appropriately, you never want to set someone up for failure. So now that you know what everybody is good at, assign your team members to projects that align with their skill set. Nobody succeeds in the long term without a variety of skills, though, set your team members up for success by making support available in their weaker areas. Number three, provide opportunities to improve. If you've ever wished you could build a character that was proficient in all areas. This is how you do it through experience. Give your team members room to improve. In addition to projects, they're naturally good at put them on projects, they're weaker at two. Again, don't set them up for failure. Put them on a low risk project with loose deadline, make sure the project is recoverable and have them shadow or pair up with somebody that's already adept in that area. In short, being a leader can be a lot like being a dungeon master, you make the rules and you set the challenges your team members face. A good Dungeon Master creates an exciting, dynamic and balanced campaign. So all the players can enjoy their adventures. My question for you though is will you be a good Dungeon Master for your team? Well, there you go. There's three tips for min maxing and leadership. All right, and that's this week's episode of press Start leadership podcast. Thanks for joining us this week. And being a press starter. Let me know what you think in the comments. And remember, stay awesome. If you haven't downloaded my free eBook five heroic leadership skills, click on the link in the description. Tune in next week for your next episode of press star leadership podcast. Thank you