"Your gold mine has collapsed..."

Isn't it amazing how you can start the week with one to-do list, and within two days have your priorities completely reshuffled?

On Tuesday I was summoned down to the boardroom and offered voluntary retrenchment. Of course we'd noticed our workload slow to a trickle over the past few months, but we had no idea our advertising agency was doing as poorly in this recession environment as we actually were. So this was the first wave of staff cuts being made in every department.

Naturally I was upset, and angry and terrified. Especially since the situation was sprung on me out of nowhere. And especially since I had that single day to make my decision whether to take the package, or insist I keep my job - which would force a formal, independent assessment of everyone in my department (just 2 of us underlings to the copywriter creative director).

After much deliberation with friends in the industry, and the important people in my life, I took the package. It essentially comes to 3 months pay, and sees me to the end of December. Also, as a retrenchment, and not a resignation, I can claim UIF (government enforced unemployment insurance) for the next 6 or so months, which comes to a good chunk of my normal salary.

Anyway, the moral of this story is: never verbally express to colleagues and superiors that you're considering a career move. Regardless of your performance, such verbalisations put your head on the chopping block when it's cut-back time. Now of course that's fair enough from a company's point of view (first let people go who've been considering it), but for control-freaks like moi, having the decision to leave taken from your hands, is quite upsetting. Your life plans, whether already formulated, or still at the foundation stage, are suddenly irrelevant.

So where to from here? Technically Tuesday was my last day. However, I'm still in the office for the next day or so collecting my portfolio. Creative types don't have the luxury of just emailing off a CV - we have to prove our worth - so a portie is a necessity. Plus us copy types (well, at least at our agency) don't have access to the finished products, so I need the help of the designers and account executives to get the pdfs and print work for me. Once I have my portfolio and CV ready it's job application time.

Time to test the shaky economic climate in a city that isn't exactly packed with opportunities for writer types. Cape Town and Johannesburg have traditionally dominated in terms of advertising agencies, print publications and their online equivalents... and despite living in a Digital Age very few places are happy to accept freelance work if you're not based in their city. So anyway, right now I'm even happy with some short-term contract work - whatever helps me cover my monthly expenses.

Plus, if all else fails, I can always bugger off to England thanks to my dual citizenship. That, however, is a terrifying thought as A) I'll be going on my own into the great unknown, and B) a move overseas means leaving everyone and everything I know, including my boyfriend and best friend of over 6 years - which I know will break my heart.

So, yeah, writer seeks employment! I have over 4 and a half years of professional experience as a copywriter and freelance journalist, and am also fully qualified with a post-graduate degree in English and Media, achieved cum laude.