Navigating Layoffs and Job Loss with Confidence in Today's Market

In this episode, I sit down with communications professional Mike Hrynyshyn to discuss what it's really like navigating today's challenging job market as an early-career professional. Mike shares his personal experience of facing unexpected job loss, adapting to a rapidly changing hiring landscape shaped by AI, and building a professional brand that stands out through authenticity. Together, we explore the realities of networking, career resilience, adaptability, and why having a plan before you need one can make all the difference when navigating career uncertainty.

Tune in to hear more about:

• How AI is changing the job search process and what candidates can do to stand out authentically

• Why genuine networking and relationship-building create stronger opportunities than transactional connections

• How Mike turned an unexpected job loss into a strategic action plan instead of a setback

• The importance of adaptability, continuous learning, and staying open to opportunities outside your original career path

• Why building your personal brand on LinkedIn starts with showing up as your authentic self

• How having a career contingency plan and strong professional network can help you navigate uncertainty with confidence

Tune into this episode of Career Ambitions to learn how resilience, authenticity, and strategic action can help you navigate today's job market with confidence and create new opportunities when you need them most.

Guest Links:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikehrynyshyn/

Let's Connect:
Website: http://www.joannesparrow.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/careercoachjo
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@careercoachjo
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-sparrow-career-coach
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CareerCoachJo
Threads: Joanne Sparrow 🔹 (@careercoachjo) 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Career Ambitions, the podcast for corporate professionals who are ready to stop waiting and take control of their careers. If you're tired of sending applications into the void, wondering why you're not getting interviews and watching opportunities go to people who are no more qualified than you, you're in the right place, my friends. I'm Joanne Sparrow, former HR Director Turned Career Coach, and I've spent more than two decades sitting on the other side of the hiring table. That means I know exactly what hiring managers think and what they say behind closed doors. Join me on this episode of Career Ambitions, where I'm pulling back the curtains on the hiring process and unapologetically exposing the truths, job seekers are never told to give you the strategy and confidence to move your career forward and land your dream job or promotion. Welcome to Career Ambitions. On today's episode, I'm speaking with Mike Kernitian, who has been navigating a very challenging job market. And he and I met through LinkedIn. Somehow our paths crossed. And um, Mike, why don't you take a moment to introduce yourself?

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Hi, Joanne. First, thanks for having me on. Uh yeah, I actually don't quite remember how we met either. I know it was through LinkedIn, but I'm not quite sure past that. Uh yeah, you can definitely say it's been a bit challenging. Um after a couple of years working in public relations and agency work, I found myself out of work for an extended period of time, working some freelance, but trying to work my way back into full time. That's I guess how you and I came, you know, uh cross paths. Uh, and it was through a lot of your help that I was able to land where I was up until recently, where due to unforeseen circumstances, now I'm back in that same boat.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yeah, it's a bit of a cycle, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 1:55

Um telling me.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

So, so Mike, maybe you could share with my uh listeners, maybe you could share with my listeners when you look at the current job market, what's the biggest shift you've personally had to adapt to as a young professional?

SPEAKER_00 2:09

I think one thing for sure is now with more and more people relying on AI and companies automatically whittling down however many applications. In a in a job market and in an industry like communications, where for one job you might get three, four, five hundred applications, there's not always a guarantee that regardless how well you're qualified, regardless of how well you've written everything, if there's a sniff that it could be AI, and sometimes it does, um just get whittled out anyways. And it's trying to stand out from a pack that is getting increasingly uh larger and increasingly homogeneous. Yes, and that's a real big struggle because if you're like me, I love an M-dash, but ChatGPT also loves an M-dash. So having to retrain how to write everything so that you don't seem like ChatGPT did everything for you. It's had to retrain my brain, and it's also having to force me into how I go about applications to go around AI filters. It's a job in and of itself.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

Yes, yeah. And so, Mike, you've built a very clear professional identity early in your career. I can see it on LinkedIn, and I I'm sure that's how we met. Uh, you must have written a post that caught my attention. Um, can you tell us what intentional steps did you take to stand out in this crowded field?

