Job Search & Interview Tips from my Job Loss Journey

I was laid off last summer, and it's been a whirlwind ever since. I've been learning a TON about job searching, interviewing, networking, resumes...and in this episode I share it ALL with you! I also tell you my story throughout the whole thing. 

If you're job searching, grab a pen and paper to take notes, and good luck! 

If you're just interested in the inside scoop from my point of view, no note taking necessary, ha!

The link below is to my storefront I mention in the episode. The top 2 are options to join Club Next Level (women only), and the 3rd option is to try the personal development app I mention. 

https://stan.store/jeni302_146 

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Hi! You are listening to the Cheetah Print Chats podcast, and I am your host, Jenny. I'm in my mid-40s, married, child-free, but I have nieces and nephews, which is who I started this podcast for in the first place. I'm a dog mom and a cat mom, a fitness mentor. I've gone through a lot in my life. Some good, some not so good. But it's all left me with a lot of life lessons that I want to share with you. Life lessons that, in my opinion, will never go out of style, much like Cheetah. I hope that you're able to learn something from my experiences that benefits your life. Let's chat. Good morning or afternoon or evening, whenever you are listening to this. Welcome back to the Cheetah Print Chats podcast. I am your host, Jenny. Today I'm going to take you through my journey of job loss and job searching. The ups and downs of it all, but also I'm going to be sharing all that I've learned through this whole thing about resumes and LinkedIn and interviewing and all that. But also how about how losing a job isn't just about losing a job. So this all started in late June of 2024. Right now it's March of 2025. If you happen to be listening to this later, so nine months almost. Which, wow, it does not feel that long. I didn't even realize it was so close to a year until I just added it up. Anyway, I feel a little strange talking about all this and giving you tips and advice because I don't have a new job yet. However, part of that is because I stopped looking. At least for now, and I'll explain why soon. This episode actually started out as me journaling about all that I was going through. So I started journaling again in late June, and then every few weeks I'd journal more about where I was in the job search situation, how I was feeling, my thoughts, what I learned, whatever I felt like I needed to get off my chest, what I've been working on, interviews, meetings with career coaches or recruiters, anything. The whole point was then to air this after I found a job and had been there about a month or so. It was gonna be an episode about job loss and all the work it takes to find another job, but then about how I did find a job and it was so much better, and now I see the reason I got laid off. And one day, maybe I'll still have that episode, but I hope it's gonna be a different ending. Again, more to come on that. At this point, it's kind of like a last act of letting go of the job search. Um, something else I did this week actually was rearrange my office to be more for my business versus a holding space for a new job, which is what it has been for the last nine months. Uh and this is actually the first episode I'm recording from this new space. Again, more on this later. So reading through all of my journal entries I collected for this episode would probably take an hour and you'd be pretty bored. Plus, that's a lot of talking for me to do at one time. So I decided to shorten it for you. Well, I'm gonna try to shorten it for you. I wrote down all my journal notes and kind of shortened them. Anyway, we'll do a summary and hope that it's not too long. But shoot, maybe it's gonna end up as an hour anyway, because when I get to talking, I can get to talking. Um, and this is something that's I don't know, I have a lot to say. Anyway, I do have notes to help me stay on track. If you want to skip ahead to the tips at the end, okay, so there's a few tips in between here and not here in the end, but if you want to skip ahead to the bulk of the tips, my story in super short form is I got laid off. I went through a ton of different emotions, it was not at all easy, I worked really hard to get a new job, I didn't get a new job, I decided to start my own business, I stopped looking for a job, and if my business doesn't grow in the next couple months, I will start looking again. If you want to hear more details, keep listening. Also, do I think my company made a mistake in letting me go? Yep, 100%. I was a very loyal employee. I never took advantage of working from home. My bare minimum hours every single week, unless I took vacation, was 40 hours. A lot of weeks it was more than that. I did a ton of work for my accounts. Some would say too much, but I also made sure they were empowered to do their own tasks so they didn't have to wait on me for everything. From the outside looking in, it looked like I had easy accounts. But that is only because of all the work I did behind the scenes, which my boss quickly figured out as I passed all my work to him before I left. He quickly passed it on to someone else on the team though, well, which I don't blame him. But I also volunteered a lot for extra projects that were not in the scope of my job to be part of networking groups and leadership coffee chats