Show Notes
New year’s resolutions are meant to feel hopeful but somehow they often land like a performance review you did not ask for. In this episode I unpack why we love a fresh start, why January pressure is so loud and what a healthy resolution actually looks like when real life is tired, messy and occasionally held together by snack based optimism. We talk about the difference between gentle intention and unnecessary self punishment, why most resolutions fail because they rely on motivation not systems and how this all hits differently when you are going through redundancy and trying to rebuild confidence without turning January into a second job. You will leave with practical ways to set resolutions that support you, not ones that judge you, plus a few geeky pop culture detours because it would not be my podcast without them. If you would like to support the show and help keep it going you can join us on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/cw/lifeafterredundancy If you find yourself asking “now what?” you are in the right place.
More from 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.