Nobody needs to tell you this is a hard week. What you need is a clear view of the decisions in front of you and a sense of which ones are urgent and which ones only feel urgent.
Redundancy is a decision about a role, not a judgement about you. That distinction gets lost quickly, particularly in interviews, and getting it back is part of the work.
Read your agreement and your notice period properly. Check what you are entitled to, what has been offered, and whether the consultation process was run correctly. If any of that is unclear, get advice from an employment lawyer or your union before you sign anything. This is not the week to be agreeable by default.
Not a rough guess. The real number — how many months you can go before the decision gets made for you again. Everything that follows depends on that figure, and people consistently overestimate it or refuse to look at it at all.
The instinct is to get an application out by Friday to feel like you are doing something. Applications sent in the first week are almost always aimed at the job you just lost, because that is the only shape your career has in your head right now. Give it a fortnight and aim properly.
You will explain this a hundred times. Recruiters, hiring managers, friends, family. Land on a version that is honest, brief, and does not sound defensive — and then stop revising it. “The role was disestablished in a restructure” is a complete sentence. It does not need justifying.
Redundancy forces a decision most people put off indefinitely: whether to go back to the same thing, or use the gap to change direction while you have an unavoidable reason to.
There is no universally correct answer. There is a correct answer for your runway, your market, your obligations, and how much risk you can genuinely carry. That is what I help people work out.
An online assessment that places you in one of nine professional profiles and gives you a read on how you are actually approaching this decision. Start here if you want a starting point today.
Get Confidential SupportThe detailed version. Your profile, what it means for the next role, and where your thinking is likely to trip you up.
Get the ReportOne 50-minute session with Emma, focused entirely on your redundancy — the decisions in front of you, your runway, and a clear next step. Pay and book straight away, no assessment required.
Two 45-minute sessions to help you gain clarity, decide what comes next and leave with a clear Career Roadmap™.
Auckland has had a steady run of restructures and the shortlists are longer than they were. That is not a reason to panic and it is not a reason to accept the first offer that arrives. It is a reason to be deliberate about where you spend your applications.
Some situations do not slot neatly into a package. A senior role with a restraint of trade. A redundancy alongside a visa or a mortgage or a partner's job. A career change with a hard financial deadline attached. A team of people exited at once.
Tell me what you are dealing with and I will come back within one business day with what I think would actually help and what it would cost. If the honest answer is that you do not need me, I will tell you that too.