Top 6 Tips to Recession-Proof Your Career

First, the good news, Forbes recently had an article on the Top 10 Recession Proof Careers (picture from BW article) and Accounting was 3rd (Accounting Managers) and 4th (Accounting Staff). Business Week followed up and listed Accounting as 4th(Accounting Managers), 5th (Accounting Staff) and 10th (corporate accounting/finance departments) in their Top 10 list. Then the most recent report from JobFox reported by Trendhunter showed Accounting as 3rd in their Top 10 ranking.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statisitics Accountants and Auditors rank in the Top 20 Occupations with the most demand for 2006-2016. So you are starting with a solid career choice with a lot of potential. The rest is up to you!

We checked our best sources and found some great advice from Lifehacker, Web Worker Daily, Penelope Trunk, Robert Scoble and then added our own.

Here are our top 6 ways to recession-proof your job:

1. Give your personal best- Scoble says to ask yourselff, "are you performing at the top 10% of all workers in your organization?" This is also known as "topgrading" and many companies (and CPA firms) are implementing this to weed out poor performers first.
2. Get on-line - build and maintain your on-line persona - this is where social media can help "get you noticed", increase your network, and differentiate your sefl - try linked-in, facebook, twitter, blogs, squidoo. Have you used MACPA's free on-line tool to understand the power of social media and Web 2.0? Check it out here: http://www.cpalearning2.com and get on-line!
3. Build your network (Social Capital) - meet and get to know more people - 70% of all jobs are found via networking. Did you know that professional associations are often the best source (see the article by Heather Huhman in the Examiner)? Have you joined our student membership (free at http://www.tomorrowscpa.org) or our New Young Professionals Network
4. Be visible and demonstrate ambition - hard times require companies to look for and take care of) their best people
5. Make $$$ (for your employer) - Help increase the top-line with remarkable customer service and sales or decrease expenses with cost saving ideas and your employer will take notice
6. Build your skills - increase your competencies (knowledge, skills & abilities) through continuing education, volunteer work (Human Capital), reading, etc. Did you know you can get 12 hours of high quality education through MACPA's Professional Issues Updates and CPA Day program, free?

What else are you doing to recession-proof your career?

MACPA Resources:

Cost Management & Improvement program on January 22, 2009

Surviving the Recession Program on January 23rd, 2009

MACPA's special section on the Economy

Articles referenced in this post:

How Do You Recession-Proof Your Career? - LIfehacker

5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Career - Web Worker Daily

Maybe There;s a Recession. Here's What to Do - Penelope Trunk

Surviving the 2008 Recession - Robert Scoble

Comments

[Mike Campbell]

Great post. It's really good to see accounting considered a recession-proof occupation. The six steps are well-worth reading for anyone.

[Marsha Egan]

Working is absolutely key. It is time NOW to expand the Social Media Networking platform. It used to be that networking groups and cocktail parties were the best way to build that network -- there's a new sheriff in town, and it is Social Media. Are you LinkedIn?

[Johnny Galaga]

LOL.

Accounting is NOT recession proof! Try telling that to all the unemployed accountants right now. This whole website is overly optimistic. Why not just tell the truth. Look at all the threads on

http://www.cpanet.com/cpa_forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=18

and

http://199.236.122.106/forum/forum_topics.asp?FID=6

There are gobs of people talking about how they've been laid off or can't find work in the first place.

[JS Mackie]

These are some handy tips, although it is not always possible to guarantee a completely recession proof career or position, we can at least try and protect ourselves as much as possible.