8 Tips to Position Yourself For a Recession

A recession is coming.

That’s not being alarmist. It’s just a reality of cycles. When will it happen? Don’t know. What impact will it have on the financial services sector? No idea.

But if the recessions of recent decades are anything to go by, everyone needs to be fully prepared. London, Hong Kong, New York. No difference.

You can’t afford to sleepwalk into it.

Here are some step-by-step ways in which to better prepare yourself for the next recession. They may not “recession proof” you, but they should hopefully strengthen your position.

Keep Abreast of Company and Industry Developments

At different points within the global financial crisis, it became clear that certain organizations were under stress. Bear Stearns, Citigroup, Lehman Brothers, Royal Bank of Scotland and so on, all signposted troubles ahead, way before the proverbial brown stuff hit the fan.

Should employees have jumped when they saw the signs? There’s no easy answer to that.

Many employees were too financially and emotionally invested in their firms to make a snap decision. Plus, when the crisis really kicked in, banks weren’t hiring and employees were being let go left and right.

Still, awareness of problems allows individuals to make empowered choices rather than to become a victim of circumstances.

Maximize Your Current Role

If you want to remain at your financial services firm, your goal should be to make yourself as indispensable as possible.

Don’t wait until the downturn for that to happen. Raise your hand now for additional responsibilities. Carve out your own value-adding niches, whether that’s running a project that will save the organization money or developing even tighter relationships with key clients.

Invest in more training so that you can be better in your role and any future one. Invest in yourself.

True, there’s no guarantee that you’ll be safe. But by moving beyond “business as usual” you give yourself a better chance to stand out.

Build a Side Hustle

This is about using existing or learned talents to monetize on the side. That could be freelance writing, coaching, teaching, flipping mattresses…you name it.

Make sure you check with your work contract to find out what you can and can’t do. Many organizations also require employees to declare such outside interests.

A side hustle can serve several purposes. Firstly, cash. If you do lose your job, a side hustle may at least help you to cover your basic financial needs.

If it takes a while for you to find a new role, it also provides a narrative for your resume to outline what you’ve been doing since living your previous post.

But it can also help you build a brand new career. Recessions can create unforeseen industry dislocations. So it’s a way of building up a skill that you may need to monetize on a larger scale.

Just because you want to return to a role in banking, it doesn’t mean the market wants you back. You may have passed your career peak, your role may no longer exist, or you find yourself competing against so many good candidates that it’s impossible to get yourself heard.

So do your side hustle research now. Books that could be useful are Buy Buttons and Beginner’s Guide to Online Side Hustles. Also look at free and cheap courses available on Udemy and Coursera. Once again, it’s about taking ownership of a situation.

Build a Viable Emergency Fund

This is Personal Finance 101. Save at least “X” months of expenses in a time deposit to tie you over in case you lose your job.

The figure quoted tends to be anywhere from three to nine months. Ultimately, the figure you rely on needs to consider various factors.

How likely is it that you’ll be able to get a job in the industry within nine months? If the last financial crisis is anything to go by, it will be a challenge for some.

What kind of package are you going to exit with? It may look like a tidy sum, and your first thought might be to book that cruise to Fiji. Before you do that, get a better sense of how far it needs to stretch.

How much expense are you able to remove from your world? If you live a champagne lifestyle on peanut money, you can hopefully slash costs.

If you have a side hustle, maybe you won’t need to save that much.

Regardless, run the numbers and get saving.

Update Your Resume and LinkedIn

Check out the Pretend You’re Fired Today podcast series.

The essence is in the title. It’s about being prepared for all eventualities. That includes having your resume and LinkedIn up to date and ready for action.

That assumes you even have a LinkedIn. If you haven’t, you’re making it harder for recruiters to find you. Check out The Simple Guide to a Winning LinkedIn Profile and Craft a Winning Resume.

For broader thinking on job hunting, an invaluable resource is the What Color is Your Parachute? series

Network

This might be your idea of hell. But it’s vital you build your connections within your organization and externally before they are needed.

What you don’t want to be doing is scrambling to connect with strangers at the same time as everyone else is. There’s no way that you’ll be able to stand out against a sea of other desperate to find a role.

So hit those networking events, flex your presence on LinkedIn and reconnect with your previous bosses before it’s too late.

Be Adaptable

It’s great to have focus, standards and goals. But in the context of job hunting in a recession, you’ve also got to show flexibility. Things change.

That’s not to say you should take the first job that comes along (unless you really have to). It’s about having a good grasp of the industry, the job market and where you fit into it.

If the industry has changed, the jobs aren’t there or you find you can be easily be replaced by someone cheaper or by technology, be open.

That also includes retraining if necessary, and at the very least remaining up to date with industry change.

Stay Positive

It’s easier said than done.

You’ve committed 15 years of your life to this one financial services company and then they lay you off. You don’t know where to start.

The important thing is to be open. Be open to the change that this situation will bring about. Be open to asking for help. Friends, family, Samaritans. Anyone. Be open to being strategic even before the recession comes.

The trouble comes when people get fixated on what’s in front of them: the bull market will last forever, followed by the bear market will last forever. Of course, neither is correct.

We live in cycles. That’s why we have to adapt. That’s why there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

So long as you keep adapting to and accepting change, you’ll be better prepared than most for the recession.