If you were fired for any reason other than the financial health of the company, you need to know what your previous employer will say before he or she is given the chance. Contact your former manager and calmly discuss the situation with him or her. If you left after a heated exchange with your former manager, you may have to mend some fences. Ask him or her exactly what he plans to say. The two of you should come to an agreement on his or her responses. Your goal does not have to be to get your previous employer to make unusually wonderful comments about you but rather to ensure that he or she does not say anything damaging.
In fact, if you were terminated, you are probably protected by law from a negative reference. Your previous employer should know this. If not, you may want to point this out to him or her. Most states have anti-blacklisting laws that prevent former employers from knowingly attempting to prevent former employees from finding work. Your previous employer doesn't have to give you a halo, but it's in his or her legal interest to refrain from condemning you.
Temporary Employment
It's been several months and you haven't found an offer that suits you. Should you take a job you don't want while you look for another one? This complex question has many answers, all of which hinge on a number of important issues, including:
The duration of your severance agreement. If you continue to be diligent in your job search, careful about your budget, and still have more than a month's severance pay available, you can probably hold off taking a temporary job while you look for one that is a good match for you. In general, you are better off not taking a job you know you don't want if you can avoid it. Not only will this allow you to continue to work full time on your job search, you will also avoid job hopping and making commitments you cannot keep.
How long you've been looking. In Chapter 6 you learned that a family with some initial savings can probably survive for nine months to a year financially. If you have been looking for more than six months and your severance pay has run out, you may want to more carefully evaluate prospects that are not your first or second choice. Even though you want to avoid job hopping, you have every right to take a position and continue your search.
Availability of free-lance work. Free-lance work can provide you the best of both worlds: You can continue to look for a permanent position and still earn money to keep your family solvent. If you have experience in accounting, computer programming, technical writing, engineering, drafting, architectural design, or any other skills that may be in demand, you can use your network to look for free-lance work while you look for a permanent position.
Stay With It
Finally, the best piece of advice you can take when looking for a job is to keep looking. Employed people looking for jobs have the luxury of taking their time with the process. If you are out of work and looking for a job, the prospects can seem discouraging at times. Weeks can drag on to months and your prospects can seem dim. You need to realize that your job hunt is your full-time job.
A job hunt is a numbers game that takes a great deal of time and effort. You certainly have the time. You need to keep up a steady effort even when you think you've exhausted all prospects.
Set goals and plans on a weekly basis. If you've called your entire network once or twice, call them again. When you are unemployed and looking for a new job, time, tenacity, and perseverance are your greatest assets.
