Navigating layoffs as a contractor

janagentrysmith·Jul 15, 2022

Hey there, all!

How do you navigate layoffs as a contractor in limbo?

The director of content and senior editor of the team I contributed to were both laid off. That leaves one salaried team member, two freelancers, and me (a content and copywriter contracting through a placement agency). It's now a will-they or won't-they waiting game to see what will happen with the company's content strategy.

To complicate things, I'm also in the process of selling a home, moving across the country, and buying a home. So, it would actually be a great time to be directly hired by a company.

Any advice for strategizing my way through this? Thank you!

annamiller·Jul 15, 2022

Hi Jana, From what you have shared on here sounds like you have a ton of great experience and are now moving into a job search where you get to highlight that experience. Since you have a couple of life changes happening at once, I would advise to select certain hours of the day or certain days to focus on the job search, so that your time will feel more organized and less scattered. Start with the networks you have already and announce that you are looking. Use Linkedin to share your skills and wins through posts, which helps to get you seen among people looking to fill your role. Sounds like the company you're at is not the best to work at right now, since they are laying off people and potentially reworking their content strategy. There are great startups that are looking for Marketing support, start creating a list of those companies that you find interesting and have Marketing departments as a starting point, and then apply to the jobs at companies that your find relevant and interesting.

brianapalma·Jul 17, 2022

Hey @janagentrysmith, is there a place for you to step in and help with the content strategy as a contractor? I work for We Are Rosie, a flexible career platform and community for marketers, and in some recent research we saw that during recession/layoff periods, marketing work usually doesn't get pared back, so there's still plenty of work to do and contractors can help fill that gap in a very meaningful way. There could be an opportunity for you to take a pro-active approach and gain more of a leadership role, albeit still contract. Alternatively, if you prefer to be a full-time employee or direct hire right now, then I agree with @annamiller—plenty of companies are hiring and I'm sure if you dedicated a few hours a week to your job search and networking, you'd be able to land something full-time. Another option is to stay independent but seek something with a longer-term contract since you're going through some big life transitions. (We help with this at We Are Rosie, so check us out!)Good luck!

janagentrysmith·Jul 17, 2022

The search process has already begun. It'll be interesting to see how this turns out. Thank you, @annamiller and @brianapalma!