and just other volunteer opportunities within the company, like the United Way Fashion Show, the Health Fairs, a couple 5K's. I did a lot for my accounts and I did a lot for the company. And they did notice it at one point too. I mean, all of my reviews were great, all of my recent reviews, even, were great. Um, they paid for me to get my master's degree, so they paid for my grad school, and then they paid me bonus checks over a year and a half to stay. Like I got extra money just to not quit. So although towards the end I kind of knew what was coming, I was still surprised. And then to know that they kept people like sleeps in meetings guy and ignores emails and acts like he never met you manager or skips out on work every week, lady, it was even more surprising. I know, that was random. Why did I just talk about that? Uh, well, probably to make myself feel better, if we're being honest, but also because many of you who have been in this situation could feel the same way. And I want you to know you're not alone. That's what this whole podcast is about. Not feeling alone, giving you advice from my experiences. So anyway, that was twofold. In saying that though, my old company may have made the mistake in letting me go, but God never makes mistakes. Or the universe or your angels or your spirit guides, whomever you believe in, when the higher power wants you on a path, they're gonna get you on it. And I believe that getting laid off was a redirection from God to go another way because he knew I would never leave on my own. So again, last summer I found out I was one of hundreds being laid off from my company, one of three on my my small team, and I kind of saw it coming just by the way my boss reacted to certain things that I said and his demeanor in a lot of situations, but I also just had a deep down gut feeling about it. At first I was okay, not a hundred percent good, but okay. Because after being told there were layoffs coming for close to two years and not knowing if it's gonna be me or not, it was kind of a relief to just get it over with and know yes or no. By the way, morale was down for our entire company that whole time. It's not a cool thing to do to your employees. I know they were trying to let us know and keep us in the loop, but for two years of being like, Am I gone or not? Like it's it gets people down. And it's not really good for productivity either. I mean, some people worked a lot more to try to prove that they should stay. I fell into that camp a lot of times, but a lot of people ended up just leaving versus waiting for their fate, and some worked a lot less because they were like, if you're gonna lay me off, why bother? I did my best the whole time, made sure to just keep bringing value, made sure I kept showing up like I had before. I will say I was very grateful to have found out early. My bosses let me know a month before we were actually gonna get official word from HR so I could start looking for a new position. Also, my company gave me a really good severance package, which I was so grateful for as well. That was not lost on me that we got really good severance. But anyway, after I found out I was losing my job, over the next few weeks to months, I went through a ton of different emotions. Sad, mad, denial, frustration, embarrassment, hurt. But I knew staying in any of these emotions was not gonna help me, so I tried my best to lean into the feeling of relief and then tried to get excited about what could be next for me. Because I know doors do not get shut on you without something better on its way. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason, and even though it was so scary leaving what I knew for the last 12 years, leaving a job I worked so hard for, where I started at the very bottom and worked my way up, a company I planned on retiring from, and then go to go to not knowing what was next. I still tried to stay excited because I knew it would be better. This next part of this episode is where my summarized quote-unquote journal entries come from. But throughout, I will also have some tips for you. Then, as I mentioned at the end, I'll go into all the things that I've learned. You'll want to grab a paper and pen if you're job searching right now to take some notes. The corporate world is nothing like it was 12 years ago, which was the last time I was applying and interviewing for my last company. Okay, let's get into it. This is from July, and I'm gonna be reading these. Hopefully, I don't sound like I'm reading. Okay. Again, this is from July. I have been trying to get a new job for five weeks now within my company, because although I was laid off, they are allowing us to be rehired in a different position. I've been updating my resume, updating LinkedIn, creating intro slides, which is either a new thing or maybe just a new thing in my current company, sending my resume and slides out to everyone I can think of, continuing to network in person and virtually, applying for roles, emailing the hiring managers as well as the recruiters, plus getting my own work done while training my boss to take over my job. It's been a lot to say the least, and so far I've heard nothing back from HR about any of my applications. I had one person tell me to only apply to my level and down because the higher levels will be will be fiercely competitive, and I'd be naive to think I can beat out some of the people applying. Gross, right? Like wow, speechless. I think he was coming from a