Beat recession blues

Nimrata Kapoor

We live in unprecedented times. History confirms that the frequency of random, unexpected events in the last century has been quite high. In 2007, just before the markets crashed in 2008, Nassim Taleb popularised the concept “Black Swan” in a book of the same name. The central idea here was to build robustness to negative events and an ability to exploit positive events. Building careers for the long haul is about being resilient in good and bad times. Here are top five tips to “recession-proof” your career:

Be positive and review your strategy every 6 months

For those in transition because of layoffs, business slowdown or change in career track, it is important even more so now to keep our sanity. Your positive and pragmatic attitude is the need of the hour. Go back to the drawing board and make it a habit to revisit your career strategy every six months. Preparing for doomsday scenario is pragmatic and as important as preparing to chase the good times. Evaluate your risk appetite, prepare scenarios, and check your readiness.

Conduct an honest self-evaluation

The purpose of self-evaluation is to identify your value proposition. List your tangible achievements and identify your transferable skills.

Think about the challenges that excite you and drive you to give your best.

Talk to a few colleagues and take feedback from them on your performance.

Conduct this exercise every six months. For example, a sales professional may be more excited about identifying opportunities for process improvements vs chasing targets. Her top transferable skills are: attention to detail and analytical skills. Perhaps a career in operations or quality may be a better choice for her. Focusing on our strengths will always help us when we have to pivot our career in times of crisis.

Get your own career board

I strongly recommend having a career board of 3-5 people. Just as companies have boards, your career also needs a board of directors.

You need a career board because the traditional sources of career advice, viz. families and friends no longer work for most of us. For many of us, engaging in a mentoring or coaching engagement may not be feasible because of time or financial constraints. It is far more practical to reach out to a potential mentor or guide and check with them if you can reach out to them periodically for guidance when you are at crossroads.

Be sure to include people who challenge you and help bring out your blind spots. The insight that a critic provides is very useful.

Stay tuned in

Some of the most successful people I know are extremely tuned in to the environment. Whether it is following industry trends, reading reports, gauging the signs of an imminent layoff or a potential business opportunity, experimenting with new ways of working and most importantly, networking and making authentic connections, these people are always trying to understand the environment.

The key here is to be inquisitive and curious about the world around us.

Understand the pain points of your customers. Produce value-based content for your audience and check their reaction.

Speak to your customers and see how you can inject additional value in your business proposition.

Speak to top performers and see what they are doing differently.

Follow new entrants in the industry as well as established players.

Remember, careers are a lifelong investment. Take small, deliberate steps towards your goal every day, even when it is inconvenient or terrifying. Remember, status quo is never an option.

Pivot your career or business

Pivoting is about making an intentional shift in your career, while sticking to your core professional identity. Retool yourself, learn some new skills, acquire additional certifications and leverage your core strengths. Let’s take some examples to understand how career pivots take place.

• Law enforcement professional making a pivot to become a cybercrime resolution specialist. In this case the person leverages his core ability to investigate crime and deploy these skills in the digital age. This is again very relevant for a recession scenario as historically crime always increases in a recession, and in a digital age, cybercrime will increase.
• Communication specialist making a pivot to help hea lthcare professionals increase their business. Healthcare has been a relatively recession proof profession. Aligning one’s offerings with an area with low recession impact can be a winning strategy.
• Operations and reporting specialist pivoting to data analytics. There is no escaping from data now and in the future. Reskilling yourself by enrolling for an exhaustive data analytics course will help you pivot your role for future relevant jobs and consulting opportunities.
• Teachers pivoting to new methods of delivery and instruction. Recent events have accelerated the pace of adoption of technology to deliver classes, and made teachers rethink the instructional methods. Think about it — calculus or biology doesn’t change, just that you learn about these in a blended manner, much different from the way they were taught just last year.

— The writer is HR Advisor and Career Coach (www.nimtalkingtalent.com)