10 Tips for the Suddenly Unemployed

Jennifer Kushell, the President and Co-founder of Your Success Network and author of "Secrets of the Young & Successful: How to Get Everything You Want Without Waiting a Lifetime" has compiled 10 tips for the tens of thousands of people who have lost their jobs. I'll give you the first three and then you can check out the rest by clicking here.

1. Breathe. Stay Calm.

The worst decisions are made under pressure, stress, or in a state of fear. Don't allow yourself to be rash or irrational; keep your wits about you and commit to making it through this in one piece. Get a sense for what this layoff really means to you and what the real repercussions will be.

Assess your safety nets: What are your back-up plans? (All the way down to spending time with the folks in your worst case financial scenario.) Hopefully you've done enough to guard against that, and if so, take some solace in the fact that you're prepared to weather a little uncertainty.

2. Look at This As an Opportunity.

You know what they always say, "It's not what happens to you, but what you do about it." That might not be what you want to hear right now, but think about it: This sudden change could have a silver lining -- so commit yourself to finding it. Take some time for yourself, even just a few quiet hours alone and reflect on all the things you truly liked and disliked about your job.

What would you have done differently? Were you there because you had to be, or because you wanted to be? Ask yourself how you can now take the next step learning from your past experience. Is there a chance to take a step up? Or to change industries or careers entirely if you weren't as happy as you wanted to be? So many times, abrupt changes like this are exactly what people need to get out of a rut and move on to something they'd really love to be doing.

3. Audit Your Online Identity.

Start paying close attention to your reputation management, to the platform that you've built for yourself online (if any) and to what new people will perceive about you when they google you. If you don't like what you see online, or want to take control of that first impression you're giving off, build a professional identity you can be proud of with a PROJO - your professional mojo.

It's a next-generation resume/portfolio that you can share with contacts, add to/promote in your signature line, build out and keep up to date with your latest accomplishments to ensure that when someone searches for you, they find the "goods" on you, but the good!

To continue, click here.