place of caring, like telling me not to get my hopes up, but also kind of shining a light on how he felt about me. However, another higher level person told me to put my name in the hat for all roles and all levels, and then send him the links to the roles I applied for so he can help me. Thank goodness for him because he gave me some of my confidence back. A note for you, listeners. Go for any opportunity that you want. If you want it, go for it. Don't let anyone tell you you're not good enough because you have no idea who else is going for that spot. They might be a better fit, they might not. Everyone is unique and you may be the perfect fit. The worst that can happen is you don't get the job, but you should still try. Next entry from the end of August. I had really hoped by now I'd be sharing that I found a new job and it was great, but that's not the case. So far I've applied for 10 roles within my company, seven I did not get, three I'm still waiting on. But I found out someone slandered my name, and that's why I didn't get the interview for at least one of the roles. My safety role, actually, that I really didn't want, but I already knew how to do 80% of it, and I knew I'd be really, really good at it. Because basically I've done it before. And yes, I know slander is a heavy word, but to me that's what happened. I believe I know who did it, but I'll never know. In this case, I think God was protecting me from that role and the boss of that role, to be honest, because he is not a good person. Another note for you, listeners, as hard as it is to get feedback, you absolutely 100% don't agree with. Keep it in your back pocket for the future. Because even if just one person thought that, it might be something you need to work on. As far as what this person said about me, I don't agree at all. But it's something I'll pay attention to to help me grow and improve. It sucks. But the silver lining is you and I are now more aware of what different people think. Entry from September. I started applying to other companies. I still don't want to leave my company, but I need to accept that I may not be meant to stay there. Entry from October. Early October. I've taken a break from looking for a job, I'm over it, but also I feel like I need to enjoy the time off for a bit and just let go. I still get emails about roles from LinkedIn and I get leads from friends and family that I'll check out, but I'm not actively looking. I found I was tired and not putting all my energy into it anyway. Entry from late October. I interviewed for another job with my old company that I'd be really good at, but I didn't get it. I saw this hiring manager at an event recently and just knew from her demeanor that I just knew from her demeanor what was coming, so no surprise there. But I remind myself daily that if I was meant to work there, I would, and if I'm not meant to work there, nothing will change that. What's meant to be will be no matter what. But not getting this role was tough because it was the final push out the door. Another note for you, my listeners. Remember that things happen for us, not to us. As hard as it may be to believe that, I truly believe doors shut for others to open. If you're going through a tough time right now, remember something better is coming. Also, I heard a saying I want to share with you, and that is if you dig a hole and it's in the wrong place, digging it deeper is not going to help. It's basically about how sometimes working harder is not the answer, and maybe you need to move on and look elsewhere. Okay, entry from December. By now I thought for sure I'd be a couple months into my new job, raking in the money from that plus my severance pay because I had big plans to double up. I'm now down to two months left of severance with no leads whatsoever for a new job. I've been applying to places daily, but normally I don't hear back. Although one company was so kind as to send me a rejection letter on Thanksgiving morning. Most jobs I'm applying for I really don't want, but at this point I need something. It's hard to say that. I really didn't think it would be this hard. I know it means my perfect role hasn't found me yet. Well, I used to know that I am losing hope for sure. I'm trying hard to keep the faith, keep the faith that the best is yet to come, and then I'll get an amazing job soon and I'll understand why all the rest didn't work, but right now it's taking a big hit on my confidence. Entry from January. I've still been applying to roles and even finally got some interviews, but nothing came from any of them. I wanted to tell you about a first though, a first for me, a type of interview I didn't know existed. Listeners, tune back in. This is called an on-demand interview, an on-demand video interview. I had to record a video of myself, like just a few minutes long, basically the equivalent to the tell me about yourself question. Then I had to answer four questions. For each question, I had three minutes and only one chance to answer. So if I messed up or ran out of time, too bad. So I prepared for this like it was a normal interview, did my research on the company, reviewed, reviewed the job description the job description, reviewed the key accomplishments from the last few years, which I have typed up in the star method, which I will explain shortly. I made some notes on what I wanted to say in the about me portion and got to it. I will say this was so much easier than a real interview because I didn't