From jumping on personal development to keeping your future in mind, here are 15 answers to the question, “Can you share your most effective tips to recession-proof your career?”
- Take Advantage of Upskilling/Development Opportunities
- Manage Your Finances Now
- Remain Flexible
- Create and Nurture Relationships
- Keep Your Manager Informed of Your Wins
- Stray Beyond Your Comfort Zone
- Review Your Existing Professional Situation
- Stay Updated With Tech Skills
- Enter the Gig Economy
- Get Professional Certifications
- Keep Your Digital Presence Updated
- Master the Transferable Skills
- Always Be Career Cushioning
- Learn (Basic) Software Programming Skills
- Always Look Ahead
Take Advantage of Upskilling/Development Opportunities
Adding skills and capabilities through professional development, upskilling, and other ongoing education increases your value for potential employers. It also expands the range of job titles you’re qualified for, expanding your options for finding a new job if you’re laid off or have your hours cut.
This can help to ensure you keep making consistent forward progress with your career, regardless of what happens in the broader economy. The great thing about ongoing education is that it will have the same benefits in a robust economy as in a weak one, and will enable you to make more and achieve higher roles within your company if you prefer to stay with the same employer. That means it doesn’t just protect your career in case of a recession but ensures you’re poised to take advantage of raises and promotions during periods of economic growth, too.
Archie Payne, CEO, CalTek Staffing
Manage Your Finances Now
One recession-proof tip is to manage your finances now. In general, it is always better to make sure that your expenses do not exceed your means, but this is especially important in times of higher uncertainty. It can take from two to six months to find a new job after unemployment, so you want to make sure that you have enough living expenses saved up for that period.
This is important not only to make sure that you are comfortable during this time of transition but also to give you the freedom to be discerning about your next opportunity, so you don’t feel the pressure of just taking anything because you don’t have enough money to take care of yourself.
Debt and financial obligations have a way of creating constraints that can push you to make decisions you might not have otherwise made. Therefore, while things are good, make sure that you are keeping a budget, or at least a structure, of how you are managing your funds so that you can have more freedom when things get tough.
Lorien Strydom, Executive Country Manager, Financer.com
Remain Flexible
If you want to recession-proof your career, the best tip I can give you is to remain flexible. Now, this doesn’t mean changing everything all the time, but rather, approaching your role and the chance to learn and develop in a more flexible way.
What I mean by this is don’t dedicate all of your learning to role-specific skills, but also jump at any training opportunities which are more about soft skills and transferable skills. The more you can offer within your role, and the more adaptable you become, the less expendable you are. It’s as simple as that.
That doesn’t mean you should be offering to do everyone’s jobs, but if purse strings are being tightened and people are being let go because of it, knowing more than just your core role can be a vital asset that will save that company money in training people to learn more down the line. Being knowledgeable about what’s around you, and not just what is in front of you, will always be an asset, especially when times are tough.
Brett Downes, Founder, Haro Helpers
Create and Nurture Relationships
Consistently creating new relationships and nurturing old ones pays dividends in one’s career, whether we are in a recession or the economy is booming. As an Executive Career Coach, I often hear clients lament they get so laser-focused on their job that they forget or fail to make room for relationship building.
Often, they are speaking with me because this has caught up to them and they find themselves unable to progress to the next level (unsure of how to “play the political game”) or worse, without a job. The mindset reframe I offer is that creating and nurturing relationships is as much a part of any job as the nuts and bolts of one’s job description. I challenge clients to reach out to five current/former colleagues per week, religiously.
This could be as simple as sharing a relevant article, asking about family, or requesting a coffee date. Attending industry events/meet-ups with regularity, even when we don’t feel like it, is key. Relationships matter!
Emily Golden, CEO & Strategic Talent Advisor, Golden Resources
Keep Your Manager Informed of Your Wins
Companies keep employees who perform and solve problems. Meet with your manager regularly to ensure you’re on the same page with goals and expectations, and then share those wins! If you aren’t in a position to meet with them regularly, email them and keep a copy for yourself. Depending on your personality or culture, this might feel uncomfortable initially, but no one will know how good you are if you don’t voice your good work. You need to be known as someone who gets the job done.
Julia Toothacre, Career Coach, Ride The Tide Collective
Stray Beyond Your Comfort Zone
If you’ve ever observed someone executing the same job function for many years, you know that it’s not only monotonous but also unlikely to earn you respect from your employer. After all, other people may have the same skills you do now. Consider offering your help to new projects, teams, and special projects.
I think you should encourage yourself to take on new tasks at work. Additionally, keep an eye out for chances to innovate and advance the business. Create the framework for that idea and a workable model if there is a department that is having trouble, and a new business idea that you have for your organization can improve overall production and outcomes. Your employer will respect your initiative!
Frederic Linfjärd, Director of Growth Marketing, Planday
Review Your Existing Professional Situation
Being proactive is taking the time now to assess your current career and make a plan in case the unemployment rate soars. For suggestions on how to smoothly use your transferable talents and expertise in a different job field, think about meeting with a career coach or mentor.
