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CHANGE @ WORK: Recession-proof your career

Education, networking and strategizing may help you in tough times

Patricia Kitchen | Change@work

March 9, 2008

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Whether you believe President George W. Bush, who says we are not in a recession, or multi-

billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who says we are, just the fear of economic bad times and the job turmoil that results can be a reason to stop and think:

How can we strengthen our positions where we are working now? And perhaps, if it becomes necessary, avoid that deer-in-the-headlights feeling when a pink slip arrives and make a smoother transition to another job?

Such preparation goes well beyond updating your resume - though that clearly should be at the top of the list. This is like a game of chess, and you want to be anticipating "not just the next move but two or three down the road," says Bill Heather, senior vice president in the Melville office of Right Management, a career management and outplacement company.

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The natural inclination is to "live in a comfort zone" and hope for the best, he says, but "don't let things happen to you. You make sure you manage your own future."

Here are some suggestions from Heather and others:

Network

You've probably heard it time and again: Join and become active in a professional association - and don't wait until after you've lost your job.

Flo Federman, president of the Public Relations Professionals of Long Island, says she is seeing a small uptick in the number of laid-off communications professionals joining with an eye to drumming up freelance work.

Belonging to such a group is a valuable career enhancement at any time, says Federman, director of marketing communications at Holtz Rubenstein Reminick LLP in Melville, but the value of doing so before a layoff is that you don't have to start "from scratch building relationships and asking for help. You already have a foundation with people."

As the economy takes a dip - and produces an increase in the number of laid-off human resources professionals asking for Heather's help - he says he's resuscitating an informal networking group for those in that profession looking for work or concerned they may have to do a job search. In previous incarnations, such a group met monthly at his office to discuss issues like Long Island trends and market data.

Use company resources

After six years with a Manhattan publishing firm, Raymond Reinhardt, 33, decided to take advantage of his employer's tuition reimbursement plan to get his MBA at Adelphi University. About six months shy of graduation last spring, his employer, a publishing firm in Manhattan, announced plans to relocate his department of 600 to Ohio.

So there he was, not inclined to move but about to receive what he calls "the Swiss Army knife of degrees." He paid for the final semester himself, and though he says he had a few rough moments, he landed a job quickly as a financial representative at NRL Wealth Creation Strategies Llc in Westbury. Though his initial intention had been to advance within his former company, he wound up with that firm's footing the bill for his upgraded skills - which enabled him to move to another employer. It turned out to be "a get-out-of-jail slip for a rainy day," says Reinhardt of Hicksville.

Far less intense and time-consuming than an MBA program is the in-house training that many employers offer in the latest computer software programs and in management techniques. By signing up for such training, you win not only if you stay but also if you have to go.

Update skills

Even if your employer won't pay for updating your skills, do it yourself and look at it as a career investment.

Elana Zolfo, vice president of corporate programs and continuing education at Dowling College, says she is getting more questions from people she meets at business events regarding what skills they are wise to brush up on in an iffy economy.

Among the most popular short-term classes at Dowling, she says, are business writing, marketing, time management, speaking/presentation skills and customer service.

These days, she says, she's not seeing panic among the people she meets, but more people are "contemplating their futures."