A laid-off associate at a leading City law firm on what it's like to lose your job, how the payoff eased the pain and getting back into employment

I was made redundant about four months ago. It pretty much came out of the blue. But once the redundancy consultation got underway, I found myself expecting it, to be honest. Most of the people who lost their jobs had a feeling that it might be them.

The firm didn't handle the redundancy process particularly well. The fact was that people were reading about it on legal news websites before we'd been told directly from the firm management.

Fortunately I don't have many ties. No mortgage, no wife, no dependants… and the payoff I received was pretty generous. It was the people with families who were really shaken up by the whole thing.

My plan was never to stay at a law firm forever anyway. It was good to experience private practice but I wanted to get closer to the business side of things. In the future I could see myself doing something that doesn't involve law at all.

Initially I tried to get another job. Mainly I was applying for in-house roles. I had four interviews, but the standard of applicants was very high. Much higher than you'd normally get for those jobs. So I went travelling around Southeast Asia for six weeks.

It seems that the more junior you are, the harder it is. I'm one year qualified. The 3-5 PQE candidates seem to be taking a lot of the available positions out there.

I've recently got a job teaching English in Central America. It's a year contract starting in September. I wanted to do something interesting that would develop me as a person. Hopefully the economy will have picked up by the time I get back. Plus I should be fluent in Spanish by then, which will give my CV a boost.

Having just come back from the gym, I'm now off to meet some friends. It's not a bad life, especially in the summer.

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