have people staring at me and I had some time to think a little bit before answering each question. So if you run into one of those interviews, just know they're like a new thing now. Or maybe they're not new and I'm just late to the party. Okay, entry from March, and we're almost done with these entries. I launched my own business in February, Club Next Level. It's an online group coaching community for women who want to work on their fitness, but also want to work on staying healthy as we age and also getting through menopause a tad easier. I'm still sort of looking for a job, keeping my options open, but at the same time, I'm really enjoying growing club next level. And I'm starting to think that that needs to be my focus for a little bit. I'm no longer receiving severance checks, which is scary. I'm completely on my own now, but I feel like this is the right path at this point. Maybe the doors to the corporate world kept shutting in my face for a reason. And truly, I'd rather be my own boss. Going back to work now would feel like I'm giving up on my dream. But building a business, I realize it's going to take a lot of work and time. Okay, that was my last entry, and now we're here on March 19th, 2025. At least that's when this was aired. As for what's next for me, I'm keeping my options open to go back to work because a part of me misses it a little bit. I'm keeping an eye on open roles in case something really fun pops up, but I am not actively searching and applying like I was. If God wants me back at work, he is gonna have to drop a role right in my lap. My focus now is on growing Club Next level as well as my growth day sales. Oh yeah, I am an I'm an affiliate for a personal development app called Growth Day. In my opinion, it's perfect for most people, but especially for those of you who you really want more personal development in your life and you don't have time to read a book. You can listen to this app and it's got daily messages that are 20 minutes or less. Don't worry, I will leave the links in my podcast notes for you. Wink wink. There's a lot more to it than that, but um, that's not what the point of this podcast is. So let's get into the good goods of this episode. Job search tips, interview tips, all that I've learned from career planners, a career coach, recruiters, and mentors. Many of these are obvious and you already know them, but I'm going to mention them anyway just in case. We will do job search tips first. These are also written down, so bear with me. There's a lot. Again, get your notebook and paper. Wait. Paper and pen. Okay. Number one, write out your resume, then give it to a trusted mentor to review it and edit it. Then upload it to ChatGPT and ask ChatGPT to optimize your resume to get through the search engines and actually make it to the hiring team. Apparently they're called applicant tracking systems and they're run by AI. So having AI, ChatGPT, whatever optimize your resume makes sense. But do not keep your personal information on your resume when uploading it. Take your phone number, email, and address off before giving it to ChatGPT. Speaking of that, number two, you do not need your address on your resume. You can use your city and state, and when you apply to a role, they may ask for the address on the application, but keep it off your resume. Number three, also on your resume, keeping it clean and simple helps it get through the AI tracking systems as it's more easily readable. Plus, most places have you upload your resume and it auto-updates your application, so having it more readable gets the auto-update more accurate. Number four, make sure if you worked at the same company but over multiple divisions, you list the company first and then split out the roles and job descriptions. That way it shows that you were not job hopping, but that you had stayed with the same company for X amount of years. Then I stayed with them, but worked for their digital ag division, which they called something else. Then they were acquired and changed names. So in all my time, it looks like I was with three different companies versus one. So on my resume, I put the last company's name at the top and added the division's second. So it was clear that I was with one company for almost the full 12 years. Number five, get your resume out on LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter, Indeed, and any other job search site. That you can find trusted job search sites. Number six, use Chat GPT to find the names of role titles used across different companies. Ask it to give you role titles for your specific job skills. This way, when you're looking for roles, you can enter multiple options so none are missed. For example, the same role across five different companies could be called five different titles, like client success manager, sales enablement manager, key account manager, regional account advisor, client onboarding manager. You can see my point. Number seven, ask people to write recommendations for you on LinkedIn. This is something a career coach told me to do. I'm not sure if anyone actually reads these or not, but it can't hurt. And when you're on LinkedIn, by the way, you'll you'll go to the recommendate the recommendation section and then you can send people a request to write you a recommendation. I would talk to them in person first or send them a personal email first, and then if they agree to it, then send the recommendation. Number eight, do not put the dates of your