9 Survival strategies for working professionals

Not many had figured that the economy would slow down so fast. And now that it has, we can at best speculate how long it will stay this way. The global economic turmoil has added ‘sub-prime’ to the common man’s vocabulary, wreaked havoc in the stock market, and taken down some very big names in the financial world. It has not spared the job market either. Still, India is expected to grow at 7 per cent plus. While not as good as the 9 per cent of the previous year, it is still not as bad as the mayhem elsewhere.Every employer is getting ready for times that might get worse before they get better. So jobs are harder to come by. And every now and then comes fresh news of pink slips in some garb or the other. The difficult days in the job market are expected to continue for the next 18-24 months, if not longer. It is a scenario that is very different from what we remember from the last half-a- decade or so. So living through it will require certain survival skills and strategies that we haven’t had to use in a while. The good news is, now that things are slow for most people, you can try to close the distance to the leaders by adding new skills or re-skilling. In the following pages we discuss some of the strategies you can use to make the best of a bad situation.

1. Add skills to broaden your scope of work
2. Be prepared to move not only vertically, but also horizontally between-domains.
3. Maintain a good professional network so that, if needed, you can pass around the word that you are open to change.
4. If you have lost your job or anticipate a layoff, do not be closed to the idea of moving into a related sector if you have the required skills to make the transition.
5. Even if you are insulated, prepare a strategy for the worst and prepare for it.
6. Do a proper self appraisal and see whether your fundamentals are in place and find the weakness that need to be addressed.
7. Temper your salary and increment expectations. If there is a salary cut in real terms because of inflation, it may not be enough reason to chuck your job at this point. Move only when you get a better opportunity in a more stable company.
8. show more initiative and take on greater responsibility. Be disciplined. Ensure that you are not in the bottom quartile in terms of performance.
9. Be flexible and open to change. Give personal preferences like location a pass for the time being if possible it it hinders your progress.

- Source (StockAdv)