Now What? - Life after redundancy

After the best part of a year and somewhere north of a hundred applications, I've been offered a role and this episode is the honest version of what that actually feels like, recorded a while before I've even started, with none of the hindsight smoothed in yet. The specific flinch of not trusting good news, what it costs to lose a routine you didn't choose but got attached to, and what genuinely felt different about this last stretch of interviews compared to the ones before it — including the one piece of real feedback that changed how I answered questions from that point on. This also closes out season one. Season two returns in a couple of weeks on a fortnightly cadence, with a shift in focus towards the voices of people still navigating this in real time, and specialists who can bring perspectives I don't have on my own and topics that I know have supported me as I navigated my own journey. Thank you for forty episodes of company — genuinely. To connect with others on this journey, visit https://theinvisiblequeue.co.uk/ To connect with the show visit https://thenowwhat.co.uk/

There's a particular kind of unlucky where one thing goes wrong and you can just about laugh about it. Then there's Dan Roberts's 2025, where the wrong things queued up to take turns; right up until the week he finally caught a break and then redundancy turned up two days later like it had been waiting for an invite. This episode is about what happens when the job search isn't the only thing falling apart. Dan talks through the actual mechanics of getting through a year like that, including how he decided which job applications were worth caring about and which weren't, why the people around him mattered more than any spreadsheet ever could and what he'd say to someone reading this on day one of their own equivalent mess. Part practical, part perspective, part pep-talk without the cringe. Dan's also shared this story in more detail over on the Invisible Queue - www.theinvisiblequeue.co.uk - if you want to sit with it a bit longer or talk it through with people in the same boat. And if you want to get in touch with the show directly, that's www.thenowwhat.co.uk

Most people navigating redundancy have spent years being good at their jobs. The doing was never really the problem. The bit that catches people out is the presenting — interview panels, networking rooms, video calls with recruiters — where suddenly you have to articulate your value out loud, to strangers, in real time, without your brain quietly filing everything under unavailable. That gap between knowing your stuff and being able to say it, under pressure, while someone looks at you. That's what this episode is about. Dave James is a twice TEDx speaker and speaker coach who spent years in healthcare before moving into coaching. What he took from nursing, A&E and podiatry was a single transferable skill: building rapport fast with people who are frightened and don't know what's coming next. His framework is called Speaking Without Freaking, and his approach has little in common with the presentation training you sat through once and immediately forgot. We talk about why confidence is the wrong thing to go looking for, why memorising interview answers reliably backfires, and why your redundancy story (the bit you're most tempted to skip past) is often the most powerful thing you've got. There's also a Bon Jovi misheard lyric, which I stand by to this day! Connect with Dave: www.davethecoach.co.uk https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamdavejames/ Book a conversation: https://cuppawithdave.youcanbook.me/ Find the show: https://www.thenowwhat.co.uk The Invisible Queue community: https://www.theinvisiblequeue.co.uk

Most people treat a recruiter like a fire extinguisher — ignore it completely until something's on fire, then hope it works first time. In this episode, I'm joined by Neil Johns, Director at Merje, a specialist recruitment business working with everyone from startups and FinTechs through to national banking groups and global organisations, to find out what the job search actually looks like from the other side of the desk. We get into the patterns Neil sees regularly — the habits that quietly work against candidates, what a CV does and doesn't tell a recruiter and why the people who tend to do well are usually the ones who built the relationship before they needed it. If you're in redundancy, back on the job market, or just keeping an eye on things, this'll be worth your time. Find out more about Merje at https://www.linkedin.com/company/merje-ltd/ Find support from others navigating redundancy: https://theinvisiblequeue.co.uk/ Contact the show: https://thenowwhat.co.uk/

The salary conversation is one of the most anxiety-producing moments in any job search — and when you're coming from redundancy, it's even more loaded. Your last salary exists but it may not reflect what the market currently pays. The pressure of needing a role changes what you're willing to say out loud. And the advice available is either negotiation-bro overconfident or so hedged it's useless. This episode unpacks why this conversation is specifically harder during redundancy than a standard job move, the traps people fall into that are entirely understandable given the circumstances and what useful preparation looks like before you're ever asked the question. That includes where to research a credible UK salary range, what to say when they ask first and you're not ready to commit, the difference between what you need and what you want, and why knowing your household floor number before the conversation is more useful than any negotiation script. Connect with others on the same redundancy journey at www.theinvisiblequeue.co.uk Find the redundancy runway calculator or contact the show at www.thenowwhat.co.uk .

