Been made redundant?

I have been made redundant....

There used to be a lot of stigma around the word "redundant" and people used to make up stories to explain their situation without using the word. Unfortunately, in today's world and considering the economic situation we have, this is now part of our daily lifes.

Who doesn't know anyone that has been made redundant? It seems that companies are trying to reduce their costs by letting people go. The interesting part is that a lot of these positions will be covered by temporary staff or contracts, all to show a lower headcount number and decreased expenses. In the process the company has probably lost a wealth of knowledge.

In my quest of looking for a new job, I have been through a 3 stages (so far, maybe more to come!) that I would think are quite common.... Let me know if you don't agree with this.

1- Shock. I was not particularly happy in the company I was working for, yet the news came as a shock to me. It was not the right time, I wanted to leave on my own terms, I saw it coming and still I was shocked when it happened. Aparently this is quite normal.
2- Realisation. It took me a good month to get out of the shock and started to realise that it was real and I better start looking for another job. Mainly because I had not been paid lots of money with the redundancy, so I still need to pay my bills.
3- Action. After another few weeks of thinking that I really had to look for a job, I finally went into action mode. I had done bits here and there, and posted my CV in all the websites that came my way, applied for a few jobs. It is not until I had a good idea of the type of job that I was looking for that things started clicking.

No, I still don't have a job, but I'm getting closer. At least things are happening, and having some activity in terms of interviews and calls from recruiters helps a lot. It allows me to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and as the search continues, I have no doubt that there is a job out there for me, somewhere!