Most people don’t know that I started my business in the peak of the Great Recession: 2007. The economy shrunk, and jobs were lost…

Everyone was afraid.

But what did I do?

I started a business…

And it worked!

The recession turned out to be the perfect time for my business. Why did I succeed when others failed?

First, let’s cover the basics.

What is a recession?

A recession happens when there is negative economic growth and a widespread drop in spending. Officially, it’s “a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months,” as defined by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the group that dates U.S. recessions1. (You may have heard the two-quarters-of-shrinking-GDP rule. It’s a handy shortcut, but the committee that makes the call uses the broader test.)

So what happens during a recession?

  • Business sales decrease
  • Unemployment rate rises
  • Hiring slows
  • Businesses stop expanding
  • Social problems increase

I’ll be honest, it doesn’t sound that great…

But there IS a silver lining!

How Long Do Recessions Last?

Usually shorter than they feel!

Since 1945, the average U.S. recession has lasted about 10 months2. The Great Recession lasted 18 months, from December 2007 to June 2009. The most recent one, in the spring of 2020, lasted two months, the shortest on the record books.

Want to guess how long the good stretches in between have lasted?

About 64 months, on average. That’s more than five years of growth for every 10 months of shrinking.

And those 10 months go a lot faster when your resumé is fresh and your savings account has a cushion in it!

What I Learned From The Last Recession

Recessions can provide tremendous opportunity!

The biggest ones?

  • Creating job insurance
  • Boosting your resumé
  • Getting prepared for the worst, but hoping for the best

How Do I Prepare For a Recession?

If you’re constantly wondering… “When will the next recession be?”

Then it is probably a good idea to act.

Recession proofing is something I think everyone should do at least once per year. Not only will you FEEL good, but you’ll also be mentally and financially prepared for the next recession.

Here’s the good news: Preparing for a recession doesn’t have to be scary or hard!

In fact, I want you to think about preparing for a recession like annual maintenance or a big Spring cleaning.

The more we prepare, the better.

So here’s how to prepare for a recession:

Checklist of 8 steps to recession-proof your career, from adding skills and building a network to cutting costs and saving.

Add Skills

You know what’s free? Learning.

The more you know, the better off you are.

Learning is one of the best ways you can prepare for a recession. Most people talk about cutting when it comes to a recession—cutting spending, cutting debt, cutting unnecessary tasks. And we will talk about that in the Cut step below. But I actually believe that adding is the most important thing you can do to prepare for a recession.

Specifically, you should add skills to your resumé and professional arsenal.

How do you add skills to your resumé?

First off, know your skills!

Here’s a quiz for you: What is the most important skill employers look for on entry-level candidates’ resumés?

Is it:

a) technical skills

b) problem-solving skills

c) leadership

d) teamwork

The correct answer?

Teamwork! In the National Association of Colleges and Employers’ 2026 Job Outlook survey, employers looking at resumés said they want3:

  • Ability to work in a team (85% of employers)
  • Problem-solving skills (82%)
  • Verbal communication (78%)
  • Technical skills (73%)
  • Written communication (72%)
  • Strong work ethic (71%)

(If you guessed problem-solving, you were close. It came in a very near second!)

Bar chart of skills employers seek on resumés: teamwork 85%, problem-solving 82%, verbal communication 78%, technical 73%.

And there’s something most of these top skills have in common…

Five of the top six fall under the umbrella of soft skills.

So what are soft skills?

Soft skills are the social skills, personality traits, and interpersonal skills used for success on the job. Just like soft-serve ice cream, these skills make people happy!

That survey asked about new grads. If you’ve been working for a while, you probably have these skills already, and the bigger challenge is making sure people can SEE them.

So practice showing what you know out loud.

  • Speak up early in meetings. Share one idea in the first ten minutes, before the conversation gets crowded. Our tips to speak up in meetings can help.
  • Narrate your wins. When a project lands, send your manager a two-line update with the result first.
  • Teach what you know. Offer a short lunch-and-learn on the thing you’re the go-to person for.
  • Volunteer to present. Take the next team update or client recap, even a five-minute one.
  • Study how strong speakers do it. Watch a few TED Talks for how they open, and learn the basics of body language.
  • Practice with feedback. An online course can help you build your communication skills with someone watching.

Okay, then what are hard skills?

Hard skills are the skills that require a lot of effort but grant you specialized knowledge in a field, such as computer programming or digital marketing. Having at least one or two hard skills is a plus when creating a recession-proof resumé.

The more hard skills you have, the more stuff you can get done in your company.

Every skill you add to your resumé makes you stand out.

And no one can take knowledge away from you.

