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Hard reality... I know how tough it can be emotionally as I've survived many numerous downsizing & re-orgs and have gotten caught twice. The only good thing is its so frequent now very few people give you a sideways look anymore.
More importantly for you, you got a heads up about it. There is an old saying the best time to find a job is when you have one. First find out what the severance package might look like (more on this below)... so say its 16 weeks, then you've got almost a year to year and a quarter. Then start thinking about what you want to do or where you want to work... company or location (although relo packages are not as popular these days). Then figure out how people can help you, including a list of companies that appear to have positions that look interesting so you can target your networking (i.e. don't say "Know anyone looking for IT people?", it more like "Know anybody at Home Depot or Coca Cola"). Then tell everyone, you are looking (I mean everyone, as you never know who knows who... your doctor, accountant, clergy, kids teacher or sports coach, family, etc, there are career centers with networking sessions... yes networking with the unemployed can work as they know people and just because they might have lost their job in one are of the company doesn't mean others aren't hiring... heck I know several people who have 'won' the 'Motorola lottery' from more than one division). Your primary goal is to get your resume looked at by a real person, or at least submitted as a referral on the internal corporate site.
Here are 3 of my best networking stories where I didn't directly know the contact at the company:
1) Once got a call out of the blue from a recruiter at a big utility (not in my area geographically or industry) because my father's second cousin met and sat with it's CEO at some conference.... had a few phone conversations but there wasn't a good fit at the time.
2) A college buddy, who I hadn't talked to in a little while, after me telling him about how my job search, told me about his new girlfriend, who worked for a company in my industry... I had to figuratively dope slap him over the phone. I got the interview & still good friends with my buddy, (he did eventually broke up with the girlfriend... had nothing to do with me).
3) At a career center presentation I met someone in HR at a company in my industry. A month later I came across a great job posting there. I called her and asked if I should submit online or if I could email her my resume. She asked me to do both and do so right away as they had gotten so many responses in one week they were about to take the posting down and if I hadn't called her she may never had seen my resume. I got the interview, (but was 'told' I didn't get the offer as they went with the other guy as he spoke Korean and there was going to be a lot of interfacing with Korea, and after my experiences at Motorola dealing with China, I can see the benefit).
Now back to severance package... you have the possibility of really making this work for you. I've known people that used it to fund their start up period of doing something on their own, (I even have one friend who was looking to do something on his own when he got word of a coming restructuring he wasn't going to get caught by but 'volunteered' for... he got start up funds, someone else kept their job, & the company didn't wind up with an unexpectedly empty position). Or had something else essentially lined up or landed very shortly after their last day and were able to pocket most if not all of the severance package, (in those cases they made sure they took the lump sum). Even if the hiring company has to 'wait' for you they might not mind it if you are the right person, as they can finish their search & possibly save some money... especially if they otherwise might have to give a signing bonus to compensate for someone switching companies loosing a performance / year end bonus, (or in your case the severance package).
Oh yeah, one other thing, especially as you are in IT, take advantage of any internal training you can to stay or get current.
posted by 205.172.13...
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