SPEAKER_00 3:45

I'm not sure if it was really anything like intentional. I think the biggest thing in terms of standing out is being a hundred percent true to who you are in a LinkedIn setting. You know, I think one way to stand out from the LinkedIn crowd is to talk how you would normally talk amongst your friends and coworkers. How often do you go on LinkedIn and see how did such and such, what did such and such teach me about business-to-business sales? Or like those same style of posts. Whereas I can come on and I can relate to, I respond to posts that I relate to, I share posts that I relate to, and I respond in the way that I would just naturally have that conversation. I communicate on LinkedIn the way I write, and I write the same way that I communicate in real life. So it's all kind of that perfect circle that I think brings a lot more authenticity to how we present ourselves going forward.

SPEAKER_01 4:46

Yes, which we all know AI cannot replace our authentic selves, right? So, so how do you approach networking today, especially when so much of it happens online rather than in person?

SPEAKER_00 5:00

I think a lot of it has to do with timing. You know, um, if I'm applying for a role, I'm not immediately gonna go ahead and apply for the role and then reach out to five or six people from that agency. I'm going to instead work through who I might know at that and wait, and then when the time is right, make the connection rather than immediately. There's nothing worse. And I had this when I was on the other side of the aisle where someone would apply to a role and then they reach out to me because I happen to work at that organization. So if I don't want that on the other end because it puts me in an awkward position, I'm not going to put someone else in that same awkward position. It also just doesn't feel natural. It's it comes from shared interaction, shared posts, and then you go from there and you actually build a genuine connection rather than a forced connection where you're feeling like the person owes you something because they connected with you on LinkedIn.

SPEAKER_01 6:05

Right. Right. Yeah, I think so. It's uh authentic interactions. Um, the quickest way to get visibility and build that rapport is in the comments, commenting on other people's posts and giving your thoughts on it, whether it's an opposing position, which can often create additional conversation. So it's I think it's also about being not being afraid of saying, you know, uh your thoughts and feelings on a certain topic. Um so can you walk us through a moment when something didn't go your way professionally and how you turned it into a moment instead, sorry, how you turned it into momentum instead of a setback?

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Okay, well, I mean, you know this one in particular, and this happened very recently, a couple of weeks ago. I went into work and my entire department ceased to exist anymore. I was told that, you know, the communications department, you know, my position just weren't like we were line items. And unfortunately, that was how I ended up back on the job market again. And rather than panic, I realized very quickly, even on my walk to the car that day, that the best route of action was take the time, obviously, to acknowledge what happened and move forward, but plan out how to move forward. Something rather than going aimlessly into it, work the connections I had made through LinkedIn, through even talking with you as well. And by the end of that same day, I had reached out to a handful of different connections at agencies across the city in Toronto, where I was able to put together a plan of who can I talk to, who's hiring, what steps can I take to avoid this, what how do I get on my LinkedIn to make sure that it's maximized for what just happened, and then my plan of action for the first month. And I it's off camera right now, but it's right beside where my computer is. I converted my whiteboard of projects for work into my whiteboard for projects for finding work, and it breaks down where I've applied all of the information that I need and then timelines. And as long as I stick to a consistent timeline, get up and applying at the the same time and working those same contacts and following up after this after a set amount of time so I'm not bombarding contacts I've already made, that will set me up in a better position than I was a year and a half ago, where I went into a job search and I didn't really quite know what to do.

SPEAKER_01 8:54

Yeah, I think that's so important. And that was very, very strategic of you. I think I was on that list of the first people that you reached out to. 100%.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

I think I had reached out to before I had gotten home that day.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Which I'm very grateful and humbled uh that you did that. And I'm so glad we're having this call today. Um, I think it's super important that whether you're uh currently employed and you feel secure, um, it's super important for everybody to have a plan, a backup plan. That may not be a job, but a black backup plan of how are you going to respond to the news of uh you know job loss. Um, and I think it's it's also important to recognize all of those feelings that come along with it. Fear, anger, surprise, shock, all of that is is valid. And it's okay to feel those things. Um take the weekend and do that, invent and do what you need to do. But then get Monday morning, start actioning your plan to build that momentum and um connecting with people. So that plan should include who are you going to reach out to, what are some companies you'd like to work for if you had to make a move and connecting with people before you need a job? So um, well done on your part for taking action before the ink even dried on your, I'll say termination letter. And I'm I'm sorry you went through that experience, but uh you were definitely um took the right action. So um, Mike, how about you tell us what skills or habits did you think? Sorry, I'll rephrase that. What skills or habits do you think will matter most for young professionals over the next three to five years?

