It's just business

- [Instructor] Let's talk through some of the things you might be going through. Perhaps you've been laid off recently and things are still fresh. You were the subject matter expert for the operations project. You were the driving force behind it and everyone looked to you for direction and somehow that project will continue without you and it's not your responsibility or maybe you didn't enjoy your work but it paid the bills and so you stuck on. Whatever the reason, there's a strange feeling of relief. You were thinking of leaving for a while and you're annoyed with yourself that you didn't see this coming earlier or you were excited by a job and loved it. You were always the one taking your laptop and phone on holiday so that the team could always reach you. This wasn't what you were expecting or you're just confused. How could those who have contributed so much less than you have still be in the office? How could the boss be so blind? There's a reason why a layoff is known as a job loss. It's important to give yourself time to grieve. Some employers give you access to counselors and coaches. Take them up on the offer. Talking to a trained counselor can help and point you to resources that you might not have thought of. Maybe you feel a loss of identity. Your self-worth was linked to your position in the company. You were the product manager or software engineer for a well-known technology company. Perhaps your sense of worth was based around the number of people reporting to you. For the longest time, you introduced yourself as the person who manages the team of 50 data engineers. Now there's nothing. None of your direct reports have even called to find out how you're doing. Perhaps you're thinking, how will my family respect me when I'm not bringing in my share the income? Or you're feeling alone. You miss the office banter and the energy at work. Perhaps you're the only one at home. The children are at school and your other half might be at work or you're an extrovert and you need to meet with other people to get energized. Sitting at home is just lonely. If you're still processing your job loss, then your instinct might be to try and find a job as soon as you can. Consider hitting the pause button for a bit. You've likely been running 100 miles an hour for awhile. Take some time out. If you will let go and all the people are involved, don't take it personally. It was a business decision. Try and leave it at that. Do what recharges you. Spend time with family and friends. Do stuff that's important. Make some time for yourself, then press rewind. Figure out what you liked about your previous role. What didn't you like? What are you most proud of? What is it about the work that you liked? Which projects did you find the most rewarding? What are some of the highlights that you can take with you and talk about when looking for your next job? And finally, press play. Now that you've taken the time to pause and rewind, let's look at the path you want to create. and that's what the rest of our time together will be all about. You want to understand what motivates and excites you about work, but you also need to understand what the industry trends are. If you ignore the industry trends, you might want to do a whole load of things, but none of them are in demand. When was the last time you spoke to a switchboard operator when making a long-distance call? I'm sure some switchboard operators really enjoyed their job. It was technical. They were the core of the telephone networks operation center. I'm sure some of them found it interesting. Others found it rewarding as they were connecting family and friends over long distances who would not otherwise be able to communicate with each other. But as soon as the automated systems were introduced and direct dial available, they all lost their jobs and you don't want to end up being the tech equivalent of a switchboard operator. But somewhere in that elusive middle is where you want to be. You're doing work that motivates and energizes you, but crucially, there's a demand for those skills. In the next few videos, let's look at some of the industry trends and what you can do to make sure you're learning skills that are relevant.