Affiliate yourself with mission-critical tasks. In cost-cutting times, being associated with crucial ... [+]
You have three core career choices that you can make during a recession. The hot job market will likely slow down, with companies continuing job cuts, hitting the breaks on hiring and withdrawing offers. It's time to take action. You can make yourself indispensable at work, actively search for a new job or do nothing and hope for the best.
Doing Nothing Is Doing Something
If you don’t take any action at all, you’ve already taken action. The lack of putting together a plan is taking action. It’s a statement that you will submit yourself to whatever happens and leave your fate in the hands of others.
In tough times, people act differently. Some rise to the occasion, others panic, incapable of thinking clearly, or bury their heads in the sand, like ostriches hoping everything will turn out fine.
If you don’t contact a recruiter, write a résumé, tap your network for assistance, submit your résumé to job listings or make yourself indispensable at work, you are laying the groundwork for failure, as you’re not actively taking control over your work life.
Seeing the writing on the wall, you owe it to yourself to at least try something constructive. Consider going back to school, learning a new skill, hiding from the bad times for a while and coming back with a degree and education that can land you a better role.
Make Yourself Irreplaceable
The goal is to make yourself indispensable to the organization. You'll survive rounds of layoffs if you are highly prized and needed. The first thing you need to do is come into the office five days a week. By being present, you’ll benefit from the proximity bias.
Seeing you around the building being busy evokes the belief that you are essential. Compared to everyone else who is mostly seen when they’re in Zoom video calls with dozens of others, it makes you stand out in the crowd.
Speak with your manager and ask them their goals and objectives and how you can help them achieve them. Then, do everything in your power to exceed expectations. You can’t solely depend upon the patronage of your boss. They may not have enough clout to save you in a massive downsizing. With fewer people in the office, as the other workers are either remote or hybrid, you have a better chance of meeting key players within the company.
Make it a daily practice to seek out senior-level executives and people who wield power. Cozy up to them. Start with small talk in the hallways, before and after meetings. Once they get to know you, offer your assistance. Inquire about how you can help them. They may provide you with a project, or maybe just the act of offering your help will resonate with them. They’ll formulate a favorable opinion of you as a motivated, helpful and resourceful person.
In business, busy work and action items must be accomplished in defined time frames. Affiliate yourself with mission-critical tasks. In cost-cutting times, being associated with crucial projects can buy you time or save you from being let go.
You also want to come across as positive, motivated and enthusiastic. Act as if everything is fine. Don’t be like everyone else who is bemoaning their fate, fault finding, complaining about their bosses, management and the dumb decisions that brought the company into this mess. Your contrarian demeanor will separate you from the herd and earn everyone’s respect.
Start Searching For A New Job
After trying to make yourself irreplaceable, you may feel that there is no hope. Whichever way it plays out, it's prudent to engage in a job search.
If you feel you’ve been selected for downsizing, pull out all the stops and aggressively search for a new role. If you are relatively confident that you’ll survive the cuts, commence a covert job search.
Put together a résumé and update your LinkedIn profile. If you haven’t done this in a while, there are many capable career coaches, résumé writers and ghost-writing LinkedIn profile-builder experts. Design an elevator pitch that you can use to sell yourself in interviews. Contact recruiters who are successful in your space.
Put together a list of target companies that you’d love to work for. Find people in your network who may know the right people in the organizations that you covet. Ask them to please provide a glowing recommendation. Hiring personnel always appreciate and usually honor the referrals. If the candidate is appropriate, the company will gladly bring you in for an interview or, at the very least, have a brief, informal interview-style conversation. Practice interview roleplay, so you can excel when it's go time.