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Um, again, ability to work around and ability to avoid the temptation of AI. I think that that's actually going to become an increasing skill because everywhere we turn, including places where we work, it's how do we make AI easier? Well, don't think of it as AI taking your job, you're taking AI's job. I'm making it so that you can't use AI to replace me. What do you bring that AI can't replicate? The other thing is adaptability. I think the main thing, especially when it comes to something like a job search, and I know this more you know through plenty of experience, where you think you'll end up and where you want to end up isn't necessarily where you do. I came from a background of sports writing and public relations and merge that together into a decent public relations career. And I was dead set the last go around that I'm absolutely going to end up in another um in another agency. And it didn't happen. But because I went outside that scope, broadening your horizons, you end up with plenty of opportunity that you may not think you have. I ended up working for a financial institution. I'm numerically dyslexic, and yet I was still able to make that work because of these abilities when it comes to adaptability, always going the extra mile to learn more. Again, if you're unfamiliar with something, don't necessarily use that as a way to limit your job search. Do more research into that topic. I learned a lot about finances, and I'm someone who barely, you know, uh passed at times going back to high school when it came to math because of, you know, because of dyslexia. But the ability to adapt and push myself to learn more to make myself a better candidate resulted in a job that I wouldn't have seen myself in at the beginning of my job search. So to reiterate, just how do you replace AI? How do you like how do you make AI obsolete with what you bring to the table, your adaptability and your willingness to learn?

SPEAKER_01 13:04

Right. Well, and I think with AI, I mean it's not going away.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

No, unfortunately not.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

Yeah, and I think um all of us need to learn how to leverage it um to work smarter, faster, um, and and um expand our like evolve as professionals, right? Rather than relying on it. I I just cringe when I see these companies uh promoting their AI tools that will apply on your a candidate's behalf. Uh so Mike, if you were starting your career from scratch today, knowing what you know now, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_00 13:44

Um, if I was starting directly right out of my program over again, I think the biggest thing that if I could go back until 2022, Mike, to do was look for internships. I started with a uh like full-time contract-ish type role right out of the gate. And it was great because I was thrown headfirst into the deep end. However, I didn't get a chance to kind of nurture those skills and actually have someone take me under their wing and show me the way. I had to learn on my own, which is great. However, when that contract comes up and there's not a space for you anymore, you end up having to pivot. If I had gone into an agency where there was an internship available where I could learn the ins and outs and have a lot more hands-on approach to mentoring me, I could have possibly still been in that same place now for almost four years later.

SPEAKER_01 14:43

Right. I will say uh in addition to internships, um, and I'll die on this hill saying this, don't be afraid to take a contract position. Because in reality, in reality, no job is a permanent job. Even if you get a job offer, it's no end date. That doesn't mean that job's permanent. So I've seen so many times throughout my career where a contract role converts to perm. So your candidates in the role for 12 months, say it's a maternity leave. The the person on leave chooses not to come back, or they take another role inside the business. So now that it's a natural um, unless there's performance issues, it's an easy thing for the business to convert that person to permanent rather than ending the contract and going to market to fill the role. Um, you're already in the role, you know the business, you know the people. So I I can't stress enough to consider contract work. Um, and then the other point is, especially for young professionals, I know it's very uh it's it's very much a desired um option to work remote, but if you can get in the room, get in the room physically, so important read the room, and you can, you know, those water cooler chats, uh, coffee chats in the lunchroom, there's so much information you can absorb just by observing the uh seniors in the room or uh professionals that are ahead of you in their careers and building those connections. It's so much more valuable than having a virtual coffee chat with someone.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Absolutely. And one more uh for my industry specifically, I will do for those that want to get into public relations. Don't always get wooed by the big clients.

