5 Steps to Create a Recession Proof Career

Last updated on March 6th, 2023 at 05:08 am

In this newsletter, you’ll learn how to create a recession proof career.

In the last 30 days, Google, HubSpot, PayPal, & more have seen layoffs (6%, 7%, and 7% reductions, respectively.)

(Source: Layoffs.fyi)

When you’re fortunate and layoffs don’t impact you, you still run through a gamut of emotions.

Relief. Empathy. Anger.

Then you go about your day. You try to do good work. To prove you drive impact in the company.

This is not enough.

The problem is our careers are more fragile than we think.

Most of us rely on a single source for our income.

(In the US, it’s the same source for your health insurance.)

A common misconception is that the longer you’ve been with the company, the more job security you had.

You have so much contextual knowledge.
You’re invaluable.
You’re safe.

These layoffs show us how fragile this security is.

(Source: J ustin Moore)

Even worse, at no fault of your own, you’re not prepared to re-enter the job market.

Why would you be? For 10, 13, 16 years, you were told you were doing great work. Why would you think tomorrow would be any different?

The solution:

Make your career recession proof.

When you hear news of layoffs, dig a deeper moat. Buttress your defenses. Become more robust as the world dissolves into chaos. Prepare to be stronger in the face of adversity.

Here are 5 steps to become recession proof.

1/ Study recession proof career models

Stop studying Musk or Bezos.

Ignore stories of entrepreneurs who risked it all.

Study people like Elena Verna instead.

Who have identified the traits of this fragile career model:

Work full-time (FT)
Under a singular employer
Solve whatever is thrown your way
Repeat for many years

And methodically built a new, more robust model:

Define your terms. Advising (coaching 1-6/ hrs per week), interim (FT, short term), fractional (part-time, long term), or project-based engagements
Shed employers. Gain clients. As many as you can handle (context switching is the limiting factor)
Focus on solving what you love doing. Deepen your expertise to grow your demand further. Drop everything else
No more tenure expectations, no more repetitiveness

Sometimes we just need the right role model to open our eyes to what’s possible.

Other role models: Tommy Griffith, Lenny Rachitsky, Justin Welsh

2/ Take stock of your finances

In The Psychology of Money, Morgan Housel summarizes his personal finance philosophy:

More than I want big returns, I want to be financially unbreakable.

Here are steps to become unbreakable.

1. Review your spend. There’s a spectrum of tools to help review and categorize your spending. Here are three I recommend:

Mint (automated)
Tiller (semi-automated)
CSV pulls (manual)

2. Emergency fund. This is Priority One. Don’t have an emergency fund? Create a free online savings account. I recommend either Capital One or Ally.

Start small: $50/month, $100/month, whatever.

Save up to 3 months worth of living expenses. Then work up to six. Then 12.

3. Reduce your burn. Pick 1-2 things you spend money on that you love. Maybe that’s eating out, or your fitness classes. You’re not going to touch those.

For everything else, start cutting.

In the face of recession, be a wartime general.

Get ruthless.

4. Increase your earnings. Earning money on the side is a super power.

Ways to do it.

Flip. Start simple, then add complexity (if you want): • Take all the clothes, gadgets and toys in your home no one’s touched for months and sell it online.
House hack. Get a roommate, rent out a room or your entire home.
Start consulting. After flipping, this is the fastest way to generate cashflow. Do it once, then you can repeat it (and scale it).

3/ Build opportunity bridges

Mark Granovetter spent his career on sociology. After 50 years he uncovered a surprising truth:

Acquaintances, not close friends, are your bridges to new opportunities:

Whether that’s:

New information
New ideas
New jobs

To become recession proof, build opportunity bridges.

3 tips:

1. Keep connections warm

Systematically keep in touch with your network.

Justin Welsh calls his system “Scaling the ladder.”

Adopt this. Make it your own. The keys: be intentional, keep a schedule, and reach out consistently.

2. Leverage content engines

Your content engine is your social media platform of choice.

It works for you 24-7, like an AI-enhanced marketing assistant. It algorithmically shares your thoughts and insights with your audience, keeping you top of mind.

Use it.

Share often, and add value.

The more you do, the more you’ll be remembered when opportunities arise.

3. Create new bridges

On the surface, this is the hardest to implement.

The idea of (gasp!) networking can feel sleazy.

The simplest way to overcome this:

Start with good intent.
Look for ways to improve someone else’s life.
Get this right and the mechanics become simple. It’s DMing, cold emailing, and replying to comments.

Highly recommend you start creating new bridges in 2023.

4/ Document your wins

Document a comprehensive record of your achievements throughout your career.

Keep track of:

Customers helped
Testimonials
Launches

It only takes 1-2 years of work experience to begin building this portfolio. Learn to articulate and discuss your wins whenever you need.

Start documenting in a non-work account (e.g. Gdocs, Notion, Notes).

Each time you build something or deliver a customer result, add it to the document.

Include:

What it was
How it impacted business
How it impacted the customer
What you learned from the experience

Finally, add a recurring reminder in your calendar to do this (my preference is quarterly).

5/ Collect reusable components

Ever wonder how some people get 10x done, in half the time?

The secret: they never start from scratch.

To work well and build quickly, collect reusable components.

What are reusable components?

Competitive analysis template
Discovery interview questions
Experimentation frameworks
Investor update decks
Quantitative models
Job descriptions
GTM checklists

Each time you build an asset, ask yourself: “Will I use this again in the future?”

If the answer is yes, save a copy in your personal files.

Having these components on hand streamlines your workflow and saves you time.

Plus with each use, the component gets incrementally better. In other words, the value of these components will compound over the life of your career.

Add a recurring reminder to do this as well.

Do NOT wait until the end of your tenure.

Because how recent layoffs happened is as startling as the volume.

People went to the office.

They went to sign in.

Only to find they were locked out.

Didn’t matter if you were there for 2 months or 12 years. They were all treated the same.

You have less control over your exit than you think.

Conclusion

If you’re early in your career, layoffs might catch you off guard.

If you’re more seasoned, you can’t be surprised anymore.

(Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice…)

tl;dr: here are the 5 steps to create a recession proof career:

Study recession proof career models
Take stock of your finances
Build opportunity bridges
Document your wins
Collect reusable components