When I was fired, job-hunting became my new job. Here’s what I learned

The first thing I did when I lost my job in May 2019 was order a cheesecake. I called my mother and a good friend; I didn’t disturb my husband during seder.

He found out only when he came home to a fancy dessert, and he was confused. We’re still in kollel. We don’t do takeout. And I’d just lost my job.

I’d been looking for a new job for a while — work had become a toxic environment, and it could be felt even remotely. I worked from home and though I liked what I did, I dreaded turning on my computer in the morning. Plus, with the new direction the company was taking, I knew it was a matter of time before I’d need to quit because of halachic issues.

So when my department was laid off, it felt like a clear message from Hashem that I was taking the right direction in moving on, and being laid off meant that there was severance and unemployment insurance, so I had an (okay, fraction of an) income while I was looking for a new job.

I took a day to celebrate. And to buy a computer; mine belonged to work, and I had to return it.

The next morning, I began to job search in earnest. First thing, I called two cousins who work in recruiting. (They’re not related to each other.) David Epstein is the founder and president of Intelligent Staffing, a staffing company in Philadelphia specializing in workforce solutions and employment services. Dovid Flam has been an executive search consultant for 15 years, focusing on healthcare and social services. He’s a recruiter for the Merraine Group, a division of the global Shepherd Search Group, serving 14 industries in staffing and workforce development.

Neither works in my industry so they couldn’t help me directly, but I contacted them to help me learn how to best leverage myself for a job search. David sat with me multiple times to give me tips. Dovid gave me his take on David’s guidelines, and more.

Both graciously allowed me to share their advice with you.

Mindset Matters

David’s Tip:

Treat your job search like a job. You spent eight hours a day doing your job, now you’re going to spend eight hours a day searching for a job, customizing your resume, networking, responding to email inquiries, and more. Your goal is to apply to at least ten jobs per day.

Dovid’s Take:

Absolutely.

How I did:

Eight hours a day was a bit too much for me. I had a brand-new baby, a bunch of other kids, summer vacation was coming, and other stuff was going on. But I spent upwards of five hours on the computer each day. I searched every job site, researched every company, sent my resume out a gazillion times, and also did whatever freelancing work I could get.

I used a spreadsheet to keep track of each job I applied to, with headers such as Company, Job Title, Job Board, Date Applied, Recruiter’s Name, Follow-up Date (and method), and Notes.

I always wanted to give up work so my house could be spotless, and I could sit on the couch with a book, but here I was without a job and I could hardly make supper; forget cleaning the walls and scrubbing the heaters. For me, looking for work was harder than working, because there was always another job to apply to, another resume to send, whereas when I was working, I did my work, and then I was done for the day.