Whether you were fired from your job or left the role out of choice, being out of work is tough. What’s tougher, of course, is getting back into the working world. You still have the same experience and expertise under your belt but you now have to face the challenge of competing with other candidates for new roles. Perhaps you’ll aim for a job in the same industry or perhaps you won’t.

Either way, you have numerous options available to you and that might be daunting. You have the possibility of finding a better career than your last one but you don’t know where to begin. Here’s some advice on getting back into the working world.

Secure your finances.

The most important thing to ensure throughout your job hunt is that you’re financially secure. It can be tough to lose one job and find yourself in a sort of “limbo” but you need to make sure that you have a safety net in place until you’ve found your next career opportunity. Money will most likely be tight until you find a new stream of income, of course, so you’ll need to find ways to make ends meet without cutting too many corners.

Covering your necessities is the most important thing. Make sure all disposable income goes towards keeping the lights on and putting food on the table. Of course, you might want to look into debt relief if you still owe money to past lenders and you’re struggling to make those payments without any income. Essentially, you need to prioritize all unavoidable costs until you’re back at work.

Build up your resume.

Applying to jobs blindly isn’t the only thing you should be doing on your quest to get back into the working world. You need to think about the ways in which you can build your resume so as to increase your likelihood of not only getting a job but getting a good job. See this as an opportunity to strive for a better career opportunity than you had in your previous role.

This is a chance to make a better future for yourself. You could be using your time out of work to add things to your CV. You could study online and get qualifications in certain areas that might put you at an advantage over other candidates for certain job roles. And you shouldn’t afraid to take unpaid work.

Not only can internships or volunteer work lead to full-time jobs but experience in the industry also looks great on your resume. Either way, it’s a win-win situation.

Make some contacts.

If you really want to get a leg up in this competitive business world then you should really aim to make some contacts in the right places. It’s not about befriending the CEO of the company for which you want to work because that’s obviously unfeasible, but you could certainly aim to find people who could give you a good reference.

Previous colleagues or employers could help with this, and getting new experience through volunteer work could give you the opportunity to make some contacts and get a shining reference too.

This post has been contributed by Ryan Gatt, it may contain affiliate links.