What to Do After Being Made Redundant in Tech: A Practical 30 Day Plan

Losing your job can be a difficult experience for anyone. On one hand, you feel like you need to act now to get back on track. On the other, you might feel a bit lost and not know where to start. Both reactions are real. Redundancy shakes up everything: your daily routine, your bank account, your confidence, and any sense of where you’re headed.

It’s certainly not all in your head. The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare says unemployed Australians are much more likely to struggle with mental distress than those in work. Their 2025 data shows that 51% of unemployed Aussies between 18 and 64 are at high or very high risk of mental distress. For people with jobs, that number drops to 23%.

Emanate Technology’s Senior Consultant in Cloud, DevOps & Infrastructure, Florent Campagne, has more than 20 years of recruitment experience in Australia and has supported tech professionals through plenty of career changes along the way. In this article, he shares his advice for navigating redundancy, approaching the job search with a clear plan and using those first 30 days to build momentum towards the right next role. He points out something that’s easy to forget: “It's not personal, even though it feels like it sometimes,” he says. “Redundancies in tech are almost always about cost, restructuring, or changes in strategy—not your ability.”

You don’t have to figure out your entire career right this second. But you do need a plan.

Days 1-3: Regroup & Get the Facts

Take a breath before you dive into job hunting. Give yourself a day or two to let things sink in, especially if the layoff blindsided you. Rushing right into a frenzy won’t help. Once you’ve caught your breath, then you can get practical.

First, figure out what you’re owed. Look at your final payslip, your notice period, and how much redundancy pay you get. Don’t forget unused annual leave or any other benefits. Entitlements actually depend on things like how long you were at the company, how big the place is, and what rules cover your workplace. So don’t just guess. Head to the official Fair Work Ombudsman’s site for exactly what you’re entitled to.

If you realise your financial runway is shorter than you hoped, see if you can get JobSeeker Payment through Services Australia. They look at your income, assets, age, and residency. Check the details against your situation.

While your last job is still clear in your mind, jot down everything you achieved from the last couple of years. List projects you worked on, results you delivered, tricky migrations, incidents you helped prevent, platforms you built, cost savings, products shipped, teams you led, uptime improvements. Actual numbers make a difference here.

Florent recommends getting references lined up early too, while your manager’s memory of your work is still fresh. It’ll save you time and hassle when you start applying for new roles.

Days 4–7: Get Visible Before Everything Is Perfect

You don’t need to turn your CV into a huge project. Just spend the first week getting the basics sorted. Check your employment dates. Clean up your summary. Add any new achievements, and make sure your technical skills are easy to spot. If you’re feeling stuck, Emanate’s guide on why strong CVs sometimes fail to get interviews is a useful sense-check if you are unsure where to start.

Don’t forget about LinkedIn. Make it obvious what you specialise in and what kind of role you're after. Switch on “Open to Work” and double-check that your location, skills, and work history are all up to date.

Then it’s time to spread the word. Message former managers, coworkers, clients, or anyone you’ve worked well with. A simple note saying your role was made redundant and you’re open to new opportunities in a certain field works.

And reach out to specialist recruiters now, not later. As Florent puts it, “Recruiters would rather know you're on the market from day one than find out three weeks in when a perfect role has already closed.”

Days 8–14: Build a Search Pipeline

Week two post-redundancy is when it gets busy. It’s easy to slip into the trap: see a job, click apply, move on. But you’ll get more out of your search if you build a real plan.

Pick the job titles you actually want. Think about seniority, locations, tech stacks, and the type of company that fits you. Set alerts that match those specifics. Then divide your time into productive tasks; apply to jobs that matter, talk with recruiters, and reach out directly to people in your network.

Understand what’s happening in the job market, too. Emanate’s 2026 Australian IT job market update shows where the competition is tougher, and which fields—like cyber security, cloud infrastructure, data, AI, and platform engineering—still have plenty of demand.

Figure out your salary range before you get serious. The Emanate 2026–27 Technology Salary & Rate Guide is a good tool for benchmarking salaries across Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney, whether you’re looking for a permanent role or a contract gig.

When you talk to recruiters, tell them exactly what you’re looking for: what role, salary, when you’re available, and your deal-breakers. That could be location, remote work, visa requirements, industry, or type of culture. “The more upfront and specific you are, the faster a good recruiter can match you to the right roles instead of the first available ones,” Florent says.

Days 15–21: Prepare for Conversations

By week three, your focus should shift from just sending out applications to actually having conversations. That’s how you know you’re making real progress.

If you’re landing interviews, take them seriously. Go over your recent projects and get comfortable talking about what the problem was, what you did, and what happened in the end; just don’t get lost in the technical weeds. Emanate has resources for prepping, like common interview questions, how to use the STAR method, and tips for nailing video interviews.

You’ll also want a clear, simple way to talk about your redundancy. Stick to the facts, keep it short, and explain what changed at your old job. Then, steer the chat toward what you achieved and what you’re after in your next role.

When things are slow, use that time to dust off any rusty skills. Maybe that’s reviewing a cloud platform, updating yourself on a framework, or practising how you explain your work to non-technical stakeholders.

And if you’re still hearing crickets, now’s a good time to ask for feedback. A recruiter or a trusted friend can often catch things on your CV or the way you’re presenting yourself that you just can’t see after staring at it for so long.

Days 22–30: Review What the Search Is Telling You

This last week is all about diagnosis. Think over the past three weeks. If you’ve been applying for jobs you should be a great fit for but no one’s calling back, it’s time to tweak your CV, your targeting, or maybe rethink your salary range. If you’re making it to interviews but not getting further, focus on your interview prep and the way you talk about your experience. And if recruiters keep pitching jobs you’d never accept, you probably need to give them a clearer idea of what you actually want.

Don’t panic if your first month moves slowly. It doesn’t mean you’re doing something wrong. Florent says many tech searches can run for six to twelve weeks. Month one is about creating a healthy pipeline and learning from the response you are getting.

His advice is simple: “Treat the search like a project with a weekly cadence, not something you do in bursts of anxiety.”

After 30 Days, You Should Have More Than Applications

After your first month of job hunting, things should start falling into place. You understand the market better, your CV and LinkedIn actually reflect who you are right now, and you've started real conversations with companies and recruiters. Your professional network feels a bit more alive. You’ve got sharper examples for interviews, and you’re tracking a few promising roles.

Some land a new job fast. Others take time. The key is to keep the whole thing moving. Listen to real feedback, tweak your approach, and don’t panic if things seem slow for a week or two.

If you’ve just been made redundant from a tech job, Emanate Technology’s recruiters get where you’re coming from. They can help you figure out your position in the market and find jobs that line up with what you want next. Reach out to the Emanate team to start the conversation.