An involuntary discharge can be a hard moment in our life for anyone and is important that you handle it in an effective way.

At the moment that I wrote this, I have been suffering an involuntary discharge from my work. It was unexpected because at that moment I recently finish a project and I was waiting for interviews for another project. For me was so so so so hard because I was not prepared for it. It happens a lot of things, but I am a big boy and I need to overcome this situation.

Based on my experience I can give you some advices to handle an Involuntary Discharge in IT. And no, sue the company it will be not one of them, this is another topic that you should review with a layer if is the case. So let’s begin.

1 – Allow yourself to feel your emotions.

In my case I was super angry for the situation, frustrated that I couldn’t do something to get my job back, it was out of my control. Then I was sad because I really love my job.

Is normal to feel frustrated, angry, or sad after a discharge. But is important that you acknowledge your emotions and give them space to be felt.

Don’t try to hide your emotions, they are important and they affect.

2 – Don’t take begin discharged personally.

This is harsh advice, even though I did, in my anger at begin discharge I took to personally, because in my mind I was not told the truth about the discharge. I was like I want an explanation

Remember that sometimes, the discharges could be the result of changes in the company or in the IT market, and not necessary related to you as an employee.

But always use the reason that HR give you for the Discharge, in case that in future works ask you why were you discharged from your previous company or job.

3 – Speak with your friends and family.

In the beginning, when I posted that the company that I worked for had discharged on social media, some friends and my spouse contacted me to verify if I was ok, even, I’ve even been contacted by social network friends that I never met in person before.

In my insides, I was like I am not ok, but I need to tell them that I was ok. But I thought, I need to share how I feel, what happened, what I will going to do, that help me a lot to process my feelings and feel supported by them.

For that reason I recommend you to speak with friends and family, because this can help you to process your emotions and feelings, is possible that they help you to find some opportunities.

4 – Update your Resume and profiles on LinkedIn and other work pages.

This advice should be mandatory when your finish a project, training, certification, studies, etc. And not when you are discharged or fired. I always do, but this time I was not ready, because I didn’t add the experience that I got in the last project, the result I was not ready to start looking for new jobs. Imagine if one friend can give an opportunity that you are looking but you don’t have updated your resume.

It is important that you update your resume, LinkedIn profile, and profiles on other job search pages as soon as possible after the discharge. Remember to be sure to highlight your skills and achievements in the IT field.

5 – Use your free time to improve your skill.

This is something that some of us don’t like it, use our free time to study. Personally, I prefer to use my free time to go out, play games, watch horror movies. But now that we don’t have a job, we can use the extra free time to improve our skills.

Consider taking online courses or certifications that can improve your IT skills. Or why not learn that new programming language that is a trend in IT. And don’t forget the algorithms, there are many websites that offer coding challenges, such as HackerRank, CodeWars, CodeFights, among others.

Improve our skills can help you be more competitive in the job market.

What do you think?, this advices are good or we should add another ones?. Remeber that even the “bad times” are opportunities to be better.

Thank you for reading. I hope that this advices help you in a hard moment (that I hope that never happen to you). I am open to comments, suggestions and questions, so feel free to share them with me. Until the next time with a new Squirrel Tech Tale.