No matter how bad of a recession, your knowledge can protect you. But, this might mean squeezing in more learning time:

  • Take classes on your lunch break (or watch our YouTube channel!).
  • Listen to professional podcasts on your commute.
  • Enroll in online professional development classes.
  • Read books before bed.
  • Take weekend workshops or classes

It’s worth it!

Think of every hour of learning as an investment in yourself.

Update Your Professional Assets

Next, get your professional assets in order. This is a great way for you to take stock of what’s working for you and have updated tools ready to go.

Here are the professional assets you should consider updating:

  • Update Your LinkedIn Profile: When is the last time you logged into LinkedIn? Make sure your profile is up to date. Add relevant skills, endorsements, and history. I have a BIG list of what to do on your LinkedIn Profile and this is a cheap and easy way to make sure your professional reputation is up to date.
  • Update Your Resumé: This is the perfect time to update your resumé and make sure it is fresh. Do you need to add new jobs? Skills? History? You want all that ready to go to craft your perfect resumé.
  • Update Your Cover Letter: Cover letters are the perfect way to sell yourself to your potential employer. Make a killer self-introduction so you can stand out!
  • Update Your Website & Social Profiles: Do you have a website or blog? Now is the time to make sure you are searchable and ready for people to find you. Assume a future boss will search your name, so don’t forget to check your privacy settings, those change all the time these days!
  • Update Your Headshot: You should have a current, professional, captivating headshot. This matters in hiring. Set-up a shoot with a friend or hire someone and get a great shot. Here are tips on how to take a great profile picture and a shot list for your next photo shoot.
  • Update Your Portfolio: Now is the time to update your professional portfolio. Get those photos printed! Update and be creative. You want this ready to go.

Mini Course

Interview to Hired: The Science of Hidden Signals That Get You the Ideal Offer

Walk into any interview as the obvious hire. All sales are final. No refunds.

See the course →

Turn Your Resumé Bullets Into Proof

Quick test. Which column would you rather read?

Before After
Managed vendor relationships Renegotiated three vendor contracts and cut shipping costs 12%
Responsible for onboarding new hires Built a two-week onboarding checklist that had new hires taking calls in their first week
Strong communication skills Presented monthly sales results to 40 regional managers

(Those are made-up examples. Your real numbers go in the right-hand column.)

The left column is a job description… The right column shows what happened because YOU were there. That’s what employers are after. NACE’s write-up of its 2026 survey says employers want to see examples of those skills in action.

Here’s how to rewrite yours:

  1. Find three bullets that start with “Responsible for,” “Managed,” or “Helped with.”
  2. Ask what changed because you did the work. Did something get faster, cheaper, bigger, or easier?
  3. Count it if you can: dollars, hours, people, percent.
  4. Rewrite the bullet so the result comes first and the duty comes second.

No numbers? That’s okay. “Trained two teammates to cover my accounts” and “wrote the process guide my director asked every team to use” are proof too.

(Someone on our team kept a bullet that just said “Handled social media” for way too long. Handled it how?!)

Pro Tip Grab your numbers while you still have access to them. If a layoff comes, the dashboard login usually disappears with the job!

Build Your Network

This is one of the most important things I can share with you to prepare for a recession…

The best insurance against a recession or losing your job is building your relationships. You know what doesn’t lose value? Your network. You know what will always help you? Your reputation.

Here’s the science behind networking:

  • Acquaintances open doors. In experiments on LinkedIn that covered more than 20 million people, the connections that led to the most new jobs were acquaintances: people you share a moderate number of mutual contacts with, or rarely message at all4.

Are you convinced? Now is the time to invest in building your network!

It’s free to do and vital in a recession. Because it doesn’t matter how well you prepare a resumé without the right contacts! Here’s how:

  • Reconnect with Your VIPs: Check in with the VIPS you know—old bosses, mentors and other in-the-know folks to say hello. Send them an article you think they might like, to keep the relationship fresh.
  • Go to a Meet-Up: Try meeting new people in your industry or a related industry. This can also help you stay top of mind and get inside information on your industry.
  • Refresh Your LinkedIn Contacts: Log-in to your LinkedIn and import your email contacts to make sure you are connected to everyone. Go through business cards you have recently collected and add those folks to your online network.
  • Go to a Conference, Trade Show, or Workshop: It’s great to stay current on what is happening in your industry and meet the latest folks who could be in your network.

Your goal is to stay up to date on who you know—reach out to people you meet to connect with them further and keep old contacts fresh.

Nervous about networking? Don’t be! I have a great networking guide for you (even for introverts):

18 Step Free Networking Guide

Rehearse Your Interview Answers Out Loud

When did you last answer “So, tell me about yourself” out loud?

