it's all a big hype, really :D

hun_nomin

Two things. An engineering degree and a job for a large paper company. People will stop buying a lot of stuff before they stop buying toilet paper.

Shai

OMG! We're in a recession!?

nobodyzhome

Diversification. Skills portfolios are like financial portfolios - the more options within, the less market changes damage you (unless the whole thing goes to hell).

mksql

Multiple income streams. For example: Your regular job + your eBay hobby income + ADsense income from your website + your investment returns. Anything to avoid being 100% reliant on the main job itself.

stephenmunday

Government it is forever, well more of less...

zolielo

Move to New Zealand.

tom

A career in bankruptcy law?

NeoteriX

Litigation support companies, like the one I'm with, enjoy bragging that they're recession proof. But if I were to start a recession proof company of my own, I would sell luxury items. The wealthy stay wealthy, and products such as Ferrari sports cars remain stable.

Or just get a minimum wage job to beat a recession... like Alabama's song about when Wall Street fell, "we were so poor that we couldn't tell."

elchapin

lol blame it on the writer's strike >.>....you don't see engineers and mathematicians going on strike.

hun_nomin

Either a critical public service job - or a job at the ports of LA and Long Beach facilitating the offloading of "merchandise" from China to trucks and trains carrying it Wal-Marts and BestBuys across the US. No kidding - a career in a logistics firm or a trucking company is the way to go. People need to eat, even if they don't need or can't afford crap.

vesuvian

Have a crappy career in public service... like education.

Don't touch the children and you're safe until "No Child Left Behind" + compulsory attendance destroy public education.

CountSmackula

career shift advising people on the next course to take once laid off. really like making and selling foodstuff instead of being an internet consultant.

BlackBeard

"... both list ways you can bolster your career in the face of possible layoffs"

Great, now what do you do when you are on the dole precisely when a new crisis arises ?

that's my situation, advices somebody ?

Thibault

It is hard to escape the recession jitters. I have an article on how to financially survive a recession and how to recession proof your career.

In general, add value to your employer, make sure you have savings for a rainy day, and be positive! I also like the comment from Stephenmunday above - have multiple streams of income. Nice advice!

thecubemonkey

By working for a consulting firm...

"Recession!? Let's bring in the consultants!"

Jay_N

Recession or no recession, just be different - following the crowd got you into the mess in the first place.

user313

Update your skills. Be it in your current field or a related field. For example, if you are a programmer, get on the Ruby bandwagon. Also if you are a knowledge worker, have a skill in a specific trade such as locksmith or plumber.

A3sthetix

@Jay_N:

I review the consultants work at a public sewer utility. Consultants + crap = security.

balloondoggle

How does one get multiple income streams if one already has a full-time job one enjoys?

Craig720

1. Do something that can't be outsourced or shuffled to temps. If people are looking to save on costs, it's one of the first things to happen. Generally that means being something non-scalable (e.g. software designer, not code monkey).
2. Join the military. Business is booming.

Kafka

It is amazing how no one has talked about being the best in order to make your job recession-proof.

Here's my $0.02:

Be amazing, be remarkable, be brilliant, be the very best at what you do.

There is a *huge* shortage of remarkable talent and brilliance in this world. They will let everyone else go before they let you go, if at all they ever do.

Ravi Jayagopal / RavisRants.com

Ravi Jayagopal

There is always prostitution.

Jos

@Craig720: It appears you are one of the few blessed people remaining on this earth who enjoys what they do, leave alone the fact that you're working for someone else.

I guess if you enjoy what you're doing, then you're probably really good at it. Which means you are already more recession-proof than most other people.

You can still find a hobby on the side - a web site, a blog, a digital product. Don't put all your eggs in one basket :-)

Ravi Jayagopal
Author, "No Business Like E-Business"

Ravi Jayagopal

1. Make your presence critical at work. If you have the ability to get essentially involved in ongoing projects, it will be more risky for the company to replace you; you will be worth more to them.

