You Just Got Laid Off. When Do You Get Your Resume Together

You Just Got Laid Off. When Do You Get Your Resume Together My first week, after I lost my job, was a week of looking for my resume. After not finding it, I spent time trying to recreate it. Looking back on it now I see that week as a colossal waste of time. I recently heard of a job seeker who did the same thing I did spent the first week looking for his old resume, then recreating what he remembered to be the most amazing document. Knowing what I know now, heres how I would spend the first week (its a GIVEN that Id use JibberJobber to organize all this stuff :p): Listing my Target Companies, Looking for people on LinkedIn that work at (or have worked at) those Target Companies. Making contact with those people, as well as others in my industry and town/city, and asking for informational interviews. I would do this the very first day.  I might not get any informational interviews for a week or two or three, but I need to get that pipeline filled up. Id also learn everything I could about informational interviews.  Im guessing 98% of job seekers do them wrong. In my spare time, and only after Ive reached out to contacts for informational interviews (which I should do every day), I would work on my LinkedIn Profile, and start the resume creation process (it would be worth  the few hundred dollars to have a professional write my resume.  I learned that the wrong way). I had to get my resume done so I could apply to job openings I found on job boards. right?  Thats what I thought.  I went about it all wrong. Please dont waste the first week of your job search like I did. You Just Got Laid Off. When Do You Get Your Resume Together My first week, after I lost my job, was a week of looking for my resume. After not finding it, I spent time trying to recreate it. Looking back on it now I see that week as a colossal waste of time. I recently heard of a job seeker who did the same thing I did spent the first week looking for his old resume, then recreating what he remembered to be the most amazing document. Knowing what I know now, heres how I would spend the first week (its a GIVEN that Id use JibberJobber to organize all this stuff :p): Listing my Target Companies, Looking for people on LinkedIn that work at (or have worked at) those Target Companies. Making contact with those people, as well as others in my industry and town/city, and asking for informational interviews. I would do this the very first day.  I might not get any informational interviews for a week or two or three, but I need to get that pipeline filled up. Id also learn everything I could about informational interviews.  Im guessing 98% of job seekers do them wrong. In my spare time, and only after Ive reached out to contacts for informational interviews (which I should do every day), I would work on my LinkedIn Profile, and start the resume creation process (it would be worth  the few hundred dollars to have a professional write my resume.  I learned that the wrong way). I had to get my resume done so I could apply to job openings I found on job boards. right?  Thats what I thought.  I went about it all wrong. Please dont waste the first week of your job search like I did.