Moving On After Layoff

Have you ever wondered how you would feel if you suddenly lost your job? Most people know intuitively that they are more than their job, and yet so many confident professionals lose their identity when they lose their job. Losing a job can be one of the most stressful experiences one might face in their lifetime, not just financially but emotionally. Laid-off employees can feel lost, hopeless, and even fall into depression… but it doesn't have to be that way. Teresa Comiskey uses her thirteen-plus years as a career coach and her personal experience with corporate layoffs to provide insights into surviving the emotional roller coaster of job loss. In "Moving On After Layoff," she shares her journey navigating three consecutive layoffs toward the end of her twenty-eight-year biotech marketing career. She also shares how she reinvented herself in an entirely new second career, providing career coaching for the renowned outplacement company, Right Management (Manpower). This rare opportunity to see identity loss from both sides of the table (as a laid-off employee and then a career coach) prompted her to write the book. She provides tips for bouncing back after a layoff and strategies for navigating the difficult job search process. Her strategies address how to find the right fit job, develop a resume that gets through screening systems, network to get your foot in the door, interview to get an offer and negotiate more value when you do get an offer. She also provides tips for anyone who's concerned they might lose their identity when they retire because they lack a "purpose." Most importantly, she provides tips for redefining self-identity with personal values so that a job loss does not result in identity loss. "Moving On After Layoff" is a concise but comprehensive look at identity loss with job loss that provides meaningful ways to bounce back, find your next job, protect your self-identity, and move on with your life.

Have you ever wondered how you would feel if you suddenly lost your job? Most people know intuitively that they are more than their job, and yet so many confident professionals lose their identity when they lose their job. Losing a job can be one of the most stressful experiences one might face in their lifetime, not just financially but emotionally. Laid-off employees can feel lost, hopeless, and even fall into depression… but it doesn't have to be that way. Teresa Comiskey uses her thirteen-plus years as a career coach and her personal experience with corporate layoffs to provide insights into surviving the emotional roller coaster of job loss. In "Moving On After Layoff," she shares her journey navigating three consecutive layoffs toward the end of her twenty-eight-year biotech marketing career. She also shares how she reinvented herself in an entirely new second career, providing career coaching for the renowned outplacement company, Right Management (Manpower). This rare opportunity to see identity loss from both sides of the table (as a laid-off employee and then a career coach) prompted her to write the book. She provides tips for bouncing back after a layoff and strategies for navigating the difficult job search process. Her strategies address how to find the right fit job, develop a resume that gets through screening systems, network to get your foot in the door, interview to get an offer and negotiate more value when you do get an offer. She also provides tips for anyone who's concerned they might lose their identity when they retire because they lack a "purpose." Most importantly, she provides tips for redefining self-identity with personal values so that a job loss does not result in identity loss. "Moving On After Layoff" is a concise but comprehensive look at identity loss with job loss that provides meaningful ways to bounce back, find your next job, protect your self-identity, and move on with your life.

Teresa Comiskey is a career coach and marketing executive who has a passion for helping people manage identity loss after a job loss. Her passion stems from thirteen-plus years as a career coach and her personal experience with corporate downsizing. As the firstborn child of a military family, she spent her life traveling the globe, sparking her desire for an international career. She received an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management in Phoenix and then spent most of her career in Los Angeles working in the biotech industry. After several layoffs, she re-invented herself by starting a second career as a career coach and helped hundreds of clients navigate the difficult job search process. She is now retired and lives with her family in Boise, Idaho enjoying the great outdoors and flying with her husband in the Idaho backcountry.