Things I've Learned Since Being Laid Off

I can say getting laid off definitely has it's advantages....and not just the sit back, have a Beam and Coke and figure out a solution to a problem in your undies. But now I have the advantage of being able to look at stuff you wanted to spend time on but couldn't because you had external pressures to complete your work in non realistic deadlines. So I bring you a list of things I've learned since being laid off. I plan to continuously update this because I'm sure there will be a lot more I learn, heck it's only been 2 days.

1. Update your resume monthly. I must admit, I didn't see myself being laid off. I thought possibly it would happen to co-workers, but not myself. I was a dedicated worker that always got his stuff done. So I never worried about a resume, I've never had to hand it out for freelance work. So I never bothered. I wasted my first 3 days just pulling all of my information together, looking through old Monster account info, sifting through computer files, and opening up boxes that have been sealed for years..

2. Never miss a chance to network. If it wasn't for the grace of things like Twitter and other social networks I wouldn't be receiving all the job prospects I am. Don't let people try to say that social networking is useless. It doesn't matter if it's handing out business cards, adding Facebook friends, updating your LinkedIn. I'd suggest that if you don't have a personal business card, getting a few made when you can. When your at meetings never forget to give out your business card and to get one from who you are talking to. This is especially true at professional meetings or club organizations. You are building your network for the future with people who have a common interest! Most jobs in the multimedia/design industry are filled through word of mouth and are never advertised. A good number of positions are filled by the time the ad gets to the media.

3. In PA "Laid off" = "Lack of Work". Don't let your pride get in the way of signing up for unemployment. File immediately. You don't know how long you will be out of work and any money coming in will help. In PA, you can very easily sign up for unemployment via the web. Also note that when signing up for unemployment in the state of Pennsylvania you can select "Laid off" but the web interface will switch the option to "Lack of Work".

4. Don't be ashamed. Being laid off is not something to be ashamed of or needs pity. If it has not happened to you yet then you are the exception to the rule! Chances are that most people that you talk to during your job search have been laid off (corrected, used to only say laid) at least once in their career.

5. Adobe Acrobat is unstable. When building my resume, I like to go for a little design flair. I like my resume to stand out, but not to drastic from the traditional resume. Sometimes those HR people are crazy about it not conforming to some "imagined" resume staple. I saw a HR person once throw away a resume because the paper was colored. But i digress, after building my resume in inDesign I wanted to increase my accessibility of my pdf by better organizing how my resume would highlight during selection. I'm sure you've highlighted a pdf in the past and copied text and pasted it into a word document and have it totally garbled. I didn't want that to be the case with my resume. So I attempted to utilize Acrobat's read order functionality to reorder the page (so much easier to do it in Acrobat then attempt to do it in inDesign or so I thought). Every time I attempted to adjust text, randomly it would crash.  Now it's not crashing, but the menu options for accessibility aren't accessible. Fan-frack'n tastic.

6. Thank God  I didn't start my own business. I would not be eligible for unemployment if I had started my business last month which I had planned on.  Sometimes procrastinating works in your favor.

Tagged with: Adobe Acrobat, Facebook, Laid Off, LinkedIn, Unemployment