can you, pls, share your experiences? I’m shitless scared of losing my job here, but also completely unmotivated to look for another. I put the feelers out there, and it ruined my morale. Also, all I’m hearing about are some bad experiences, people staying jobless for months on end, and the job market looking not good at all. I envy people who operate efficiently in life and job crises. I’m definitely not one of them.
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I have been looking for a while and I get a lot of calls from recruiters so you just need to be patient. The one big issue is the job market demand is so low that the salary packages are near entry level for mid to senior level positions.If you factor in our benefits then you have to pursue a publicly traded company where they offer generous benefits. This is the main reason why few people volunteer to leave.
Interview process elsewhere is probably 10x more difficult, companies are picky now and way more competition.
Ok, here's my personal experience. In my previous job I always knew that being caught in a layoff was a real possibility. I started doing a lot of research on various companies. I never applied to any of them, I just researched them. I found that this reduced my anxiety.
The next thing that can help is to find ways to reduce your expenses and your debt, and increase your savings. It helps if you start this years before you are laid off. Yes, it can take months to find a new job. In fact, if you are older it can easily take more than a year. It isn't just ageism - older workers cost more, while younger workers are cheaper. I have known co-workers who just took unplanned retirement.
Some people try to find ways to create passive income (rental properties, for example). I took a different route ...
If you have a house, then that is probably your biggest expense. If you can pay down the principal enough by making extra payments, then you can refinance the loan (before you are laid off). This will lower the required monthly payments. Normally this would reset to clock back to 30 years, but you should continue to make extra payments to avoid that. If you are laid off you can simply pay the lower required amount.
Eventually I was laid off, and the lower required monthly payments did help me a lot. And yes, it took a long time to find a new job.
So get started now on your survival plans! Just working on these plans will reduce your anxiety.