Make yourself easily employable

The Fed is cornered, layoffs are happening and some say recession is imminent. The best way you can hedge for an uncertain future is to invest in yourself and make yourself easily employable.

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What does this actually mean?

1. Be ready to change your job. This can mean stepping out of the comfort zone and being ready to learn new things and do things differently than you are used to.
2. Embrace the Growth Mindset. Everyone has room for growth. You do not know everything and probably you are wrong about so many things that you are not aware of. Stay humble, seek and accept candid feedback.
3. Make sure you are in the environment where you are learning. As the saying goes — If you are the smartest person in the room, you are in the wrong room. If you are not in the best possible environment for your growth and if you are stagnating, no matter what your current compensation is — you are missing out. In the long run, the opportunity cost of staying in this environment is just too high.
4. Seek support from your manager or team leader. Are they supporting you in your growth? Do you have clear goals? Do you receive constructive feedback regularly? Are they helping you reach the next level? Do you even know what the next level is? Ask them these questions, providing answers and supporting you in your growth should be their main job.
5. Scale yourself. Expand your scope, employ others, mentor them, delegate work. Put yourself out of your job. This may sound counterintuitive, but if you succeed in this, your current employer will want you even more. If they don’t — it’s time to leave.
6. Climb the Ladder of Ownership. Move from judging and complaining towards driving and owning. It is easy to spot errors and inefficiencies. When pointing out what’s wrong, always give suggestions on how to improve it. Next level is just to say — I will do it. Taking it into your own hands and owning the solution will nudge you out of the comfort zone and help everyone involved.
7. Develop resilience. There will always be failures. Projects and initiatives are failing and that is normal. Embracing that fact helps so much with resilience. Squeeze the learnings out from failure and let’s move on.
8. Share knowledge. If you help your team, company and community by sharing your knowledge and experience, you are achieving many benefits for everyone. Teaching others is the best way to solidify your own knowledge. Organize internal learning meetings, participate in meetups, write guidelines and blog posts, attend a podcast… Your current employer will receive employer branding benefits, your team can get new team members, other people will learn something and also — you are building your own brand and reputation. Wins for everyone involved.

No matter if recession really is around the corner or not, being easily employable is a good position to be in. It boils down to the skills one has, environment, but also mindset, attitude and approach to everyday work.