Can't sleep, need life advice. No job, new mortgage

[Terribleluck]

I was made redundant Friday. It's questionable if it was a real redundancy or not, but I had been working for them for only 5 months. On Friday we also exchanged contracts (before I knew I had been made redundant). I was the main breadwinner, and as much as I'm more confident of finding a job than last time, I'm really concerned I won't be able to get a salary that matches my previous salary. We also have a 2 year old, so nursery fees are astronomical. I think that I can go back to my old job (obviously no guarantees there) but that sort of salary would barely cover it. I checked LinkedIn and there's definitely a lot more remote jobs than there used to be, which is great for me and my particular situation of not living very close to a job-hub. Anywho, how long would you give it to find a new job one month? Two? The rest of the year? I was thinking of actively job hunt for one month and see where that took me, if no offers/interviews, then I contact my old boss.

Bump

This is hard but you must definitely go back to work. Definitely contact your old company to see if there are any current vacancies that need filling. Buff up your resume in case and look at job descriptions and advertisements as well.

Circle key words that stand out in a bold color like red or purple for example. Develop your skills in the meantime, the two crucial key ones are oral communication and teamwork. Another strategy is to ask directly or check company sites for vacancies and positions in addition.

Good luck. It may help you if you practiced for interviews. A mock interview may be what you need in order to gain confidence to re enter the workplace. Consider possible areas of work like linguistics, medicine and so on on top of that. I hope you find something pretty soon but patience helps definitely here.

I'm fairly qualified and speak a few languages. I left my previous job because they didn't use my skills and it was NMW, the job I was made redundant of paid closer to £40k. Because of my work ethic I would stay with them for some time too. The reality is that with that job and the new house + nursery we'd struggle financially.

My DH doesn't really want us to claim UC, why? I really don't know!

I would contact your old work fairly quickly

I don't want to frighten you but dp lost his job pre Covid and it took a very long time to find something else and even then it was well below his old salary (he is older though and there's a lot of ageism in his industry)

Dp lost his job around this time (2019) and we gave it to Christmas but what we hadn't realised was that Covid was about to hit!

You sound really employable though so get going on Monday and see how you go. I think within a month you'll have a fairly good idea of where you stand. Good luck!

I've been pouched via LinkedIn more than once (and somebody offered me a 12 month contract that added up to like £120k I was definitely not qualified for that) . The idea that my profile does stand out and I'm employable. The good news is that there is plenty of account and customer success management in remote roles. My industry as whole hasn't suffered because of COVID, if anything it has become stronger. I go between these two phases of "I'll find something I'm sure, so better not to waste my free get out jail card with my previous employer". However, a few years ago, I was made redundant and it took me 12 months to get a decent job. That time though, I got desperate and for any job I could, which was a very big mistake IMO. I'm still really paranoid the same will happen this time.

Just checked Glassdoor and there are about 30 jobs, I need to check LinkedIn more thoroughly but I saw about the same amount of jobs there. With some overlap, there must be around 50 vacancies.