As my friends and family know, I am still unemployed, but doing fine. I won’t mention the company yet, but I had an interview today. And I was surprised.

You need to be prepared for an interview. Research the company, look on LinkedIn for the people who will be doing the interviewing, research salary ranges for the position, decide what an unacceptable low salary is for you and as bad as we hate it, go through the list of classic interview questions and make sure you have a clear answer. We all have answers to the questions but it often takes some thinking about your past career to match your experience to the questions. Sitting at home in your robe and fuzzy slippers is the time to be doing that pondering, not while staring at the interviewer. Another thing that helped me was looking back over my career and picking 10-15 situations where I had a great success or had to deal with a difficult technical issue or even a people issue. Make notes on what the challenge was, what actions you took to resolve the problem or produce what was expected of you and then what the final result was. You were successful, you resolved the issue, you saved the company money, etc.

I spent three days getting ready for this interview.

Now for the surprise. I expected to get grilled during the interview. I expected to get hammered with a bunch of classic interview questions. I expected that if I did not give a perfect, concise classic answer to each interview question I was toast. But the first person spent twenty of the allotted thirty minutes of the interview talking about the company in a very casual way. He put me at ease immediately. And the other manager, two developers, a VP and the HR rep all did the same thing. So it must be a company culture thing.

I am not the kind of person who is going to be able to give you a five minute response to a question with good grammar, perfectly spoken words, an intro, three main points and a conclusion sentence. Ain’t going to happen. These people created an environment where I could be my bumbling, fumbling self. They saw the real me, not someone trying to give a perfect scripted answer to a question. Regardless of whether I get a job offer, I feel good. I think I will be among the top candidates. The interviews were actually enjoyable, it seems like a great company and they saw the real me.

Maybe that was their plan.

So my pondering is……if the job interview is a grilling session and the expectation is that you have to give the perfect scripted classic answer to the standard interview questions and that is not you, maybe that company is not a good fit for you. You have to be prepared but maybe just being yourself is a good strategy also.

During my current period of unemployment I keep thinking about something I was asked a few years ago.

“What would you do if you knew you could not fail?”

Some of the first thoughts that come to mind are: running for president, climbing Mt Everest, hang gliding in the Grand Canyon, writing a book or playing the lottery.

But applying this to your career, what would you do? Start a business? What would it be?

Give me your thoughts.

Finances will probably cause more stress for you during a lay off than any other challenge you face. I had been expecting a lay off for years so my finances are in decent shape. But on Jan 14 when I heard the Nortel CEO say that all severance payments would end immediately I was a little panicked. No. Very panicked. Sick at my stomach panicked.

But over the next couple of days I got very motivated about finances. I worked out a plan and soon realized how far a dollar can be stretched. I can survive for a while before having to dip into any serious savings. Here are some of the things I did:

1. Sign up for state unemployment benefits. Determine what your weekly benefit will be. Remember that you have to pay federal and state taxes on the benefit.
2. If you have children, get them on free or reduced lunches. You’ve paid taxes for years. If you have no income you are entitled to this benefit. Just do it.
3. You are not driving your vehicle to work every day. Call your insurance company. Your insurance cost will be reduced. I already had the deductibles as high as allowed on autos and home.
4. I have a couple of loans through my credit union and I have been making extra payments on them. I called the credit union and explained my situation. They immediately lowered my monthly payments by $500 for 3 months and will evaluate again at that time.
5. Before your medical benefits expire, get fixed. Get a dental checkup. When was your last physical? How are your eyes? Can you get new glasses?
6. You have to have a realistic budget. But don’t make it complicated. List the fixed cost you have every month such as mortgage, loans, insurance, electric, water, phone, cable, internet. Look hard at those to determine if any can be reduced or eliminated. Do you really need a land line phone and a cell phone? How about cable TV? Can you get loan payments reduced?
7. After the fixed costs I only have three other categories of expense. Food, fuel and misc. Determine a realistic value for these and add to the fixed costs. This is what you need each month to survive. Now subtract from this your monthly unemployment benefit. This is your monthly cash burn. I was surprised at this number. It was much lower than I thought. This is the point where that panicked feeling went away. I now had a realistic plan and knew I would be ok for several months.
8. You have to track expenses to determine if your budget is valid. Don’t spend based on how much money is in the bank. Ignore the fixed costs but track every other expense. I carry a small bag everyplace I go with my resume, business cards, small netbook PC and a small notebook to track every penny I spend. Everything falls under food, fuel or misc. Keep a running total or do like I do and update a spread sheet on your computer every few days. This helps motivate you to not spend money. Also I just hit 30 days on my survival budget and I nailed it to within less than $10. A budget is worthless if you don’t track expenses to determine if you can live on the budget.
9. Get temporary health insurance. Not a normal plan, you can’t afford that. Just something to cover you in case of serious illness. I found a plan to cover myself and my two sons for $181/month. It has a $2500 deductible but then covers everything at %100. It does not cover preventive medicine, but that is not what I need for now. My family is healthy. I can handle an office visit for something fairly routine. And I can always come up with $2500. But a serious illness without health insurance would put me and probably you into bankruptcy. If you have children you can probably get an accident policy through the school. I got the boys covered for a one time $80 payment/each until the start of the next school year. That will cover things like sprains and broken bones without having to pay out the $2500 deductible on the temporary health insurance policy.

This is my plan. I hope something here helped you. Can you add anything?

There are many resources on the internet for surviving a lay off. You should use them. Not every piece of advice will apply to your situation but you will find information that can help. Here is my strategy.

Expect an emotional roller coaster and lots of stress, especially if the lay off was unexpected. This will be completely normal. You’ve had these feelings before in your life and everyone handles them in their own way. Be diligent with your coping methods. Get plenty of sleep, eat right, stay physically active, stay on a schedule and do something fun just for you every day. Now is the time to lean a little on family and friends. Let everyone know your situation. They will understand why you can’t go out to eat at a restaurant, or go shopping, or go golfing or whatever it is you do with friends and family that involves money. This will reduce some of the stress in your life. Also they may know someone who knows someone who knows something about a job.

If out placement services are part of your severance package, take advantage of every service and class they offer. There is an amazing amount of emotional support to be had in a room full of people who share your situation. Also there is often someone in the room who knows someone who knows something about a job.

Get some business cards. I used VistaPrint. In the out placement classes, give one to every person you talk to. They will often have one for you. If you are not on LinkedIn you need to do so immediately.

Stay positive and let go of how your previous employer may have treated you. Just get over it. Times are tough. No one really wants to hear you complain. But people naturally want to talk to a person that has a positive outlook, a great smile and a plan. And often that person who is impressed with your attitude will know someone who knows someone……… I honestly believe when I am through this phase of my life that I will look back and say it was one of the best things to ever happen to me.

The biggest concern during a lay off is finances. I will talk about my plan in the next post. But I have one last piece of advice. I like little ceremonies to mark events in my life. Just before my lay off I found a wine I really enjoyed. The price is a little outside my normal range. When I get that first job offer, whether I accept or not, I am going to pop the cork on a bottle. And when I get that first paycheck, I already know which restaurant I am going to and who is going to celebrate with me.

My detailed financial plan will be the next post.