Life Lessons in How to Recession-Proof Your Career
Over the last three years, I've helped women earn more than $1,000,000 in salary increases, raises, and promotions. And on average, my mentees earn about $30,000 salary increases after working with me for just eight weeks.
It's vital for us to consider that right now, we are in what we're calling a looming recession. So we're not quite fully into a recession yet but one is looming. We will likely go into a recession over the next several months and during an economic downturn with inflation so high, there is a considerable concern to be had. Indeed, the job market will be affected.
The great resignation that we were talking about months ago is over.
People are not resigning at as high of a rate. Folks are staying in their jobs. They're not making as much movement which means that if you are a job seeker, you may want to transition careers.
Right now, it's a much more competitive marketplace than just three months ago because there are not as many open positions. What’s critical right now is being able to position yourself as an expert and stand out in the marketplace.
As a job seeker in a competitive marketplace, you have to prepare for employers who are looking for folks who are multi-talented and multi-skilled. They're looking for people with complementary sets of skills who have demonstrated experience doing a variety of things. And they are willing to pay top dollar for these highly-skilled professionals.
Finding and securing the highest-paying roles requires a high level of knowledge and training. The reality is that the skills, knowledge, talent, and expertise you already have is worth more than you're currently being paid.
A major setback in securing that salary happens when you're unable to strategically articulate your value to your current or new employer. The key to recession-proofing your career is your ability to communicate your skills at the highest level. It’s particularly common in times of economic downturn for people to think to themselves, ‘Let me go back to school. Let me get another degree. Let me get another credential.’
But I invite you to be a little bit savvier.
The savvy thing to do now is to learn how to leverage your existing expertise to make more money instead of going for another degree, credential, or certification. I invite you to learn how to speak to your existing expertise in a way that will make your current employer take notice.
And that way, you can ask for a raise, ask for a promotion, and secure a higher-level salary without ever having to leave your current organization.
If you are one of those people who think, ‘No, actually, I cannot stay here. I have got to get out of this organization. It's time for me to transition away from this company. I need to be somewhere else.’ Then it's going to be critical that you know how to speak to your expertise and demonstrate your contributions.
It's not enough to list what you're good at. You need to be able to talk about the outcomes and impact of your work in addition to the work that you've been doing.
The truth is that wealth can be built in recessions. Wealth is built in challenging economic times. To recession-proof your career, look for opportunities to make more money which may mean asking for a raise. The other strategy is something you can do on your own. You have to ask for anything.
And then, the final strategy I want to talk about today is to position yourself as a trainer for new staff. If your company is hiring new people, they’ll want to set them up for success and retain them. Raise your hand if they're looking for somebody to onboard new employees; that's a way to position yourself as valuable and ask for additional compensation for those new responsibilities. You want to be highly visible in your organization during a recession or economic downturn.
If you need support in applying these strategies, then that's a sign that you need mentorship.
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