What to Do After Being Laid Off: Your First-Week Checklist

The calendar invite had no agenda. Twenty minutes later you had a packet, a deadline, and a laptop you could no longer log into.

Most advice for this week will tell you to rethink your career, rebuild your brand, and treat this as an opportunity. Ignore that for now. Three things have clocks on them:

• The deadline on any severance agreement.

• Your unemployment claim.

• The date your health insurance ends.

Handle those first. Everything else can wait a few days. You're not alone in this.

This guide is general information for U.S. readers, not legal or financial advice. Rules vary by state, and your paperwork controls the details.

1. Review your severance agreement before signing

Don't sign anything yet. You may be handed a severance agreement with a friendly suggestion to return it soon. Find the actual deadline, and take the time you're given.

If you're 40 or older and the agreement asks you to waive age-discrimination claims, federal law gives you extra protection. You generally must get at least 21 days to consider it, or 45 days if the layoff is part of a group program, plus 7 days to revoke your acceptance after signing. The agreement must also advise you in writing to consult an attorney. EEOC guidance on severance agreements

Whatever your age, read what you'd receive and what you'd give up. Consider an employment lawyer's review if the terms are unclear, real money is involved, or something about the layoff seems off.

Then write down:

• Your last day of employment.

• Your severance response deadline and any revocation deadline.

• Your last day of health coverage. It may not match your last day of work.

• What your final paycheck includes, such as unused vacation if your employer or state provides for it.

• What happens to any bonus, commission, or equity you were counting on, and any deadlines attached.

• Who to contact with questions, and make sure they have your personal email.

Keep copies of your separation documents and benefits notices.

There's no need to rush a decision about your 401(k). Check any notices from the plan administrator, especially if you have an outstanding plan loan, and compare your options before withdrawing or moving money.

If this was a large layoff, check one more thing. Under the federal WARN Act, employers with 100 or more employees generally must give 60 days' written notice before closing a site or laying off a large share of its workers. A layoff usually counts if it affects 500 or more people at one site, or 50 to 499 who make up at least a third of that site's workforce. There are exceptions. Some states have their own rules that reach smaller layoffs or require longer notice. If that sounds like your situation and you got little or no notice, it's a good question for that lawyer. Department of Labor information for laid-off workers

2. File for unemployment

Contact your state's unemployment program as soon as you can. You generally file in the state where you worked; if you worked in more than one state or live somewhere else, ask the program how to proceed. The first payment usually takes two to three weeks to arrive. Department of Labor unemployment guidance

Each state sets its own eligibility rules, including how severance or a vacation payout affects your claim. Ask your state's program rather than going by what a coworker's cousin got in another state.

If you're not sure whether you qualify, file an accurate application and let the program decide. Report severance and other payments as instructed.

Save your confirmation number and read the next steps. Filing is often just the start: many states require regular certifications, a record of your job search, or answers to follow-up questions, and missing one can hold up your payments.

3. Find out when your health coverage ends

Start with the date your current coverage ends. Then compare your options, including their enrollment deadlines and when each would start.

A spouse's employer plan

If you can get coverage through a spouse's employer, ask about special enrollment right away. You generally need to request it within 30 days of losing your coverage, which is shorter than the other windows below. Department of Labor guidance on benefits after job loss

COBRA

COBRA lets you keep your employer's health plan for a while. It generally applies to employers with 20 or more employees.

You have at least 60 days to elect it, counted from when your coverage ends or when you get the election notice, whichever is later. For a job loss it usually lasts up to 18 months. The catch is cost: you may pay the full premium plus an administrative charge, up to 102% of the plan's cost. Department of Labor COBRA guidance

A Marketplace plan

Losing job-based coverage qualifies you for a Special Enrollment Period. You can apply up to 60 days before or after your coverage ends, and the application shows whether your income qualifies you for lower costs. HealthCare.gov on Special Enrollment

On HealthCare.gov, open enrollment for 2027 coverage runs from November 1, 2026 to January 15, 2027. Pick a plan by December 15 for coverage starting January 1, or between December 16 and January 15 for coverage starting February 1. States that run their own marketplaces can set different dates, so check yours. If you're losing job-based coverage, don't wait for open enrollment: your Special Enrollment window is already running.

Medicaid and CHIP

Depending on your income, you may qualify for Medicaid, or your children may qualify for CHIP. You can apply for either at any time of year.

Whichever way you lean, compare more than the monthly premium. Check your doctors, prescriptions, deductible, out-of-pocket limit, and the date coverage would begin. Watch for one trap. Choosing to end COBRA early doesn't by itself open a new Marketplace enrollment window. You can still switch during your original 60-day window after losing job coverage, during open enrollment, or after another qualifying event, but confirm your new coverage and its start date before canceling anything.

4. Write down your work while you still remember it

You've just lost access to your dashboards, your documents, and the Slack thread that proved it all happened. Your memory is the best record you have left, and it fades fast.

Spend an hour on your last two or three years:

• What problems did you work on?

• What did you personally do?

• What changed because of it?

• What numbers, feedback, or examples can you accurately recall?

"Worked on customer onboarding" is a start. "Redesigned onboarding for our largest accounts and cut setup time from six weeks to three" is something you can put on a resume or say in an interview. If you don't remember an exact number, mark it to verify or describe the result without one. Don't turn an estimate into a fact.

Work from your own memory and anything you're allowed to keep. Don't copy confidential company material, and check your agreement for what it says about that.

You don't need a finished resume today. A rough document full of specifics is enough to start. There's no prize for applying to fifty jobs on day one. When you're ready to think about what's next, the Hey Vitae job title finder reads your resume and suggests real titles, sorted by how much of a reach each one is. It's free, and there's no rush.

5. Prepare two sentences for interviews

Say it once, say it plainly, and move on to the work. Most interviewers have seen plenty of layoffs. What they're listening for is whether your explanation is straightforward and whether you can talk about what comes next.

Here's a made-up example:

"My role was eliminated when the company cut about a fifth of the team in October. Before that, I led onboarding for our largest accounts and cut setup time from six weeks to three, and that's the kind of work I'm looking for next."

That covers what happened, what you did, and where you're headed. A few things keep it that way:

• Stay accurate. Only call it a layoff if it was one, and keep your dates consistent. Employers can check.

• Keep it brief. You can answer follow-up questions without walking through the company's whole history.

• Skip the commentary. Your opinion of the new CEO may be fully justified, and it still won't help you here.

• Don't apologize. A layoff was a decision about your role, and you don't have to defend yourself against it.

Then say it out loud a few times, because your first real attempt shouldn't be in front of a recruiter. Hey Vitae's free interview practice lets you rehearse your answer and the questions that usually follow.

6. Tell people what you're looking for

When you're ready, tell people you've worked with what happened, the kind of role you want next, and one specific way they could help:

"My role was eliminated last week, and I'm looking for customer operations roles at mid-size software companies. Do you know anyone on a team like that who'd be open to a conversation?"

That's much easier to act on than "let me know if you hear of anything."

Start with a few people who know your work. A public announcement and a polished career story can come later.

You don't need a story about what this all means by Friday. Find the agreement deadline, file the claim, and confirm when your coverage ends. The rest can start after that.