Surviving redundancy: the most important job you’ll ever have

So, you’ve been made redundant? You aren’t redundant — your job is redundant — and you already have a new job.

So, you’ve been made redundant?

You aren’t redundant — your job is redundant. You are still a much-loved, important, powerful and precious mother, husband, ­father, wife, person.

Framing your predicament like this is not just semantics — it’s an important first step towards your next career chapter. Differentiating between you and your job is critical to preserving self-esteem and in examining the work you need to do to get the job you need.

You already have a new job. This new job pays lousy wages but it is one of the most important jobs you’ll have. You’ve just been promoted to chief executive of You Ltd and your first task is to ­determine a business plan to reinstate your company’s income.

Your new job is getting yourself a new job. It’s a 10-hour a day, 50-hour a week job to find re-employment or start that business you have always dreamt of.

What does a chief executive of a start-up with no immediate ­revenue do? They use their capital resources carefully. When income is uncertain cash is king, which means taking stock and rethinking actions that would be reflexive when working.

You may have received a redundancy amount when your last role finished. Often, people immediately pay off a mortgage or credit card debt with this — but hold off. Being unemployed ­immediately affects your credit rating and the last thing you need is to pay back debt when you don’t know if you’ll need the cash for more important things such as food on the table.

Don’t be overconfident; people think they will get a new job quickly. Unfortunately it doesn’t always work that way, so here’s some practical advice.

Set up a separate bank account with your redundancy payment and other cash savings; this ­becomes your private pay office. If possible, have this as a mortgage offset account.

Re-examine your household budget and be ruthless with everything except expenses that will help you improve your employability (such as education). Work out your weekly expenses.

If you owe money and are ahead on repayments, consider pausing your regular repayments. You’ve built up a buffer for a rainy day, and this is it. If you are going to struggle to meet loan repayments, don’t be in denial — talk to your bank.

Once you know exactly what you need each week, work out how many weeks’ income you have in your pay-office account. This will give you a deadline and a sense of urgency when the going gets tough.

Set up an automatic weekly transfer from the pay office to your everyday account. This is your new pay packet.

Not enough? All the more reason to apply yourself to finding that new dream job.

The next thing to do as chief executive of You Ltd is reassess your skills for their economic value — do you really have what the job market is looking for? You need to be ruthless and prepared to walk away from everything you have done to date.

Look at all the mining companies being reborn as technology firms; similarly, you need to put aside the past, look at what the market is rewarding and make the necessary changes.

Don’t be discouraged. Seize the opportunity to re-create yourself with new skills and embrace the next greatest version of your career that manifests you as a loved, important, powerful and precious mother, husband, father, wife, person.

Patrick Canion is chief executive of Ipac in Western Australia.