You lost your job. Maybe you were expecting it, maybe you weren’t. Either way, it’s rarely a pleasant experience. For some people, it can be devastating — emotionally, practically, or both. I’ve been let go a few times, and I’ve narrowly escaped it a few more. These tips will help you get through your first week or so as a newly unemployed person.

Handle the Paperwork

When you got the news, HR gave you a stack of homework: return equipment, sign up for health coverage (either via COBRA or through your spouse’s coverage), sign your severance agreement, and so on. Treat these tasks as part of the job you are leaving. Get them done as soon as you can, but don't rush them. Rolling over your 401k usually isn’t urgent, but it can simplify keeping track of your assets if you do it now.

Make sure you review and understand anything you have to sign. If part of your compensation involved equity or stock options with a vesting period, understanding how your severance impacts those is particularly important (and likely urgent). It’s wise to consult legal counsel or other experts as needed before signing. Aim to have all of this done within a week. You don’t want to carry baggage from your old job into your search for your new job.  

Feel Your Emotions

You aren’t going to be effective at the steps you need to take over the next several weeks if you don’t deal with your emotions. It’s okay, probably even smart, to take a few days off and create some open space to let this process get started. Don’t rush it, but don’t put it off.

If you just lost your job, you might experience shock, numbness, or disbelief. Over the following days, that will likely give way to anger, fear, and/or sorrow. You might feel like you didn’t deserve for this to happen to you. You might have been in the middle of a project that was important to you that you won’t get a chance to complete. You aren’t going to talk to the people who made up your daily community as much anymore. You may never talk to some of them again. All these are losses, and it’s appropriate to recognize that and let yourself grieve.

It's less common, but if you had been worrying about the possibility for a while, or if your job situation wasn't good, you may feel relief. As the days pass, whatever your initial feelings were, they may change. You might go through all of them.

Stabilize Your Finances

When you are ready to start on the practical side of your new reality, the first thing you need to do is make sure your finances are under control. This is the toughest job market I have seen in 15 years. No matter how long you think it’s going to take to find a new job, be prepared for your search to take longer.

You don't want to take a bad fit opportunity out of fear, but you also don't want to run out of savings waiting on a perfect fit. You need to optimize your cash flow. If the best you can do leaves you with negative cashflow, you need to know how long your assets will last.

Take stock of your expenses

If you didn't already have a budget, make one. Now is the time to cancel unnecessary subscriptions, put off any big purchases you haven’t already committed to, and figure out where you can replace big spending items with cheaper options. For example, family game night instead of family movie night, visiting your folks instead of taking a trip to the beach, chicken thighs instead of steak, and so on.

Health insurance will probably be one of your large expenses. Most people don’t realize how much of their insurance bill was covered by their employer until they see the price to keep their coverage via COBRA. If your spouse works, it might be cheaper to add you to their plan. It’s also worth pricing a plan in the ACA marketplace.

Take stock of your other income

Don’t be surprised if cutting expenses isn’t enough to make your budget work. Unless you are a high net worth individual late in your career, your paycheck was a huge share of your total income. That’s especially true if you were the primary earner, if your spouse is a fulltime homemaker, or in the nightmare scenario where both you and your spouse become unemployed at the same time.

You might have some money coming in from a rental property or investment dividends, but if you think your job search is going to take more than 2-3 months, you want to explore ways to bring in additional income.

Do you have a side hustle that you can ramp up? Could you start one? The last time I had to hunt for a job, I was seriously considering taking some time off from having a W-2 job and just contracting. Thankfully, the employer who had just let me go realized that they needed some part-time help with a couple of projects. They became my first client. I’ve had friends who have done Amazon delivery, rideshare, worked in UPS warehouses, and just about every other thing you can imagine for a little extra income. Outside of the income, having something to get up for each day will also help you stay positive and energetic, which you will need for the job search.

Unless you are confident that you are going to find work soon, you should at least consider filing for unemployment. The maximum weekly benefit and the number of weeks you can collect it are low, but it’s a benefit your previous employer paid for. It basically comes down to whether you think the money is worth the time and hassle of going through the process. Personally, I’ve never done it. In the times I’ve been between jobs, I figured I could make that time pay off better by finding some consulting gigs.

Take stock of your assets

After you’ve optimized your expenses and income, if you have more coming in than going out, you're in great shape. You can take as long as you want to find the job of your dreams, start a business, go back to school, or whatever you want. If that's you, that's awesome!

If you're in the other 99% of the people who are reading this, you've got red ink. Maybe a flood of it, so your clock is ticking. Before long, if you don’t find a job, you'll be cashing out your retirement early, taking loans, or moving out of your home.

However, knowledge is power. Once you know your cashflow, it's straightforward to calculate how much time you can spend looking. Just take your liquid assets and divide them by the amount of money your budget is short each month.

Your liquid assets include things like any severance pay or vacation payout. Hopefully, you also have a fully funded emergency fund. Beyond that, you may have some near liquid assets that can be converted into cash like:

• An extra car
• Furniture you don't need
• Instruments or sports equipment that you don't use

You have some extra time on your hands, and you’ve probably been meaning to clean out some of this stuff anyway. Any money you can get for it is going to increase your cushion.

What's Next?

Once you know how long you've got for your job hunt, it's time to get going on it. That's a big enough topic that it deserves a separate post. It’s coming soon.

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