I've been job hunting for 7 months since being laid off from my consulting job. I cashed out my 401(k) to stay afloat.

• Aaron Laniewicz has been looking for full-time work since Booz Allen Hamilton laid him off in August.
• He said he's cashed out his 401(k) and collected unemployment to pay down debt and cover expenses.
• Laniewicz shared the job-hunting lessons he's learned along the way.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Aaron Laniewicz, a 40-year-old job seeker who lives in North Carolina. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

Before getting laid off, I worked at Booz Allen Hamilton as a digital transformation consultant supporting government contracts.

Last year, my team began shrinking as our project got closer to completion, and I was eventually taken off the project and put "on the bench." Which, in consulting, means I was no longer assigned to a billable project and needed to find a new role internally.

I started looking right away, but with shifts in government spending, including efforts tied to the Department of Government Efficiency, our government contracts dried up. It was harder to find new consulting projects internally to pivot to when one ended.

Last August, after spending a few weeks looking for a new assignment, I was let go with two weeks' notice. About eight months later, I'm still looking for full-time work.

My job search has taken a toll on my finances

I live with my wife, a long-term roommate, and several cats. My wife and roommate work, which has helped pay the bills, but our debt — including our mortgage, student loans, and credit card debt — has put us under pressure.

When I was laid off, Booz Allen Hamilton gave me a week of severance for every two years I had been with the company, which amounted to about a month of severance.

I also collected unemployment benefits, but North Carolina — where I live and worked remotely — has one of the least generous unemployment systems in the US. The maximum payout is $4,200, and the most you can receive is $350 a week. My benefits didn't run out, but I had some freelance work, which disqualified me from receiving them. My last payment was the first week of December.

We had to cash out my 401(k) to get by

We decided to liquidate my 401(k), which amounted to about $50,000, and use it to pay down higher-interest debt, much of it credit card debt. It wasn't ideal, but the interest we were paying on our debt was higher than what we'd earn by keeping that money in savings, so it made more sense to take the hit of withdrawing it early.

Overall, our finances are trending in an unsustainable direction. I've picked up some part-time freelance work through a friend of a friend, but it's not a full-time replacement for the low-six-figure income I was making at Booz Allen.

I've focused on local opportunities to limit the competition

My job search has gone through several stages. I've focused on roles centered on process management, automation, and data analysis, including ones where my experience with Power BI, a data visualization and reporting tool, would be valuable.

Early on, there were a few promising opportunities, but they didn't work out because not being able to go into the office was a dealbreaker. That's part of why I started focusing on local opportunities. When I'm competing against people across the country for a remote position, the applicant pool is often much larger than for roles that require a local presence.

I've also started applying directly through company websites whenever possible. I noticed that on LinkedIn, there are sometimes multiple recruiters posting for the same job, without disclosing the company they are hiring for. I'd go through the application process and only later realize I'd already applied for the role — either directly or through another firm. It was a huge waste of time.

During my search, my best results have come from my connections, including friends, family, and former coworkers. But I'm still looking for a full-time offer.

What I've learned from my job search

During my job search, I've had interviews that went really well, but I didn't have the years of experience they wanted in certain areas. In recent months, I've worked toward certifications, including a professional scrum master certification, to help bridge that gap.

I've done everything I can to improve my résumé. I used to focus too much on results without explaining how I achieved them. Now I highlight those steps. Those are the details that make people want to have a conversation with you. I've also changed my résumé to better reflect my team's accomplishments, not just my individual contributions.

One piece of advice I have for other job seekers is that your résumé should tell a story. When you approach it that way, it changes what you highlight and how you phrase things.

I've been open to lower-paying roles that are more junior than what I used to do, but I'm still holding out hope for something that's a good fit for me — not just any job I can do.