Those who are unsure if they should change careers should monitor their present employer’s performance to see if it makes sense to do so. Consider looking for a position in a different field if your company hasn’t been exhibiting any signs of expansion and other businesses in your sector appear to be having trouble as well.
Through a side hustle, you can develop abilities for an alternative job. However, I advise choosing a side hustle that you are truly passionate about, as it will be more difficult to stick with it otherwise.
Andrew Dale, Technical Director, CloudTech24
Stay Updated With Tech Skills
Who won’t want a recession-proof job? I think everyone should go into a profession that is not affected by recession much. I have the best tip to recession-proof your career: stay relevant in the job market, and for this, be updated with new tech skills.
Since we are living in the COVID era, tech skills can be saviors for job seekers in a recession, as employees can work remotely as well. Keep yourself updated with technologies like AI, AR, cloud computing, content marketing, and many others. These technologies are at their peak and are favorites of software development companies. They need employees who can work with these technologies, and because of the demand for technical employees in the market, it will always be easy for you to grab any new job even if you lose one.
Even IT security and information-safeguarding initiatives are key strategic priorities. Real estate, construction, manufacturing, and retail jobs in these sectors are more likely to be affected by the recession.
Yogesh Kumar, Digital Marketing Manager, Technource
Enter the Gig Economy
In my opinion, the gig economy is a thriving sector because of the flexibility and low overhead associated with freelancing and contract labor. Rather than committing to one employer full-time, professionals in the gig economy often split their time between several gigs.
There is no need to quit your day job in pursuit of more contract work. In order to protect your career from a downturn, it is a good idea to try out a variety of different professions so that you may gain experience in them and list them on your CV. Having multiple sources of income can help cushion the blow of a job loss. In a bind, you can always rely on your side hustle.
Timothy Allen, Sr. Corporate Investigator, Corporate Investigation Consulting
Get Professional Certifications
One of the best ways to survive in terms of careers during a recession is to show to employers that you are better, more valuable, and more skilled than everyone else out there. There are, of course, many ways to achieve this.
However, the idea of getting as many professional certifications as possible really works. As a pro tip, think outside the box. Don’t just get certifications in areas in which you already have a background. Try to also diversify your skills and make yourself more adaptable to a changing work environment.
For example, if you work in HR as I do, instead of just focusing on professional certifications in HR, get something on IT, Data Science, and others. This will make you more versatile.
Logan Nguyen, Co-Founder, MIDSS
Keep Your Digital Presence Updated
Make sure that your online presence is up to date before you explore other options in the job market. Make sure that your website, social media channels, blog, LinkedIn, and other digital platforms are properly updated. Also, make sure that your digital presence provides an accurate depiction of your interests and experience should other opportunities come your way.
Dakota McDaniels, Chief Product Officer, Pluto
Master the Transferable Skills
Transferable skills are not soft skills; rather, they are the ones that can be applied to different fields, roles, and industries. When hiring managers are looking for candidates, regardless of their experience, transferable skills take on a whole new level of importance in demonstrating value to employers.
For example, if you’re a software engineer with strong analytical abilities, you could use those same skills in a business analyst role. If you’re an accountant with strong problem-solving skills, you could use them to become a project manager. The idea is to learn the core concepts behind each field and then apply what you know across many different roles and industries. Many of your technical or professional skills may already be transferable; it’s just a matter of identifying them and honing them further.
Karl Robinson, CEO, Logicata
Always Be Career Cushioning
The art of career cushioning is getting a lot of attention right now. It means preparing for the unexpected by polishing your resume, applying to other jobs, taking on project work, actively networking, or even starting a side gig to bring in additional income. Recession aside, regular career cushioning is a great practice to prevent stagnation in your career.
Even people who are happy with their current company and role should work on at least one aspect of career cushioning. This could be taking on additional projects within the company, writing for industry-related publications or appearing on a job-related podcast. Updating your LinkedIn, keeping a list of your work-related wins, and writing quarterly goals are other great ways to keep your work contributions and aspirations top of mind.
Katelyn Harris Lange, Sr. Talent Sourcer, SeekOut
Learn (Basic) Software Programming Skills
In the information age, the predominant economic theme that transcends the traditional business cycle is digitization. The economy is progressively moving away from physical locations, traditional working practices, and purely offline work, and shifting towards a flexible digital economy.
Learning to code may seem like an insurmountable task, but imagine being the only employee outside of IT who knows how to update the company website, automate tedious tasks, or analyze data without the need for expensive proprietary software. When layoffs happen, these skills will take you out of the firing line, as managers recognize your essential contributions to the smooth running of the team. This effectively recession-proofs your career, vastly reducing your risk of unemployment during an economic downturn.
Ben Schwencke, Business Psychologist, Test Partnership
Always Look Ahead
One way to recession-proof your career is to always be looking ahead at what’s coming next and think about how your skills can be adapted to fit that next big thing. Right now, climate technology is growing quickly in importance, so think about how your role and/or skills could adapt to this industry.
If you’re working in sales, research companies that are selling climate technologies. Think about what software systems are going to be needed to scale large climate tech companies. If you can constantly adapt your own skill set to meet the needs of the future, you’ll always be in a good spot!
Sotiria Anagnostou, ESG VP, STORE Capital