Coping with Job Loss - Sanil Yadav

I am not going to give you tips on how to cope with a job loss or anticipated lay off because there are plenty of articles on the web to help you with that. Instead, I will narrate you my personal story of facing difficulties in the corporate world.

It was 2011; I’d just graduated from business school and landed my first job at a start up from Singapore. I was young, carefree and determined to make my mark in the professional space, earn my first ever pay check and make my parents proud. One and a half years of slogging my ass off in sales and I received an email from the CEO stating, “We are shutting down India operations due to lack of return on investment”. I was 20 and just lost my first ever job that I loved immensely. I was astounded and didn’t know how to react, what to feel, so I just stepped out of the office to get some fresh air and smoke a cigarette.

Next month, I got employed at a sports management firm and was living my dream life. Meeting Indian sports personalities, attending sports events, managing talent and drafting plans for grass root level sports. 6 months later, my boss said, “I’m sorry to announce but due to absence of adequate cash inflow, we are closing the business”. This job loss wounded me emotionally because anyone who has met me knows what a sports fanatic I am.

I took a short trip to Goa and when I returned, I decided no more start-ups and took up a job at one of the largest players in the education sector. One week later, there was a management change and my department was closed down. I was the only employee retained out of the 15. It was a minor setback but at least I wasn’t sacked. Fast forward to 2014, the company went bankrupt, CFO in jail for tax evasion and money laundering and I was back to square one – without a job.

3 job losses in the first 3 years of my corporate life and I was just 22, my friends were getting promotions and salary increments while I was stuck in the unemployment line.

I was traumatized because I took the circumstances very personally, lost my sense of identity, fell into the pit of self-loathing and completely lost all purpose and meaning in life. What followed was inevitable, my days blighted by darkness – Depression!

I reached out to friends and family for psychological support, traveled across India, meditated, volunteered at an NGO, spent my nights staring at the ceiling smoking and drinking. I started questioning the very meaning of life, watched a lot of inspirational videos and read motivational and self-help books. It took me 7 long months to come out of depression and I restarted my career in a different profession.

But what I eventually realized was that life is full of successes and failures. If you don’t fall down, you’ll never learn how to get up on your feet. There is light at the end of the tunnel, it does gets darker just before dawn. So, hang in there because even if you don’t see it right now, in the end it all works out just fine.