Eight months after losing her job, a marketing professional wrote a short post on Reddit. It was not dramatic. It was tired. She said she had applied for everything, rewritten her resume with help from a recruiter friend and still heard nothing. She added that she was “so tired”, that she did “nothing other than apply for everything” and that she felt she was “not good enough”. She explained that her whole marketing team had been laid off during restructuring. She had spent 16 years in marketing, worked in multinational companies and completed three marketing diplomas. The line that stayed is simple. “No one wants to give me a chance.”
She is one of many workers across sectors who have found themselves in a similar place. The job market may be active, but it is also crowded. Many roles are filled long before they appear on public job boards. In moments like these, the first instinct is often to react quickly, but the more useful response is to pause with intention and then move with structure.
How you respond after a layoff matters.
A well-planned search makes space for reflection without losing momentum. It helps separate what you cannot control from what you can. The steps below offer a way to move forward with clarity and avoid the exhaustion of unstructured effort.Take some time for reflectionThe period immediately after a layoff can feel disorienting. It is useful to take a short pause to understand what has happened and what you want to do next.
Reflection is not the same as dwelling on the loss. It is a way to examine what you valued in your previous role, what you found limiting and whether there is a direction you have been considering but postponing.Questions help sharpen this stage. What parts of your work brought energy. What parts drained it. Is there a skill or field that you have been meaning to explore. These answers will guide every step that follows.Create a job search planOnce you have some clarity, turn it into a plan. A job search without structure tends to become exhausting. Set clear goals. Decide what roles you want to pursue, what skills you may need to acquire and which organisations you are interested in.A schedule matters as much as the plan itself. Fix the hours you will spend on applications each week.
List the tasks you need to complete. Identify specific days for research, outreach and follow-ups. Treat this stage as work. It helps preserve motivation and cuts down on the sense of drift that often follows a layoff.Shore up your referencesA layoff that stems from restructuring or downsizing is not a judgment on performance. If your exit was due to business decisions rather than individual issues, consider asking your manager for a reference.
A short note that confirms your contribution and the conditions of your departure can help future employers understand the context.It is also sensible to reconnect with previous references. Let them know you are searching again and that they may be contacted.
People are more willing to support you when they have been briefed.Connect with a recruiterRecruiters see the job market from an angle that individual applicants cannot. They know which companies are hiring, which roles are shifting and which skills are becoming useful. Engaging with a recruiter can provide direction, feedback on your approach and access to employers you may not reach on your own.A recruiter can also help refine your search so you are not applying broadly without strategy. This reduces wasted effort and increases the quality of your applications.
The takeaway
Layoffs happen to many people, even those with solid experience and strong qualifications. The question that matters is how you move after the shock settles. A structured search, informed reflection and steady outreach do not guarantee an immediate offer. They do, however, place you in the path of opportunities rather than exhaustion. The marketing professional who said nobody wanted to give her a chance was speaking from a place of fatigue. A clearer plan can help shift that story for anyone in the same position.