unknown 16:38

Right.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

Some of my most satisfying work has been for clients that not many people know about for smaller budgets. People uh in PR specifically, I know so many people that have been wooed, and this happened to me as well, where you get wooed by a bigger name client. More more budget allows you to do more. However, it actually looks better on a resume when you're able to work with smaller budget budget clients because you have to show more ability, you have to show that you can do more with less and have it not look like you did more with less.

SPEAKER_01 17:13

Yes, that's fantastic advice. So, uh, is there any uh maybe one last piece of advice you you would give more young professionals, something that they would take seriously, but they're ignoring?

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Um, one that I wish I had gotten on when I was younger, even before I went back to school and did my postgraduate, is that LinkedIn is so important. And I think a lot of people are are lagging behind in LinkedIn in terms of making those connections because the more connections you make, the more likely you are to pop up on someone else's. And then also maximizing your own LinkedIn page. This is something I learned specifically from you. And it's making your LinkedIn page, it's it goes beyond just another social media page. This is an extension of your portfolio. Someone who clicks up on your link, on your LinkedIn page, you have to, in the span of whatever is on your screen when you click on your page, what is it about you that makes you an attractive candidate? And that's having work examples. That's actually having a banner, which you know, even if you go on Canva and spend 10 minutes putting together, you know, a banner with your name and your position and and whatnot, it's better than having nothing. Yes. And the more light, the more you build that out, the better it is for you in the long run.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

Yeah, I agree 100%. So I started on LinkedIn in 2008, aging myself here, um, but I never used it. I I would use it to recruit, fill positions at my employers, or if I were job searching, I would never consider posting content, posting my own thought leadership, or disclosing corporate secrets. Um, and so when I left corporate, I knew there was power in LinkedIn. I knew the magic could happen on there for me and growing my community. And so I invested in a uh program to help me leverage LinkedIn. And it has been amazing. It's an amazing tool. So I now take what I've learned and share that with job seekers and uh your banner, your headline, it is your digital footprint, your digital uh billboard. And it people make decisions within seconds of looking at your profile. If you have the old the standard LinkedIn banner, your stuff's outdated, you're not active, you're not looking for work, or you don't know how to network. All of these assumptions um are show up in recruiters' minds when they see that. So I love that advice. And hopefully more job seekers will take that and look at their profiles and really spend some time on it, and especially if they're looking for work or preparing to look for work.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

The other thing is if you can build out a custom LinkedIn URL, it's kind of like Facebook advertising, where if the more hyphens you add, the less the more hyphens and numbers that are in your URL, the less likely it is to actually uh be put through. So make sure you get that custom URL for you know for any application you're putting forward.

SPEAKER_01 20:29

Yes, and these are all uh tricks uh that you can do within seconds on your LinkedIn profile. And these are all things that I teach uh my clients and in my free masterclass, which I will have one coming up in uh depending on when on when this is released, I will be having a masterclass coming up. So hopefully anyone listening will be joining us. So, Mike, to close us out, where can people find you? Where would you like our listeners to follow you?

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Uh, you guys can just find me on uh on LinkedIn. It's basically the only social media I use consistently. Um and yeah, if you search in just my name, Mike H-R-Y-N-Y-S-H-Y-N, which I believe I'm the only one of them on LinkedIn, so I should be pretty easy to find.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

Amazing. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to Career Ambitions. If this episode gave you a new perspective, a practical takeaway, or even a little spark of confidence you needed, I would love for you to follow the show and leave a review. And if you're an ambitious corporate professional who's ready to stop guessing and start moving with a clear strategy, I would love to invite you to my masterclass. Inside this masterclass, I teach the exact strategies my clients are using to land their dream jobs. You can learn more about the masterclass in the show notes or at joannsparrow.com. See you in the next episode of Career Ambitions.