Recession-Proof Career Strategies in a Slow Economy After COVID-19

If you have a job in a company that is going to be hard hit when the recession comes, get out sooner rather than later.

There are several good reasons for this. One of those reasons is this: The first rats off the sinking ship make it into the life raft. The last rat gets nada.

Voluntary Separation Packages

If your company is starting to lay people off, be the one who leaves early with a Voluntary Separation Package, or VSP. People sometimes call a VSP a golden handshake: it can be as much as an entire year’s salary. A lot of companies start offering them when they know that the economy is slowing down and layoffs are coming.

They essentially give you money to go away.

So take it.

Take the buyout and move on, while you still have options.

Another reason to take the deal is that the people who stay at a company while it’s downsizing often end up pretty miserable. They’re carrying the workload of all those people who left before them, plus they’re constantly worried about losing their job.

Third Prize is You're Fired

There’s a scene in the movie Glengarry Glen Ross where Alec Baldwin chews out a room full of real estate salesmen with a famously harsh speech. He tells them to close those sales.

First prize is a new Cadillac.

Second prize is a set of steak knives.

Third prize is you’re fired.

That’s what it feels like if you stick around a company that’s doing some serious downsizing. Actually, it’s worse: first prize is a set of steak knives, second prize is you’re fired. That’s why, in a 10,000-person layoff or VSP offering, you don’t want to be body number 981, or 2,350. You want to be body number one. Let me put it this way: you really, really didn’t want to be the last middle manager working at Blockbuster.

I’ll bet you any amount of money that he or she did not get a good severance package.

I can also tell you for sure that the writing was on the wall many, many months, or even years, before he or she got axed. There’s a twist here, though. When companies know they have to downsize, they’ll hand out those VSPs — those golden handshakes or golden parachutes — to the worst workers first.

If you’re a really good worker, they don’t want to lose you, so they’ll try to keep you on. Then, when you finally get thrown to the curb at the lowest point in the recession, you get a lousy VSP or none at all, and you’re plopped on the job market at the toughest possible time.

Meanwhile, your lower-performing colleagues got golden handshakes and hit the job market before the economy really tanked. No good deed goes unpunished. So if you missed your opportunity for a golden handshake, don’t feel bad. It may actually reflect well on you. This goes in the category of be kind to yourself.

But just because it’s not your fault, doesn’t mean you couldn’t have avoided it.

Get out early.

You want to have something else lined up before you bail, but don’t be afraid to make the jump early.

Signs of Downside Risks

How do you know when your company is going the way of the Titanic?

If your colleagues are getting golden handshakes and bolting, that’s a sign.

If the company isn’t hiring, that’s a sign.

If salaries have been frozen, that’s a sign.

If the company’s top performers are struggling to attract money and contracts and clients to the firm, that’s a sign.  

These are all different signs I’m talking about.

Focus on Education and Skills

One way to counter the downside risks of recession is to focus on your education.

And education does not end with school.

Take a continuing education class. If your employer offers in-house training or a budget for other training, jump on it.

Learn a language.

Take an accounting class.

Or learn about pottery.

Anything is better than nothing.

Why? Because it’s the ability to learn, not the mastery of specific skills, that employers are looking for. You probably won’t use Latin at a tech firm, but if you can learn Latin, you can definitely learn HTML.

Especially if you’re an older worker, you might need to show employers that an old dog can learn new tricks—and that you want to!

When I was doing my Master’s degree in German, I was reading and translating medieval German plays. Let me tell you, that is not easy. Did I ever need to read a medieval German play when I was Chief Energy Economist at Wachovia Bank? No.

But picking up a tough skill like that definitely looks good to someone who’s hiring for a job that requires constant growth and learning and boundary-pushing.

Fill in those gaps before you’re sitting at the job interview thinking, “Man, I wish I had learned X or taken online course Y or did professional designation Z.”

Have that all buttoned up before the recession comes. In the boom years, you need to make sure you set aside some time, effort, and money to keep building, keep growing, and keep investing in you. Of course, if you can't do it before a recession hits, you can still do it during a recession.

The point is to show you have valuable skills.

And that you can learn new skills.

A lot's changed for online learning in recent years, and I may be more than a little biased, but one of the most practical ways to build professional skills is to take LinkedIn Learning courses or pursue professional certifications like the one offered by The Futurist Institute.  

When it comes to education and skills, the most important priority is to make sure you are preparing yourself for your next role by adding to your professional skills or demonstrating your ability to learn new things.

Recession-Proof Book

This article includes some content from Jason Schenker's book Recession-Proof: How to Survive and Thrive in an Economic Downturn, which was released in February 2016. The book has been a No. 1 Best Seller on Amazon.

This book can be ordered at Recession-Proof.

Jason Schenker is one of the world's leading futurists. He is the Chairman of The Futurist Institute and the President of Prestige Economics.

Jason is also an instructor for LinkedIn Learning.

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