2. Pursue a hobby and work at monetizing it. If you like to write, for example, work on a book in your spare time.

3. Broaden your skill set. As some have already posted, it pays to learn something new and stay up with the latest industry standards. Don't let yourself fall behind.

4. Invest in bullion or, at the least, foreign currency. This recession may only be the beginning of your troubles if you are dependent on the dollar as its value continues to decline. It's smart to have some savings set aside in an "inflation-proof" form, should things become really bad.

Parker

Interestingly, prostitution and religious professionals (my personal vocation) do seem to carry on and perhaps get even busier during economic downturns. ;)@Jos:

cgarrigues

this picture have the same stile of a call center

rubu

Freelancing is the best way to hedge yourself. If you have a full-time job for one company it and it hits a rough patch, you could lose everything. By freelancing, however, if one client has problems, you still have other sources of income.

Zach Everson

At first glance, I dismissed the first two comments on this thread as cheap and snarky. However, on second glance I think they kind of say it all:

hun_nomin: it's all a big hype, really :D

user313: Recession or no recession, just be different - following the crowd got you into the mess in the first place.

Derek

I protect my career by trying to prove that I am an indispensible member of the company.

But that's not true. Skillwise, I'm irreplacable, but to investors all that really matters is stock price, so my head is on the chopping block.

I'm an engineer, and I work in an area that has plenty of jobs for high talent people, but even that isn't much secuirty. The job market can dry up fast.

So what do I do? I just remind myself that I started out at the very bottom, went to school and worked my way up, and if I have to, I'll do it again. As many times as it takes.

Oh and, stop reading lifehacker while on the company dollar.

balls187

Here is my top 10 list for ways to recession proof your career:

1. Move to DC
2. Work as a government contractor
3. Join the military
4. Move to DC
5. Become a government employee
6. Work for a DoD supplier
7. Move to DC
8. Seek career opportunities in the Hobo field
9. Become independently wealthy
10. Move to DC

I have an 11th way but I think you can guess what it would be.

DanRP

You recession proof your career by getting an education, being competent in what you do and keeping your skills uptodate with what's going on in your particular line of work.

All that is gonna be moot anyway in about a decade when baby boomers start retiring enmasse. The US is going to experience a massive labor shortage at which point even a moron can get a good job, and anyone who actually knows anything will be able to set their price.

That being said my plan to recession proof myself is to make sure I have other sources of income coming in apart from my day job. Investment income, income from personal projects, etc. Diversification!

Pixelantes Anonymous

If you work in IT, there really is no way to "recession proof" your career, other than moving to a place where there are no competent IT professionals.

In California, I'm a dime a dozen, but in Jerkwater North Dakota I could take over the IT consulting market without doing much at all (that was just an example, I'm sure the good people of Jerkwater North Dakota are all very competent in the IT arena).

However one thing that I find has kept me never worrying about paying the bills is my diverse background in other professions. It's nice to know that I can work in several IT positions, or as a Machinist, or gunsmith, or... you get the point.

Well that and my willingness to follow interviewers home and threaten their families, pets and neighbors with extinction if I do not get the job.

I was kidding about that last bit, but I wouldn't rule it out as a workable strategy just because it sounds completely whacko. >;-)

jglessner

@stephenmunday:

Unless you are a truly wiley investor, the three income streams you mentioned are likely to be at greater risk than your job in the event of a recession. You might want to take DanRP's advice and head to DC instead.

lovehate

Blackmail.

smitty1123

I have not seen the slightest bit of slow down in my field (Flash Web Development). In fact I have been contacted by at least four companies this week alone for full time positions (in addition to the job I already have). I feel like advertising won't die, they will never give up and by and large people will always be buying something. As long as you can live with yourself suckling from the large cooperate teet, you will have a job.

sototallycarl

@BallonDoggle...they also won't promote you if you're in an indispensable position ;-)

Sanjay_

@Ravi Jayagopal:

This strategy can also "promotion-proof" your career. If you are indispensible in your position they won't do anything to lose you, good or bad.

balloondoggle

People diversify their investment portfolios with stocks, mutual funds, and bonds that touches upon financials, techs, pharmas, energy, real estate, etc. to safeguard themselves from a slip in any of these industries.

