Now the company is closing—or your position is being made redundant—and suddenly you are expected to know what to do next.
Perhaps you joined your employer straight from school and have worked there for 20 years. You have never needed to apply for another job, update your CV or explain your experience to anyone outside the business.
You may be asking yourself:
If this sounds familiar, please remember one thing: you are not starting again.
You are starting with 20 years of knowledge, experience and achievements. The immediate challenge is learning how to recognise that value and explain it to somebody who does not already know you.
You do not need to decide the direction of the rest of your career in one afternoon.
Before applying for jobs, take some time to reflect on what you have actually done and achieved. When you have worked somewhere for many years, it is easy to dismiss important skills as simply “part of the job.”
Start by writing down:
Do not worry about making it sound like a CV at this stage. Capture the information first. It can be shaped and professionally written afterwards.
Job titles do not always reflect what someone really does.
You may have been called an Administrator but also coordinated projects, handled customer problems, prepared reports and supported senior managers.
You may have been employed as an Operator but also trained colleagues, monitored quality, identified faults and maintained safety standards.
You may have been a Supervisor or Manager for many years, but your contribution goes far beyond managing a team. You may have recruited and trained employees, managed performance, planned staffing levels, controlled budgets, introduced new processes, resolved complex problems and helped the business achieve important operational targets.
Think about your transferable skills—the abilities another employer could value even if the company, product or industry is different.
These might include:
Ask trusted colleagues what they believe your strengths are. Other people often recognise abilities that we take for granted in ourselves.
Redundancy can make people feel that they must apply for everything immediately. However, applying without direction can quickly become exhausting and demoralising.
Ask yourself:
You do not need to have one perfect answer. Two or three possible directions are enough to begin researching the market.
Search job boards and LinkedIn using both job titles and skills. Read vacancies even if you are not ready to apply. Notice which requirements appear repeatedly and which parts of your experience match them.
If the business is closing or you are still in a consultation period, gather the information you are entitled to keep before you lose access to workplace systems.
This could include:
Never take confidential company, customer or employee information. You only need enough detail to help you remember and evidence your own career history.
Once you have gathered this information, it becomes much easier to build a CV that tells your story properly.
A strong CV should not simply list everything you were expected to do. It should help an unfamiliar recruiter or hiring manager understand:
At My Professional CV, you can begin with our Complimentary CV Review. We will identify what is already working and highlight practical changes that could immediately strengthen your CV.
If you need more in-depth guidance, choose the Professional CV Review for a fuller report covering the different sections of your CV and how they could be improved to increase your chances of being shortlisted.
Visit My Professional CV to explore the available support.
Once your CV is ready, do not rely solely on applying for advertised vacancies.
Upload it to relevant job boards and ensure recruiters can find it when searching for people with your skills. Complete every important section of your profile, use a clear job title and include the keywords commonly used in suitable job advertisements.
Update your LinkedIn profile too. Let trusted contacts know that you are exploring new opportunities and speak to recruitment agencies that specialise in your type of work.
Remember to revisit and refresh your job-board CV regularly. Recruiters will often search recently updated profiles first.
You should also create job alerts—but keep them focused. Ten relevant opportunities are more useful than 100 unsuitable alerts filling your inbox every day.
Do not wait until you have missed payments before asking for support.
Contact your mortgage provider, landlord, utility companies, lenders and other essential service providers if you are worried about meeting payments. Explain that your circumstances are changing and ask what temporary support may be available. MoneyHelper advises speaking to creditors early, as options may be available before arrears build up. MoneyHelper provides free guidance for people facing job loss.
Check which benefits and financial support you may be entitled to. GOV.UK provides links to independent, free and anonymous benefits calculators.
Depending on your circumstances, claiming certain benefits may also give you National Insurance credits that help protect your State Pension record. This is not automatic in every situation, so check your individual position rather than assuming your “stamp” will continue.
You may also be able to access employment, training or redundancy support through your employer, trade union, local authority, Jobcentre Plus or relevant industry organisations.
A job search can quickly take over your entire day. Give yourself a manageable routine:
Being busy is not the same as making progress. Five carefully selected applications are usually more valuable than sending the same CV to 50 unrelated vacancies.
Leaving your only employer after 20 years is daunting. It may feel as though everything familiar has disappeared at once.
But those years have given you knowledge, resilience, relationships, practical experience and countless examples of dealing with real situations.
Your first step is not to find the perfect job immediately.
Your first step is to stop, reflect and recognise what you already have.
Once you understand your own value, you can begin presenting it confidently to the employers who need it.
If you are unsure whether your current CV reflects the experience you have built, visit My Professional CV and take advantage of our Complimentary CV Review.
At My Professional CV, we may use AI-assisted tools, including ChatGPT, to help support our work. Every CV, Interview Coaching and Career Coaching Service is carefully reviewed and personalised by an experienced CV Writing and Career Coaching Expert, so you get guidance that’s accurate, relevant and tailored to you.