Redundancy has a way of doing something nobody really prepares you for. It doesn't just take the job it also dismantles the version of yourself that was built around it. Your title, the structure, the sense of purpose that came with knowing what you did and being good at it. And then one day, someone asks what you do, and you're not entirely sure how to answer. In this episode I'm joined by Geoff Curtis — former c-suite communications executive and author of Embracing Your Own Purgatory — to talk about what actually happens to identity during career transition, why high achievers often struggle most when the professional scaffolding comes down, and why the instinct to sprint back to normality as fast as possible might be working against you. We get into the difference between chosen and imposed transitions, the stories we tell ourselves to maintain the illusion of control, and what it actually looks like to sit with uncertainty rather than outrun it. If you've ever felt like the job loss was straightforward but the identity loss wasn't, maybe give this a listen. Embracing Your Own Purgatory by Geoff Curtis — https://amzn.eu/d/0fpfEGUn Connect with Geoff on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/geoffreycurtis/ For community and practical support during redundancy — https://theinvisiblequeue.co.uk Get in touch with the show — https://thenowwhat.co.uk

"Fast-paced environment." "We're like a family." "Hit the ground running." These could sound like reasons to apply - they could also sound like reasons to close the tab. Job ads are marketing copy. They're written to sell you on a role, not to tell you what it's actually like to work there. Somewhere between the free fruit and the ping-pong table that nobody's allowed to use, there are phrases doing a lot of heavy lifting to make chaos sound like culture. In this episode, I break down some of the corporate red flags hiding in plain sight in job descriptions — what they may actually mean, why companies use them, and the questions you can ask in interviews to find out what's really going on before you sign anything. Because redundancy already knocked your confidence once, your next role should be better than the last one. To connect with the show please visit ⁠thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ If you're navigating redundancy and want practical support that actually gets how messy this bit is, head to theinvisiblequeue.com

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ This week's episode is less polished structure, more honest reflection. I'm walking through some recent experiences from my own job search — the kind of things that happen when you're in the middle of redundancy and nobody's handing out a manual. I answer questions about what's been hardest lately, how interviews have gone (and the specific exhaustion that comes from smiling at a webcam while three people take notes), what motivation actually looks like when your laptop autocompletes "jobs in" before you've finished typing, and how to handle rejection emails that all start with "thank you for your interest." No neat solutions here. Just the reality of what this phase looks like when you stop pretending you've got it all figured out. If you're navigating your own unemployment or career transition, head to theinvisiblequeue.co.uk to connect with others going through the same thing.

theinvisiblequeue.co.uk Over the past six months, I've spoken with dozens of people navigating redundancy. Through the podcast, messages and numerous conversations that started with "I thought it was just me." Every single one echoed the same thing, this experience isolates people in ways most support systems don't acknowledge. So we built something different. The Invisible Queue is a community platform for anyone in that strange, grinding period between losing a job and finding solid ground again. The name captures what this actually feels like — you're standing in a queue, but you can't see how long it is, who's ahead of you, or when you'll reach the front. You just know you're in it. In this episode, I'm joined by Lisa, Vicky, and Russ — the team behind The Invisible Queue — to talk about why we built it, what it actually is and why the usual options don't cut it. Recruitment sites treat you like a pipeline problem. Wellness content offers breathing exercises when you need practical help. LinkedIn encourages performative-positivity (while your inbox stays empty). We're doing something else: practical tools, honest conversation and a space where you don't have to explain why this is hard. If you're in this position right now — or you know someone who is — this episode explains what we've built and why it might help.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ The basics of job searching. Updating your CV, tailoring applications, following up; they don't stay done. You do them, they work or they don't and then you have to do them again the next day. And the day after that. It's not a checklist you complete once. It's a daily practice that never quite feels finished. Which would be fine if it delivered predictable results, but it doesn't. You can do everything right one week and hear nothing. Take your foot off the gas the next week and suddenly get an interview. The relationship between effort and outcome is broken in ways you can't fix by just trying harder. This episode is about what happens when you hit a week where you just… don't. Where you can't face another application form or another round of tailoring the same sentences to slightly different job specs. The guilt that shows up when you do less than you think you should. And why easing off isn't the same as giving up — it's often the thing that stops you from stopping entirely.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ Other people's good news is one of the quieter challenges of redundancy. Not the hardest thing, but one of the most disorienting because the feeling it produces doesn't have a clean name and nobody warns you it's coming. This episode gives it a name. Looks at why the moment someone in your network lands a role can feel like information about your own search when it genuinely isn't. Examines what the public performance of good news — the announcement, the comments, the whole ritual — is actually showing you and what it's leaving out. And works through how to stop someone else's timeline becoming your own measuring stick. Practical, honest and a bit more forgiving than you're probably being with yourself right now. If you're asking yourself now what? You're in the right place.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ You know you're capable. You've got ideas, drive, the whole thing. But when you're job hunting, ambition starts to feel less like fuel and more like something you need to apologise for. This episode is about the weird contradiction of being ambitious while applying for roles you're overqualified for — and still not getting them. It's about the shame that creeps in when you can't even get a call back for a job you could do in your sleep. And it's about what happens when you realise that waiting for permission might be the thing that's actually killing you. No neat answers here. Just what I'm doing about it right now, which may or may not be the right call, but it's better than sitting around pretending the ambition doesn't exist. If you're tired of folding yourself into shapes that don't fit, this one might land. If you're asking yourself 'now what?', you're in the right place. Check out Starting Over — another podcast supporting people navigating redundancy and career transition: https://open.spotify.com/show/4sJJ60cFs02lECqjWlxHcr?si=0415c60728d141a6

