Career change
Career change after redundancy
Redundancy creates a rare opening: a moment where changing direction costs no more than staying put. It also creates pressure to decide quickly, which is the wrong reason to change careers.
For redundant or laid off · Last reviewed 2026-09-01
Two questions before anything else
- How many months of expenses can you cover?
- Is your existing route still hiring where you live, at the money you need?
If your runway is short and your industry is still hiring, get back to income first and plan the change from a paid position. If your industry has structurally shrunk, changing route is not a luxury, it's the plan.
Change route, not identity
The strongest career changes reuse most of your experience. Look for roles where your domain knowledge is the qualification and only the job title changes.
Run both at once
You can apply for adjacent roles while testing a new route. Doing both is not indecision — it's how you avoid betting everything on a single outcome you don't control.
Common questions
- Will employers hold the redundancy against me?
- Generally no. Redundancies are common and well understood. Unexplained gaps get more scrutiny than redundancy itself.
- Should I use redundancy pay to retrain?
- Only after your essential costs are covered for the months you'll be studying. Training that leaves you unable to pay rent isn't an investment.
Not sure which part applies to you?
The assessment scores your position and tells you what to fix first.
Take the assessmentRelated tools
- Career Change AssessmentIn build
- Retraining Decision ToolIn build
- Career Comeback Assessment