Job search after a layoff: a two-week plan

Before the plan: the practical items

A layoff is a shock even when it was expected. Start with the items that have deadlines: final pay, unused leave, severance terms and the date to sign them by, health cover, and unemployment benefits where you live. Save copies of your offer letter, recent payslips and any performance reviews you can still reach.

Tell people early and plainly. A short message to former colleagues saying what happened and what kind of role you want is enough to start; it does not need a finished resume behind it.

Days 1 to 3: write down what you did, with numbers

Your memory of the last job is the best it will be this week. Before you open your resume, write a plain list of what you worked on: projects, systems, customers, teams, the problems you solved and what changed because of them.

• Each project. What it was, your part, how big it was (users, revenue, volume, team size) and the result.
• Numbers you can stand behind. If you are not sure, write “about” and the figure you would defend in an interview.
• Tools and skills. The ones you used in real work, not ones you read about.
• People. Who could vouch for each piece of work.

This list is the source of every resume you send in the coming weeks. Rewriting the resume from it, line by line, beats editing the old version. For a second read, the resume review flags lines with no result and claims with nothing around them.

Days 4 and 5: pick target roles from the market

Choose two or three roles to aim for, not ten. Spread across many unrelated roles, every application ends up generic.

Go by what postings ask for, not only by the titles you have held. Our role pages show, for each role and level, what postings ask for, counted from the roles we track: the skills, the years and how often a degree is required. The salary pages show the median stated pay for each role where enough postings state it, so you can see whether a step up or sideways makes sense.

A good target is a role whose required skills you mostly have, at a level your years support. If a role you want needs one skill you lack, write it down as a gap to close, not as a reason to rule the role out.

Days 6 to 10: check fit, then tailor

Sending many applications without reading the postings feels productive. A better week is fewer applications, each one checked.

1. Read the posting for its must-haves, its location and work authorisation lines, and its level. The guide to reading a job posting goes through it.
2. Check your fit. The job fit check compares the posting with your resume and gives one of four answers (Worth applying; Worth applying, with gaps; Not worth it yet; or Can’t tell yet), with the reasons. Skip a posting whose eligibility lines do not fit.
3. Tailor for the postings worth it: make each must-have you meet visible, in the posting’s words where they are accurate, drawn from the list you wrote on days 1 to 3.
4. Apply on the company’s own site where you can, and write to someone on the team if you know them, or know someone who does.

Tailoring takes time, so spend it on the postings that pass the check. In the Jobpedia app the first tailored job is free: it rewords only the lines a requirement needs, each checked against a fact you confirmed.

Days 11 to 14: track and adjust

Keep one list of every application: company, role, date, the resume version you sent, who you contacted and what happened. A spreadsheet is enough.

At the end of the second week, read the list. No replies at all usually points to the resume or the targeting, not the number of applications: go back to days 4 and 5. First calls but no second rounds point to the interview: practise the stories behind your strongest lines. A skill that keeps coming up as missing is the gap to close next.

Some companies take weeks to answer and some never do, so a quiet first week says little on its own.

Keep a routine

A search is easier to sustain with fixed hours: set hours for applications, and set hours for everything else. Two weeks is long enough to get a first round out and see what comes back, and short enough to change course if it is not working.