Similiarly, people should diversify their income streams. A job and an investment portfolio are only two of them. How about turning your hobby into an income stream? I did it with the World War II Database website [ww2db.com] . How about picking up a related skill to what you currently do at work so that you can do some moonlighting? For those with some liquid cash, how about taking advantage of the super low mortgage rates right now and buy a condo to rent out?

Personally I think people should NOT try to recession-proof their careers. Instead, people should recession-proof their income. It's a big difference.

Pete

Network, network a lot. If you're in a job right now and you think you could be downsized, make sure you're linkedIn with everyone that could be handy. Or, make the best of it and better yourself by taking some classes at a local university, and while you're there...network.

Sanjay_

Work for a provider of essential services. Government/Healthcare/Education/etc. They're not recession proof industries, but they're recession resistant. Diversification of your income stream is the best advice I've heard so far...

Still, it's likely that some day you'll get laid off. It's just stupid not to be read for it. Prepare to lose your job. Have contacts in your field who can help you find a new job. Save. If you're buying a house, get a duplex or one with an attached apartment to help defray your mortgage. Get rid of your new car and get something a few years old. Ebay all the crap you don't use. Make your monthly expenditures as elastic as humanly possible.

If you're in a two-income house, figure out how you're going to get by on one income for a few months NOW so that when it actually happens you won't be as psychologically burdened and can hit the ground running. If you've got $5K in the bank, lose your job, and continue to spend money at the rate you do now, only cutting back when you panic...well, that money won't last very long. If you cut your spending to food/housing/heat the second you're laid off, it'll last a lot longer.

ppiddyp

Moving to DC/NOVA?

I've been there for 2 months now with a an MSC in eBusiness, guess what i'm still unemployed. There are jobs but it seems they're only offered for those damned engineers (;). The only advice i can give, is if you go back to school for a graduate degree, is instead of a degree seek a certification in IT, something with those big names like SAP, ORACLE and Microsoft, maybe then those damned pre-programmed databases will retrieve your resume or better, DC, think security clearance, i'm learning the hard way... i.e, move to Seattle instead, DC's market sucks right now.

dronnac

1. Move to DC
2. Join a nursing program and become a nurse or physical therapist.
With the war casualty, you are bound to stay in business ... especially as we will soon start a war with Iran

bennyb

I don't like the term "recession-proof." I think it's misleading and provides false security.

There is no such thing as "recession-proof" if you live in a country employing a capitalist economic system. Capitalism's business cycle inherently peaks and valleys.

You can always add new skills and knowledge, look for the hottest careers, or the barely-filled niches, but things today change on a dime and anything can become obsolete, irrelevant, off-shored, etc. in no time. And even more needed occupations and industries are impacted during recessions, so there's no way to be "recession-proof."

All you can do is realize whoever you work for has no loyalty to you, that you shouldn't have any loyalty to them, and if you have your own business you'll have to always be on your toes to remain viable. You should manage your finances so that you can ride out the bad times and even in good times live below your means.

genghis_schmengis

First off, I'd advise people to not listen to any advice from "career coach" Penelope Trunk who has been fired by Yahoo! just recently, and by her own admission has been fired from jobs repeatedly. She's probably not the best person to advise you on how to keep your job.

Other than that, you need to keep your skills up-to-date, and *be flexible* and willing to try new jobs, careers.

allaroundhacker

@ALLAROUNDHACKER

Yeah, but I think that most definitely qualifies her on the "how to get a job/rebound from getting fired" front ;)

jglessner