I got laid off last November. However, the company has been laying off for the past 7 years (from 95k people to 33k people), so it wasn't a surprise. I paid off the truck and a couple of credit cards before the axe fell, and built up a bit larger bank account.
After the axe, I took the company supplied career counselling very seriously, and have used that to get a series of contract jobs.
General ideas:
1. In a stressed environment, don't take being laid off personally. It probably wasn't your fault.
1. Figure out your health insurance, see if you can do without Cobra.
2. If you have credit cards, see if you are signed up for the credit protection insurance that pays your minimum while you are out of work.
3. If you have a mortgage, you might have this option also.
Career planning hints from career counseling:
1. Anytime a job is advertised, the HR people will be flooded with resumes. You have 2 seconds to capture their attention. All summaries, keyword lists, etc. need to be in the first half of the first page.
2. Most jobs are filled by networking rather than by cold contacts. LinkedIn.com helps you hook up with people, and find contacts inside of companies you want to hit. Example:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jbeadles3. Your community probably has local volunteer career counselling groups. Use them!