advice for laid off engineer DD?

[Anonymous]

27 y.o. DD got laid off right before Thanksgiving.
She's highly qualified, great education, great work experience.
Her boss loved her, but the co lost a big contract, so she and a bunch of her younger colleagues got laid off.
She's getting lots of interviews, but no offer yet.
Problem is: DD is starting to panic. Plus, she's really angry at her old firm for laying her off, since she was such a stellar worker.
I told her no one is hiring right now during the holidays, but she's still panicking.
I imagine she'll get an offer after Jan 1?
What can I say to her to calm her down?

[Anonymous]

Tell her the fact she is getting lots of interviews between Thanksgiving and Christmas means she is a sought after employee.

Most companies shut down all hiring activities in December...so it sounds like they are making an exception for someone like her.

[Anonymous]

No one hires right now unless they really need someone. Hiring now means onboarding when everyone is on vacation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:27 y.o. DD got laid off right before Thanksgiving.
She's highly qualified, great education, great work experience.
Her boss loved her, but the co lost a big contract, so she and a bunch of her younger colleagues got laid off.
She's getting lots of interviews, but no offer yet.
Problem is: DD is starting to panic. Plus, she's really angry at her old firm for laying her off, since she was such a stellar worker.
I told her no one is hiring right now during the holidays, but she's still panicking.
I imagine she'll get an offer after Jan 1?
What can I say to her to calm her down?

Tell her you'll help her pay her bills until she finds a job....that will calm her down. LOL.

[Anonymous]

Did the contract go to another firm? Tell her to network there.

[Anonymous]

She should be prepared for it to take a few months after Jan 1. It always takes longer than you anticipate.

[Anonymous]

She will find a job. But not at the moment. Tell her to look.at BAE. My husband works there and they desperately need more people!

[Anonymous]

Tell her that the average job search is 3-6 months and set her expectations accordingly. She should be applying to 10-20 jobs/week and networking 3-4 hours per week. Treat the job search like a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Tell her that the average job search is 3-6 months and set her expectations accordingly. She should be applying to 10-20 jobs/week and networking 3-4 hours per week. Treat the job search like a job.

This is good advice.

Also have a real talk about white collar work in the "no loyalty" era.

This may keep happening over her career through no fault of her own.

[Anonymous]

What kind of engineer?

[Anonymous]

I need some sort of automatic button that just posts this reply to every question in the “Adult Children” forum:

Is she asking for help?

Complaining and panicking are NOT asking for help. Unless she specifically asks for your input*, go with commiseration and support. “Oh, that is so tough. I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this. You’re smart and industrious, I know you’ll figure it out. Not having a job is so stressful particularly over the holidays.” Etc. etc.

*This looks like this: “Mom, I’m really struggling with my job search. So far I’ve X, Y, and Z. Is there more I should be doing at this stage? What do you think?

[Anonymous]

Yeah nothing is going to happen in the next two weeks. She’s gonna need to just take a break and try not to worry about it.

[Anonymous]

Take he vacation. Take stock, survey the industry, choose a new direction. Pick up a book and study something new to break into a different area.

[Anonymous]

What kind of engineer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one hires right now unless they really need someone. Hiring now means onboarding when everyone is on vacation.

I told her this, but she didn't believe me.
I'll tell her I read it on DCUM, so it must be true!