After redundancy, your priority is typically to find a new job and outplacement can help you do this more quickly and easily. However, have you considered using outplacement for career development and professional assessment? It can even be a chance to investigate alternative job options.
Find your ideal job
While your former employer picks up the tab for your redundancy support, why not also take advantage of your outplacement consultant’s specialist career management knowledge and professional, recruitment and training network to find the job you really want?
A good outplacement provider will provide you with the skills, knowledge and confidence you need to adapt to the employment market after redundancy. A great outplacement provider will help you to see that as one door closes, another will open – and this door could be one you hadn’t previously thought of.
Outplacement is a career development opportunity
Typically, outplacement will provide you with some basic job search tools, such as a resume and cover letter, and general advice on interviews and network development.
However it can offer much more than that. You can re-orient yourself to new options with career assessments, guidance and occupational targeting. Armed with knowledge about the right opportunities, necessary skills and training options, it can be easier than you think to follow a new career path and positively position yourself to a potential employer.
Embrace new ideas
Being made redundant can knock your confidence. At difficult times like this, when our confidence is low, it can be hard to embrace new ideas and challenge ourselves to do something different.
When your confidence is low, it can definitely help to have someone work with you to identify your strengths and achievements, and even discover skills and abilities you didn’t know you possessed. Outplacement can show you how to adapt these and transfer them to another setting. This can enable you to regain your lost confidence and increase your belief in yourself.
Time to focus on your future
For many people, redundancy is the first time they’ve taken an extended break from work. It’s often the first time they’ve had a chance to focus on their career, and future career direction, since school. This can be an opportunity to reassess life goals and you may decide to look into pursuing a role change.
If you’ve received a redundancy package from your former employer, you may at last have the funds and the freedom to explore options and ambitions that you might have previously dismissed for lack of time and money.
More than just a role change
Career development can cover many things. Although typically associated with a new profession, it can also include change such as:
- Moving into a new industry
- Working part-time
- Flexible working
- Starting your own business
- Learning new skills
- Retirement
- Consulting or freelancing
- Relocating.
Your consultant should have a strong understanding of the employment market and potential employers. They will have up-to-date information on what industries are growing, current skills that are in demand, what education options there are and which organisations might suit you.
An informed career development choice
Take advantage of your career transition program to identify and consider your values, interests and what you enjoy doing. It’s a chance to assess what you really want out of life, both personally and professionally, and to map out your longer term aspirations (besides surviving until you get another job).
Eight things worth considering
- Do you want to do something more challenging or are you looking for greater work/life balance?
- Do you need new skills, qualifications or training for the role that interests you?
- Are you looking for a radical change in your career field, or just a minor adaptation?
- What aspects of work are important to you?
- What do you need to do to lead the life you want?
- Do you have other commitments in your life? How will career change affect these?
- Who will your career development affect?
- Are you prepared to make sacrifices to achieve your goal? Will the people closest to you also need to make sacrifices?
Outplacement for career development and change
From the devastation of redundancy, it’s possible to transform. But opportunities are not always where you think you’ll find them. So take advantage of outplacement services to develop your career development path and make the changes you’ve previously only dreamed about.