Many people would rather die than write. A surprisingly large percent age of managers, administrators, executives, and professionals detest writing, basically because they feel extremely insecure about their ability. But writing is an almost inescapable part of finding a job you will need to write or revise your resume, prepare cover letters, and compose follow up correspondence. In addition, writing is one of the most powerful tools available for conducting the self exploration that helps you determine what you want to do next and what assets you can offer potential employers. Writing skill, along with other communication skills, is also crucial to success in most management and professional careers. So, it makes a great deal of sense to use a period of unemployment to improve your writing skill and increase the ease with which you compose.
Immediately after learning of termination, you will be inspired by strong feelings, which generally make writing easier. Use the inspiration of anger and other strong feelings to get yourself into a writing habit. Because you will be writing for your own eyes only, you need not tie yourself into knots about correctness or felicity of phrasing. Thus, you may well find yourself writing far more fluently than is usually the case.
For many, such fluency is a rewarding experience that can inspire greater confidence in writing ability and in the usefulness of writing as a tool for learning more about the self, which should be your first step in making the transition to the next phase of your career. According to Douglas La Bier, a psychiatrist who has studied extensively the emotional problems associated with modern managerial and professional careers:
Adaptation to the organization can bring out the negative side of normalcy, like feelings of guilt over self betrayal or of trading off too much. These feelings underlie the rage, depression, anxiety, and escapism found among many otherwise successful careerists. All of these are psychiatric symptoms. But when found among people who do not have neurotic personalities, these symptoms represent the emotional effects of too much compromising and trading off to get ahead, even though we do those very things to succeed and therefore be considered "normal."
Returning to a job and a career path like the one you just left may be right for you, but if you don't take time to assess your experience and calmly decide what you want next in life, you may become (or continue to be) one of those "successful careerists" La Bier describes. You will perpetually feel angry, anxious, depressed, physically ill, or guilty in short, neurotic and tremendously unhappy as a result of compromising too much of yourself to continue climbing a career ladder. Instead of using your anger to spin your wheels and get yourself into a rut, use your anger to learn more about yourself and to improve your communication skills: then your next job will bring you more of what you truly want from life, rather than simply more of the same.
The isolation of job termination can strengthen anger while driving it underground, out of conscious awareness. When anger goes under ground, it is likely to resurface as anxiety, turn into depression, or well up in response to minor provocations from people close to you. To help avoid these outcomes, begin as soon as you learn of termination to look for ways to keep yourself out in the world, that is, for ways to prevent isolation from your feelings and from other people. Following are some suggestions for staying fruitfully active and out in the world after being done in by termination.
Join a support group for job hunters
Churches, libraries, schools, and other community organizations frequently sponsor workshops and support groups for people seeking jobs. Joining a group will give you a chance to talk about your feelings with other people in similar circumstances and to learn how others respond to termination. Also, getting out to meetings will help counteract the feelings of isolation and abandonment that often accompany termination.
Check out what your community has to offer
If it's too small to offer much, check out the town or city where you worked or the nearest metropolitan area. Bulletin boards in libraries, churches, and shopping malls often carry postings of meeting times and places and provide phone numbers for getting more information. Many support groups are free or involve only nominal fees.
