Your First 30 Days After a Layoff or Buyout: A Career Plan

This fall, Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, and it is far from alone. Through July of this year, US employers announced 477,033 job cuts. Technology led every sector, and about one in four cuts named AI as a reason. If you are weighing a buyout or have just been laid off, the first month matters more than it seems. What you do now shapes how you will describe yourself for years.

Most people start by fixing their resume. That is usually the wrong first step. A better resume of the wrong story is still the wrong story. Here is a simpler way to use the first 30 days.

First: a layoff is not a verdict on you

Layoffs are business decisions about budgets, markets and, more and more, AI. They are rarely about how good you are at your job. You may know that and still feel it. Grief, anger, fear and even relief are all normal, sometimes in the same day.

What helps:

• Keep a simple routine. Up at the same time, dressed, outside once a day.
• Protect sleep and move every day. A walk clears your head better than another hour of job boards.
• Tell people early. Hiding cuts you off from the people most likely to help.
• Give the search set hours, then stop. The rest of the day is yours.
• Question the blame story. When it starts, ask what you would tell a friend in the same spot.
• Use the support you have. Check whether an employee assistance program still covers you, and talk to a doctor or counselor if low mood lasts more than a couple of weeks. In a crisis, call or text 988.

Then, when you feel steadier, turn to the plan.

Week 1: What to do first after a layoff or buyout

Take care of the practical things first. Read what you are signing, ask about anything you do not understand, and talk to a financial or tax professional about the money. This article is about your career, not those decisions.

Then give yourself a few days before you apply to anything. The urge to act fast is strong, and it often sends people straight back into the same kind of role they just left. A search usually takes months, not weeks: the median time out of work is about 11 weeks, and more than a quarter of people looking have been at it for six months or longer. A month spent getting clear is time well used.

One thing to notice this week: what do people come to you for that has nothing to do with your title? Not your job description, but the problems people bring you because they trust you with them. After years in one place, that is often your clearest signal of what you actually bring.

Week 2: Write down your best work while it is fresh

Your strongest examples fade quickly once you are out of the building. Write down three or four moments when your work made a real difference, while you still remember the details. Include a result wherever you can: time saved, problems reduced, a team that moved faster. If you do not have a number, describe what got easier for other people.

Use your own memory and your own words. Do not take documents or data that belong to your employer.

Week 3: Decide what your next role needs before you apply

Before you write a single resume bullet, ask yourself one question: what did your last role need to have that it didn't?

Your answer is the start of a filter for every posting you will see. Sorting out what truly matters is where most people benefit from a second set of eyes, and it is what a Discovery Session is for. It is also the step that keeps you from repeating the same misfit in a new place.

Week 4: Update your resume and LinkedIn, then talk to people

Now update your resume and LinkedIn profile around your clearest story and your best examples. Lead with what you did and what changed, not a list of responsibilities. More than half of hiring managers now use AI to screen resumes, but a person still makes the decision, so write for the person.

Then reach out to people who already know your work before you lean on job postings. People who know you open doors that applications cannot.

How to answer "Why are you leaving?"

Make it about what you are moving toward, never a complaint about where you have been. "I have learned I do my best work when..." is a good way to begin.

How to answer "How do you use AI in your work?"

Employers increasingly ask this. Say what you use AI for, and what still depends on your judgment. Both halves matter.

If you have been at one company for a long time

Long tenure is not a weakness to explain away. The median tenure for professionals and managers is about five years, so ten or more years in one place shows depth, trust and staying power. The work is translation: describing what you did in words someone outside your company will recognize, without internal names, team acronyms or project code names. More on that in How to Explain Staying at One Company.

The month ahead

A layoff or a buyout takes a decision out of your hands. The next one is yours. Take the first month to get clear before you get busy, and the search that follows tends to be shorter and to end somewhere that fits.