Weaker Bargaining position after redundancy?

fguihen

My job has been moved back to the US, and so i am being made redundant. I have 5+ years experience in IT spread across two large multinationals.

My official last day is in early June.

I can live a few months on the redundancy, but would rather get a job quicker than a few months.

But I still want to make sure I get the right job and not just any job.
Is it in my best interest to get a job ASAP, and does my bargaining position weaken when discussing salary if i am unemployed, or should my experience stand to me?

I know it will vary but overall, how does it generally work?

gandalf

Start looking for a job immediately. Your best bet is to try and get a job while you are still employed. I assume as part of the redundancy process you will be given time off to attend interviews. Sometimes employers will also pay for a career consultant to give advice and help on formatting your CV and searching for a job, have your company offered any resources like this?

Evonatron

I would advise you to meet with some recruitment agencies asap. Get an idea of what your role is getting salary wise on the market place at the moment.

For instance a PA that is earning 35k and was just made redundant is probably going to looking at roles about the 28k mark now.

But IT is the one area that is constantly growing. You may be on a higher salary then someone starting in that job in a new company basically because 5 years you would have started on more money. But do not go to an interview without doing all the relevant research, I wouldnt not advise you to take a job for the sake of it because at the moment you have some times to play around with.

Take the time to perfect you cv, have it nice, clear and concise. Have as much of your work experience on the first page, I find alot of candidates take up nearly the first page of a cv with personal information and education information. The employer should get a good over view of who you are by looking at the first page, they do not want to read a book.

Be aware of what is the lowest salary you are willing to take,if this does come up in an interview and they are asking salary expectations you dont want to become flustered and start humming and hawing. Think of benefits in lieu of salary if they cant afford what you want, healthcare etc

Keep an eye on the local papers, job site, fas site, - get your cv up on online databases. Listen out for newstarts up coming to your area (the IDA website should have this information) Do register with an agency, only one I would advise as you do not want local employers getting your cv from 10 different agencies for the same job, if the particular agency does not deal with a company you are interested only then use another one. Keep up to date notes of where you sent your cv, names of people in HR depts. This will be handy because in 6 months if you are sending in your cv again you can say "Dear Mary" instead of "To whom it may concern".


HTH