There’s No Such Thing As “Job Security”
Three Lessons Learned The Hard Way About Layoffs
I’ve been laid off more than once.
I know how it feels. I know that momentary feeling of relief followed by the uncertainty of a “What am I going to do now?”
If you haven’t been living under a rock, I bet you have heard the news about layoffs in the tech industry in recent years.
They’ve been so common these days that there’s even a page to report and track companies laying off their people: layoffs.fyi.
These are three lessons I wish my younger self had known about layoffs.
1. Job Security Is an Illusion
I don’t know who makes us believe there’s such a thing as “job security.” That’s an illusion.
In my early days at college, I thought the safest route was being an employee. I was so wrong! I only needed to be laid off once to change my mind.
We could lose our jobs anytime for reasons we don’t and can’t control: a pandemic, a company going bankrupt, or a recession.
The real question is when it will happen, not if it will ever happen to us. We’re better off preparing for that.
2. Have an Emergency Fund
I can’t stress this enough. This is one of the things I wished I had learned earlier: to have an emergency fund.
An emergency fund is keeping enough savings to cover our essential expenses for some time. The longer, the better.
An emergency fund gives us enough breathing room until we land in another place. That’s the difference between being picky about the next job or accepting anything to pay the bills.
My emergency fund helped to keep my sanity after my last layoff.
3. Always Be Ready To Leave
Let’s always have our CVs ready and keep in touch with our colleagues. Let’s not wait for a layoff to have an online presence. That would be too late.
Interviewing is broken, I know! But, let’s always be ready for an interview.
Let’s always be ready to leave any job.
Voilà! Those are the three lessons I wish I had known about layoffs. I learned that after losing a job, there’s always a positive change. That takes us out of our comfort zone and forces us to think about alternatives.
For me, the next opportunities after being laid off have always been better. More freedom and more money.
“Pastures are always greener on the other side,” I guess.
Hey, there! I’m Cesar, a software engineer and lifelong learner. Visit my Gumroad page to download my ebooks and check my courses.
Happy coding!
