| Skills are tactics. Dealing with a recession is about strategy. Most importantly: this is a time to focus on reducing risks, rather than maximizing profit. This is a crappy time to start a startup or being a freelancer. Keep your job, build your skills, save money, and start in a few years. Think about your job's security: Pay attention to your employers annual/quarterly reports. Which industries does your employer sell to? Travel, restaurants, hotel, retail, small businesses will be the worst hit, with little money to spend. This is also a bad time to change jobs - depending on your local laws, it probably is much, much easier to lay off someone who just started. Maybe broaden your skillls. In good times, it is more profitable to be a specialist - e.g. much better to be THE leading expert on scaling wordpress, rather than an all-purpose linux admin. In bad times, when jobs are scarce, being less of a specialist increaes the number of jobs you are suitable for. Save money, lower your burn-rate, extend your runway - usually meant for start-ups, but this goes for your personal finances just as well Become familiar with laws and benefits from the government for unemployment, lay-offs etc - if you should happen to find yourself unemployed, know what you have to do, how much assistance you can expect. That being said: If you have a high risk-tolerance, and can afford to, now is also a great time to start a business or to invest, simply because nobody else is, so there is much less competition for everything. |