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ When redundancy happens, the spotlight lands on one person. But the uncertainty doesn't stay in one lane. It spreads into finances, into plans, into the people sharing the same space and nobody really warned them in advance. This episode looks at what redundancy actually does to the people around you and what it's like to be on the receiving end of someone else's wobble when you've got your own stuff going on. What good support looks like in practice, why asking for help feels harder than it should and how to stop the people who love you most from quietly running out of road.If redundancy has affected your household — whether you're the one job hunting or the one watching someone you love do it — this episode is for you. If you're asking yourself now what? — you're in the right place.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ Job searching has a special talent for making even fairly stable adults feel they’re one delayed email away from developing a brand new personality. It can be hopeful one minute, exhausting the next and strangely capable of turning 'just waiting to hear back' into a full-time emotional side quest. In this episode, I’m talking about how to stay optimistic after redundancy, during job search uncertainty and through those stretches where interviews are done, decisions are pending and your confidence is trying not to wander off unsupervised. I look at the difference between what you can control and what you can’t, why that matters so much when you’re job hunting and how to protect your energy when rejection, silence, or waiting for outcomes starts getting into your head. I’m also joined by Evie Squires, founder of Mother of All Jobs, to talk about flexible work, career confidence, working parenthood and how her own redundancy experience led her to build something genuinely useful for parents looking for better, more flexible job opportunities. So if you’re dealing with redundancy, job rejection, job search stress, confidence wobbles, or the general emotional weirdness of trying to stay hopeful while your inbox remains suspiciously quiet, this one’s for you. Find out more about Mother of All Jobs: motherofalljobs.co.uk Follow Mother of All Jobs on Instagram If you enjoy the episode, follow, subscribe, leave a review, share it with someone who might need it, or send Haribo. I remain open to all support models.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ What happens when a job looks perfect on paper, pays well and suits your skills, but the commute feels like taking a ring to Mordor and the hours would wreck your family’s balance? In this episode, I talk about job search reality, life balance, flexible working and why the real question is not just “could I do this role?” but “does this role actually fit my life?” I explore why flexibility matters so much when you’re job searching, what “hybrid working” can really mean in practice, and how to assess whether a role is genuinely sustainable. I also share practical tips how to consider the opportunities in front of you. The episode also includes a conversation with Vicky Ross , freelance Careers Consultant, LinkedIn specialist and career coach, on career fit, flexible work and making better job search decisions. Perfect for anyone navigating redundancy, career change, hybrid working, flexible jobs, work-life balance and the reality of finding a role that actually works.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ What do you do when redundancy creates space in your life — and along with the stress, uncertainty and job searching, there’s also a small voice saying, maybe now’s the time to finally try that thing ? In this episode, I’m talking about passion projects, side hustles and the strange pressure to reinvent yourself when your career has been disrupted. I get into why these ideas can feel so appealing during redundancy, why we often put ourselves off before we’ve properly begun, and why the projects that gain momentum are usually the ones we keep moving forward in small, consistent ways rather than treating them like instant rescue plans. I also share a conversation with Liam Walker , who used redundancy as an opportunity to lean into his love of cycling and start Liam Walker Cycles — a YouTube channel that has grown, gained traction and opened up new opportunities, even while he’s still navigating the reality of finding his next role. It’s a grounded, honest look at what it means to build something meaningful without pretending it has to solve your whole life by next Tuesday. If you’re wondering whether redundancy might be a chance to try something different, start a creative project, explore a side hustle or finally commit to an idea you’ve been circling for ages, this episode is for you. Find Liam Walker Cycles here: YouTube: www.youtube.com/@liamwalkercycles Instagram: www.instagram.com/liamwalkercycles If this episode resonates, please follow, rate and review the show — and share it with someone else who’s currently asking themselves, now what?

