Losing a job is never just a logistical problem, it is a personal one. For thousands of professionals who built careers at USAID, the agency’s sudden shuttering created a moment unlike anything in their professional lives. Career coach Elizabeth Bellardo has been working through that moment alongside them.

In this workshop, Bellardo draws on her own transition out of USAID and more than a year of coaching former colleagues to share what works: not generic job-search advice, but field-tested tools calibrated for this specific community and this specific moment. The session is organized around her Career Transition Diagnostic Tool, a structured framework designed to surface your next best steps when the path forward feels unclear.

Start with the fundamentals

Before strategy, there is craft. Bellardo begins with the mechanics that most job seekers underestimate: a tailored, two-page resume, a LinkedIn profile up to date and reflects the background you have for the next role you want, and a short list of three to five references drawn from supervisors, peers, and direct reports alike. She also addresses how to use AI tools thoughtfully – as a drafting partner, not a ghostwriter – so your materials sound like you, not a template.

Activate your network with intention

Networking is the word professionals most often nod at and least often do. Bellardo makes it concrete. She recommends reaching out to six trusted colleagues and asking them to share a story about a time you made a difference, a deceptively simple exercise that produces the evidence you need to articulate your own value in interviews and cover letters. Equally important is plugging into what she calls “formative communities”: peer groups outside your immediate work circle where you can process the experience and stay connected to your field.

Structure your days, not just your goals

One of the most disorienting things about job loss is the loss of daily structure. Without a schedule, momentum collapses. Bellardo introduces the Positive Intelligence framework as a practical way to interrupt stress-reactive thinking and reset into a more generative state. The goal is not relentless positivity, it is mental fitness: the capacity to stay clear-headed and curious under pressure.

Design your next chapter, don’t just plan it

Drawing on the principles of Designing Your Life, Bellardo pushes back on the idea of plotting a perfect five-year plan. The USAID transition is too uncertain, and the world too fast-moving, for that approach to be useful. Instead, she advocates for a “bias to action”: small, low-risk experiments she calls life design interviews, conversations with people in roles or sectors you’re curious about, undertaken to gather real data before you commit to a direction. The goal is not to have the answer. The goal is to move.

You don’t have to navigate this alone

Bellardo offers 30-minute consultation calls for former colleagues who want a focused conversation about their specific situation, and has set aside scholarship slots for deeper coaching engagements.