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Email ThisI had a great post planned but after hearing and reading that Bear Stearns was sold for just $2 per share, I am in shock. $2 per share? This subprime mess is destroying our economy and is destroying many lives as droves of people are losing their ‘safe and secure’ jobs. And forget about all of the people who are losing their homes – that’s another story.
If Bear Stearns can go under any company can go under and anyone can lose their job. Only a year ago Bear’s shares were $170. JPMorgan bought Bear, once the 5th largest investment bank in the world, for about $236 million. In 2006, Bear earned $2 billion in profit! This is absolutely insane.
It comes down to this. The only way to be in a recession proof job (or business) is to be remarkable.
Remarkable begins when you deal with the things that you’d rather not deal with: fear of failure, fear of standing out, fear of rejection. Being remarkable is about training yourself to leap over this barrier. Being remarkable is about training yourself to tunnel under this barrier. Being remarkable is about driving through this barrier. And, after you’ve done that, to do it again the next day.
It’s so easy to just keep coasting along. It’s so easy to just accept the status quo. Change is scary. Safe is comfortable.
The bottom line is this: The riskier your work appears to be, the safer it really is. It’s the people having difficult conversations, inventing remarkable products/services, and pushing the envelope who are building a recession-proof future for themselves.
It’s your choice. It’s your life.
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Remarkable employees at Bear Sterns are still getting fired. And the two billion in ‘profits’ were from bonds and 2 hedge funds that ended up being worthless. It’s happened before, and it’ll happen again.
And it’s much more than the ’subprime’ mess that the news keeps harping on. It’s the fact that we spend (consume) on average 12% more than we make a year, and while inflation goes up and the dollar is continuously devalued, we make the same year to year.
I’d say recession-proofing your career is about learning and embracing the secrets to always being employable. That way, when an unexpected layoff occurs, you can feel some sense of control and have confidence in your ability to move forward.
Well, by definition, remarkable means being so good that you just have to remark.
A remarkable employee wouldn’t just do what everyone else is doing.
Unfortunately, the people who got them into this mess brought down the entire firm. And because of that there are a lot of VERY smart people without jobs.
It’s sad.
@Norcross: Of course they are still getting fired. Even the self-employed can get fired–by their customers. This is about how to make recovering easier, and surviving more likely. It’s about pushing yourself and stopping all the coasting. I’ve been a coaster. (Not with a drink on me.) I got laid off. It took TOO long to get decent work again. . .I’m still (three years later) working on diversifying my income and skill set, which is the best (only?) mitigation to the lay-off that is coming one day.
Being remarkable is a great way to stay competitive for a new job. However, you can be remarkable, but if no one knows, it doesn’t help. If I were to choose one thing that would keep you “recession proof,” it would be to be an extraordinary networker.
Make it your goal to be a “connector.” (From Wikipedia: Connectors are people in a community who know large numbers of people and who are in the habit of making introductions…”). I wrote about this here:
http://keppiecareers.wordpress.com/2008/03/18/build-your-networking-base-as-a-connector/
In reality, there probably isn’t just one thing that will help save your job. So, have a great resume and do what you can to prepare. Some suggestions if you think your job may be in danger:
http://keppiecareers.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/recession-proof/
Miriam Salpeter
Keppie Careers
I think there are recession proof industries, but individual businesses are still prone to failure.
To me, the funeral business is recession proof.