graduations from schools on your resume. This way, no one can judge you on your age. I just learned this very recently and just a couple weeks ago took my graduation dates off my resume. Number nine, speaking of updating your resume, every time you do it, be sure to update it on LinkedIn, indeed, any other job search engine you have uploaded it to already. Number 10, if you can work with a career search company or a recruiter. They can teach you how to optimize your resume, your LinkedIn profile, your job search. They can teach you how to market yourself and prepare for interviews, plus a lot more. I believe the career planners are paid, but I do not think you have to pay a recruiter to help you. Let's get into interview tips. Number one, dress up. Number two, show up early. Number three, use Chat GPT to prepare. For example, you can ask what you should share and not share during the tell me about yourself portion of the interview. A tip. They want career information, not personal information. You can also use Chat GPT to get more information about the position outside of the job description that they give you. Number four, always have questions ready to ask the interview panel. Chat GPT can help here as well. You could ask it to give you a list of questions. Hiring managers like to hear from candidates. Some of these questions should be about the role, some about the company, etc. Number five, use the star or SOR method. Star is S T A R, situation, task, action, and result. Use numbers in your result. How many hours you saved your team, how much money you saved your client, how much money you saved the company, whatever. And emphasize the A actions. Share the actions you specifically took because no one cares about what your team did. They care about what you did. SOR is S-O-A-R. It's very similar. It's situation, obstacle, action, and result. This one just places a lot more emphasis on the challenges you had to overcome to get to your result. But still also emphasize the actions that you took. Number six, research the company as much as possible. Don't go into your interview clueless. Number seven, never say you don't have a weakness. Everyone has a weakness. But also don't share a weakness without adding how you're addressing it. Saying, oh, I really suck at XYZ and then leaving it at that is not okay. Share what you believe you can improve, your weakness, then share what you're currently doing to improve it. So maybe you have an issue, maybe your weakness is writing too long of emails, being way too wordy in your emails. Something you can say that you're working on doing is writing out your emails, but then having someone help you edit it and get it down to bullet points or asking ChatGPT to shorten it. Just say something that you feel is a weakness, but also how you are working on that to make it a strength. Number eight, never talk bad about your old boss or your old company. Number nine, if you have not had a job for a very long time, no matter what, you tell them it's because you chose not to work. Maybe you did it just to take some time off, explore your options, whatever. But you are not going to tell them that you've just not been chosen. Whew, okay. This brings us to the end of my list of tips and things I've learned from this whole job search journey. Before I go though, I just wanted to note that losing a job is hard because it is, it's not just about losing a job and finding another one. You're grieving in a way about a lot of things. You lose your job, yes, but you lose the life that you knew. You lose your friends, your network, your seniority, your vacation time, your volunteer opportunities if your company has those. You lose what could have been. You have to let go of a lot of things. You have to watch your friends and colleagues move on without you. They get to stay together while you get left behind, and soon they stop reaching out. And I've told you before, but I will tell you again, in the corporate world, you are replaceable. You can be replaced and forgotten in under two weeks. So prioritize work to a point that you're a good employee and you're doing your best and bringing value and taking care of your clients. But be sure that your family and home life come first. Because at home, you are not replaceable. Your friends and family need you. Take your breaks every day for your own sanity and mental health. You get more work done that way, anyway, when you take breaks. Your brain is like refreshed. Take your vacation days. Memories are not made at your desk. Memories are made at family events, on vacation in the mountains, on the beach, at the park, down the street. Work is a tiny sliver of your life. Thank you for listening. I know this was a longer episode than you're used to, but it's also got a ton of good information included, so I truly hope that it helps. I will chat with you next week, and big news. If all goes as planned, we will have a guest next week. The Cheetah Print Chats podcast very first guest. She is one of the first people I met on my podcasting journey. She also has her own podcast, a book, a TV series, and a course on podcasting. I can't wait for you to meet her. Thank you so much for listening. If you loved this episode, please leave me a review and share with your friends. To connect with me, find me on Instagram at Jenny302. That's J E N I and the numbers 302. Or you can find other ways to connect with me listed in the show notes. I can't wait to chat more with you.