When a job is taken away without another one in line, this leads to a transitional phase. This concept of change vs transition is taken from Managing Transitions by William Bridges.
1) Change is situational and happens without people transitioning
2) Transition is psychological and is a 3 phase process where people gradually accept the details of the new situation and the changes that come with it
People react differently when they approach the neutral zone.
Can you remember the time when you hung up the call from your director informing you are let go, or when you walk out of the door after your contract was not renewed? At that moment, change has occurred, but you were still in the throes of transition. Everything in the company, in your personal life has changed, but your emotions are still playing catch up.
In the Neutral zone, one can start to feel the apprehension and emptiness from the insecurity of having lost something. On the other hand, another person undergoing the same change might transition differently, and remain calm and even excited about the future possibilities of a career move.
Whatever the reaction is, it is normal to feel that way. The uncertainty will always be there, yet that should not stop us from having confidence in our abilities and seeing hope in a new future ahead.
The first thing to do is to have a career review. All of us should be doing that regardless but sometimes we are so caught up with the hectic schedule, we neglect it…until we find ourselves with ample time in our hands.
We should know what are strengths are, what satisfies us and what our accomplishments have been. With this knowledge we can specifically target companies or businesses to go into, effectively form our resume, network appropriately and focus on the key points of your career that can be highlighted and accented.
A job search can become a journey of self discovery if done systematically and could potentially be a rewarding period of your life when you find out more of yourself through the course of the exercises to come.