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ You walk out of an interview thinking you represented yourself well. You gave good answers. You sounded like yourself on a good day. Then someone asks how it went — and suddenly you hear yourself downplaying it, caveating it, softening it before the result has even arrived. This episode is about that. I’m exploring the strange way redundancy can affect confidence — not always by changing what you’re capable of, but by changing how willing you are to trust your own judgement. After enough rejection, silence and near-misses, it can become harder to say, “I did well there,” even when you know you did. I talk about the quiet self-protection that can creep in after too many disappointing outcomes, why imposter syndrome is less of a one-off flaw and more of a long-running maintenance issue and how a brief but sincere period in my twenties as an almost-acoustic-singer-songwriter taught me something unexpectedly useful about confidence, competence and knowing your range. I also share four practical things that have genuinely helped me rebuild confidence in a way that feels grounded, realistic and usable — not forced, not cheesy, and not dependent on pretending you’ve become the sort of person who starts the day by high-fiving their own reflection. If redundancy has left you second-guessing yourself, underselling your strengths, or feeling oddly cautious about your own ability, this episode is for you. If you’re asking yourself now what? — you’re in the right place.

thenowwhat.co.uk⁠ Redundancy does an odd little trick. It doesn’t just take away a job, it takes away the easy, everyday connection that came with it. No Teams pings, no corridor chats, no accidental “oh you should speak to…” moments. And when that background noise disappears, reaching out to people can suddenly feel weirdly high stakes. In this episode, I talk through how to reach out to people after redundancy in a way that feels genuine, not salesy - and how to give yourself the best chance of actually getting replies. We’ll cover how to spot shared goals and shared values so your messages feel relevant, a simple structure for what to say (without sounding like a corporate chatbot), and how to follow up without turning into your own debt collector. This isn’t about becoming a “networking person”. It’s about small, intentional connections that bring clarity, confidence, and momentum back into your week.

Personal brand can sound like something that requires a ring light and a sudden interest in 'thought leadership'. In real life, it is much simpler. It is what people come to you for, what they trust you with, and what they say about you after you’ve left the meeting and they’ve opened their next tab. In this episode of, I make personal brand feel normal and practical. I talk through how to work out what yours actually is, how to describe it without sounding like a walking job advert, and how to apply it so it guides what you go for, what you ignore, and how you show up in interviews, networking chats, and LinkedIn without doing the professional equivalent of buying a blazer you will never wear. This episode also includes a short interview with Lisa Heyward , a higher education professional who specialises in examination and assessment, where we chat about what personal brands mean to her and how redundancy impacts the sense of self. If you’re job hunting, pivoting, or just tired of explaining yourself from scratch, this one will help. If you know someone in redundancy-land who could do with a bit of steadiness, share it with them.

Ghosted after an interview? Or applied for something great and got absolutely nothing back? This episode is for anyone who’s tired of pretending silence doesn’t mess with their head. We talk about why ghosting lands so hard during redundancy and job hunting, how it quietly turns into overthinking and compulsive inbox-checking, and how to steady yourself when you’re stuck in that 'what does this mean?' loop. It’s practical, it’s kind and it’s designed to help you stop turning other people’s lack of response into a personal verdict — so you can keep moving, keep applying, and keep your nervous system vaguely intact. If you know someone in redundancy-land who’s refreshing their inbox like it’s going to reveal a plot twist, send them this one.