#YourCareer : How To ‘Career Cushion’ Your Job During Challenging Times. Creating an Action Plan to Prepare for IF/When Things Take a Terrible Turn with your Current Position.
“Career cushioning” is the newest job-related term added to the growing lexicon of the Great Resignation, acting your wage and quiet quitting. According to LinkedIn career expert Catherine Fisher, career cushioning is creating an action plan to prepare for if things take a terrible turn with your current position. The onslaught of layoffs, hiring freezes and job offers rescinded calls for action, instead of waiting for the ax to fall.
“Think of it like an insurance policy to set yourself up for success,” Fisher wrote in her recent LinkedIn newsletter.
Like ghosting moved from the dating world to job interviewing, cushioning is derived from keeping an eye open for other options and suitors in case your relationship sours.
What You Need To Do Right Now
Start taking action. Hoping that things will improve is not a strategy. If you feel that your job is in jeopardy, immediately update your résumé and LinkedIn profile. Seek out recruiters who specialize in your field. Ask colleagues and former co-workers what headhunters they had success with and would recommend their services. Let the search professional know what type of company you want to work for, ask about compensation levels and the work style you prefer.
Start networking by reaching out to old friends, college alums, neighbors, co-workers, former colleagues and managers, members of your church, temple and other organizations and online connections. Be open and honest. Inform them that you are engaged in a stealth search and could benefit from their relationships. You need to be a little pushy and ask if they could make an introduction to human resources or hiring managers. To ensure that you don’t make a hasty decision in the job switch, boldly ask tough questions during the interview to understand what you are getting into.
You may love working remotely, but go into the office five days a week. The proximity bias is real, and it favors people who are visible. It’s not just putting in facetime. You must be productive, exceed expectations and make yourself indispensable to your boss. These actions will increase your chances of being saved from layoffs.
Get A Vibe Check From Your Boss
Before you do anything rash, request a meeting with your boss to find out what the firm plans to do in this new uncertain environment. It may be uncomfortable, but ask your supervisor about your job’s status and whether there are plans to make job cuts. Be proactive and inquire about goals and objectives that you need to hit and how you can achieve them. If you walk away from the conversation feeling that your manager couldn’t provide any comfort or safety, it’s time to either start searching for a new job or try to move internally to a division that is doing well.
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Article continued …
Develop A Job-Search Strategy
The goal is to find a new job. You need to put a game plan into place to achieve your mission. Think of what you want to do next. Make a list of target companies that you want to work with. Dedicate a certain amount of time every day to focus on your job search.
You can break it down to searching for jobs online, getting in touch with people in your network, reaching out to human resources and managers at the companies you desire, tailoring your résumé for specific roles, practicing your elevator pitch and roleplaying interviewing. Stay in touch with your recruiters and consider investing in hiring a career coach and résumé writer.
The landscape has changed. The high-flying, sexy tech and startup companies are not doing as well as they fared in the past. There have been nearly 140,000 layoffs in those sectors. Therefore, conducting due diligence is important before you interview at a company.
Read articles about your target company to ascertain if there are any red flags. Look to see if the organization has been laying off workers or plans to downsize. Check out the company’s stock performance, its financial health, the management team and if its products and services are needed in this current environment.
See if you know anyone who currently or used to work at the company you’re interested in. Ask for their honest opinion about joining the firm, and if it’s safe to work there. Investigate LinkedIn profiles of people in your space to see if you have a similar background. Sleuth around to see if there is a pattern of people leaving and the roles are not being refilled.
How To Find Hidden Jobs
Companies don’t publicly post jobs when they are discreetly trying to replace a manager, attempting to first hire from within, waiting to receive employee referrals or not wanting to share salary ranges that may upset their employees when they find out the newcomer will earn more than they make.
In these situations, businesses rely upon recruiters to conduct secret searches, as discretion is required in sensitive situations, such as looking for an outsider to run a department instead of picking an internal employee.
The recruiter will clandestinely contact on-target people with the right background for the role. They’ll tell the candidate that the job is confidential and the applicant needs to keep the information to themselves. If the executive recruiter has a solid reputation, the person will understand and comply. Some people will feel uncomfortable and politely bow out of contention.
You want to stand out on the social media platforms that cater to your job and career. LinkedIn is the right platform for you if you are a white-collar professional. Send LinkedIn “InMail” messages or invitations to people who look like they’re involved with hiring roles in your area of expertise to get on their radar screen. Create posts, interact with other people in your space, upload videos and write articles. This will position you as an expert in your field. Recruiters, hiring managers and corporate talent scouts will start reaching out to you.
Hiring managers covet referrals from employees. They feel that if an internal worker strongly recommends someone, they must be good. Some companies offer incentives, such as a financial bonus, if the referral joins the company. If there isn’t a current employee with the right experience for the job and you are able to find this out, you could send an unsolicited résumé. Since no one from the outside knows about the opening, you’ll stand out.
Smile And Bide Your Time
Most people are obvious about their unhappiness and disengagement from work. They’ll practice quiet quitting, act their wage and coast through the day, doing the bare minimum. This is not a winning strategy. You want to come across as positive, motivated and enthusiastic. Act as if everything is fine. Your contrarian demeanor will separate you from the herd and earn everyone’s respect.
Instead of making a rash decision to quit without another job secured, take a smarter approach. In tough job markets, you need to cultivate a coping mechanism to make it through the day. Adopt the mantras “one day, I’ll leave and be in a better place” and “until that time, I’ll make the best out of a bad situation.”
Go about your daily routine as if everything is fine. Be respectful to your boss and everyone around you. Ignore the gossipers and rumormongers. Since you know that you’ll eventually find a better opportunity elsewhere, it’s not worth it to allow certain things to impact your mental health and emotional well-being.
People will notice that you stand out by staying cool under pressure. Your boss will be impressed by your motivation and positive attitude, while everyone else is complaining. Ironically, your new “it is what it is” mindset may lead to a promotion, raise or higher bonus.
Forbes.com | November 30, 2022 | Jack Kelly
