Preparing for a job-related disaster is important. Jobs are far from secure these days, even for the best employees. If you have a plan in place and are willing to do a little work up front, you can weather a job or income loss with ease.
Here are the steps that you need to take for career emergency preparedness and preparing for a job loss.
Create a Resume Plan
Most people don’t even think about updating their resumes until a job loss or changes in their work environment happen. Unfortunately, this can be the worse time to try and update a resume. There are a number of other things that must be done during this time, and you could lose valuable opportunity for important parts of your resume once the crisis occurs.
Make a plan to update your resume at least once every six months, more often if you have had any significant changes to your responsibilities at work. Make sure all contact information and references are updated, and consider making up more than one version of your resume if you think you might be applying for different types of jobs.
Don’t forget to remove old information that is no longer relevant.
Create a Career Kit
A career kit is an ongoing file, either paper or electronic, that keeps track of relevant items that could be related to a job search. For example, if you receive praise for a job well done or have a major success or achievement, you should record it with detail. It may come in handy later either for your resume or interviews.
Other items for your career kit might include clips and samples of your work, a list of conferences, seminars and classes, and all of the new contacts that would be part of your professional network.
Now is also the time to note any gaps in your skills or opportunities for experience that would make you stand out from the crowd. Seek out ways to fill in these areas, perhaps through volunteering.
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