The First 90 Days After a Layoff: A 4-Step Plan
Control Your Career: Career Growth and Strategy for Ambitious Professionals
Release Date: 10/13/2026
The First 90 Days After a Layoff: A 4-Step Plan
Control Your Career: Career Growth and Strategy for Ambitious Professionals
A layoff can create an immediate urge to update your résumé, start applying, contact everyone you know, and do anything that feels productive. The problem is that what makes sense during the first week may be very different from what you should be doing 30, 60, or 90 days later. In this solo episode, Julia Toothacre breaks the first 90 days after a layoff into four stages: assess your reality, build your search, evaluate the evidence, and adjust your strategy. The goal is not to create a 90-day deadline for finding another job. Instead, the framework provides checkpoints so you can respond...
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info_outlineA layoff can create an immediate urge to update your résumé, start applying, contact everyone you know, and do anything that feels productive. The problem is that what makes sense during the first week may be very different from what you should be doing 30, 60, or 90 days later.
In this solo episode, Julia Toothacre breaks the first 90 days after a layoff into four stages: assess your reality, build your search, evaluate the evidence, and adjust your strategy. The goal is not to create a 90-day deadline for finding another job. Instead, the framework provides checkpoints so you can respond to what you are learning rather than repeating the same job-search strategy for months without examining whether it is working.
Julia covers the immediate financial and logistical considerations after a layoff, how to evaluate your career and the current market, when to update your materials and activate your network, how to diagnose where a search is getting stuck, and what to reconsider if the process extends beyond 90 days.
What Julia Discusses
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What to handle during the first week after a layoff
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How finances, benefits, caregiving, location, emotional capacity, and risk affect your next steps
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How to decide whether you want another version of your previous job or something different
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Why current market conditions need to be part of your strategy
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How to communicate a layoff without sounding angry or self-deprecating
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How to define target roles, industries, compensation, location, priorities, and deal breakers
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Why a focused search usually provides better information than applying indiscriminately
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How to track applications, networking conversations, referrals, and responses
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What a lack of applications, recruiter screens, interviews, or offers may tell you
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Why the 30-, 60-, and 90-day marks should be checkpoints rather than deadlines
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When contract, consulting, freelance, temporary, part-time, or bridge work may deserve consideration
The Four Stages
Stage 1: Assess Your Reality
Days 1 to 7
Address immediate logistics and understand your personal, career, and external realities before determining the search strategy.
Stage 2: Build Your Search
Days 8 to 30
Define what you are targeting, prepare your career materials, begin networking, start applying, and track what happens.
Stage 3: Evaluate the Evidence
Days 31 to 60
Look for patterns in applications, recruiter screens, interviews, networking conversations, and overall search volume.
Stage 4: Adjust Your Strategy
Days 61 to 90
Use what you have learned to make informed changes to target roles, positioning, compensation, geography, résumé strategy, networking, or other parts of the search. ep 176 solo
Control Your Career Resources
Read The Blog:
https://ridethetidecollective.com/2026/10/13/first-90-days-after-a-layoff/
Explore all episodes:
https://ridethetidecollective.com/podcast/
Connect with Julia on LinkedIn:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliakrussell/
Visit the website:
https://ridethetidecollective.com
Get career resources:
https://ridethetidecollective.com/free/