The Snitch

Recently retrenched? Don't cry, it may be a blessing in disguise.

Can getting retrenched be a blessing in disguise? Yes, says Andrew Taylor, a UK freelance journalist and author of the book Burning the Suit.

In an interview with JobsDB, Taylor talks about how getting the slip proved to be one of the best things for his career.

It was only a little later that I realised what an opportunity it might prove to be. I had been stuck for several years in a job which paid the bills all right, but which had long since ceased to enthuse me, and being eased out of it gave me the impetus I needed to go out and find something more rewarding.

Taylor goes on to cite other examples of people whose sought out to fulfilll their life-long dreams after being retrenched.

Other people looked at the skills they had picked up, and found new ways to use them – like the nurse who used her years of comforting people in the extremes of grief and loss to turn herself into one of very few female funeral directors in the UK, or the television journalist who used his experience of speaking in public to help him forge a new career as an actor.

Without the initial shock of being retrenched, none of these people would have achieved these goals, and their lives would have been less fulfilling because of it.

However, Taylor does admit that people will inevitably suffer from strong feelings such as anger, disbelief, panic and fear, he advices those recently retrenched to take some time in figuring our what the person wants to do next, and not just latch on to any “passing log because you think it will help you stay afloat”.

Another important thing is to sit down and write yourself a list of the things you’ve done. The three A’s – Assignment, Action and Achievement – are what potential employers will want to hear about, and putting them down on paper will not only give you a good start in any interviews that come up, it will help repair your battered confidence as well. What jobs have you been given to do, how have you carried them out, and what did you learn and achieve in doing them?

What do you think? Have you ever been retrenched and found that it helped kickstart your career? Can a retrenchment ever be a good thing?