If it’s been a few years, the words might come out a little rusty… Interviewing is a skill, and skills fade when you don’t use them. So practice NOW, while nobody is grading you!

A smiling woman at a wooden desk records herself on a phone in a stand, with a notebook and coffee mug beside her.

Candidates who role-played and studied with others before a promotion interview scored higher. Their answers also tended to be better organized, and better-organized answers scored higher too5.

So give your answers a shape. One easy structure is the STAR method: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Here’s a sample answer to “Tell me about a time you handled a setback”:

“Last spring our biggest client cut their order in half. My job was to close the gap before the quarter ended. I called five accounts that had gone quiet and offered each one a bundle deal. Two signed, and we finished the quarter 4% over target.”

Try This: Record yourself on your phone answering three questions: tell me about yourself, “Why are you looking?” and “Tell me about a time you failed.” Play it back once. Where did you ramble? Trim that part and record it again.

The first time one of us tried this, the word “basically” came up so many times we stopped counting. Oof.

Recording yourself is a good start, but it helps even more to practice with another person. Ask a friend to play the interviewer and throw in one question you didn’t prep. (The candidates who scored higher in that study practiced with others, too.)

If you’d like structured practice with real feedback, we built People School for exactly that.

If a layoff is part of your story, rehearse that answer too. Keep it calm and short:

“My role was eliminated when the company cut its marketing team. I’m looking for a place where I can keep building campaigns like the ones on my resumé.”

Our guide to talking about your layoff has more scripts for that conversation.

If You Sell for a Living

Not everyone in a recession is updating a resumé. If you’re self-employed, on commission, or running your own business (like I was during the Great Recession), a recession usually means one slow month, then another.

When buyers get careful, every conversation counts more. Here are a few things to do now, while your calendar is still full…

  • Check in with past clients before you need them. A note that isn’t a pitch is easy to answer, and it keeps you top of mind for when they’re ready to buy again.
  • Ask for referrals while things are good. A happy client is much easier to ask than a nervous one. Here’s how to ask for referrals without the awkwardness.
  • Follow up on the maybes. A careful buyer often needs one more nudge. Here’s how to follow up without being annoying.
  • Rehearse your price out loud. When a buyer pushes back, the first instinct is to discount. Practice saying your number and then stopping. Our negotiation guide covers what to say next.
  • Do your own arithmetic. How many conversations does it take you to close one deal? If that number creeps up in a slow month, add conversations now instead of waiting for the pipeline to dry up.

Try This: Pick three past clients you haven’t talked to in six months. Send each one a two-line note this week. The first is one thing you remember about them, and the second is one useful link. No pitch!

Cut

Has a quiet dinner ever turned into a budget fight at your house? Money worries can do that fast. (We have a whole guide to calmer money conversations with a partner.)

So trim a little now, before you have to.

  • Food: Pack lunch, cook in batches on Sundays, and make coffee at home.
  • Tech: Cancel the subscriptions you don’t use, and switch to a cheaper phone or internet plan.
  • Energy: LED bulbs, a fan instead of air conditioning, and a lower water-heater setting.
  • Everything else: Coupons for regular buys, the library instead of new books, and carpooling or transit.

Start with the small, easy ones. They add up!

Save

Only 63% of U.S. adults say they’d cover a surprise $400 expense with cash or its equivalent6. So build your cushion now:

  • Automate it. Set up a monthly transfer into savings so the decision is made for you. (Ours is called the “Rainy Day Fund / Sunny Vacation Fund.”)
  • Save the surprise money. Bonuses, birthday checks, tax refunds… straight into the fund.
  • Leave the card at home. Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology found that people told to pay by credit card were willing to pay up to twice as much as people paying cash7!
  • Track it in one app, so the small leaks are easy to spot.
  • Pay down debt with a plan. Smallest balance first (the snowball method) gives you quick wins. Highest interest first (the avalanche method) usually saves you more money.

Two glass jars of coins and dollar bills sit on a counter, one topped with a paper umbrella and one with a paper palm tree.

How Big Should Your Rainy Day Fund Be?

Start with three months of must-pay expenses: rent or mortgage, groceries, utilities, insurance, your car, and minimum debt payments. If those add up to $3,200 a month, your goal is $9,600… or $800 a month for a year. Even $100 a month builds the habit.

While you’re at it, look up how unemployment benefits work where you live. You file with the state where you worked, and the U.S. Department of Labor has a page on how to file for unemployment that points you to yours.

Stay Positive!

I want you to stay in a positive mindset, even during times of economic crises.

And I KNOW it’s been overdone, and said many, many times…

But one of the most important things that helped me during the 2008 recession was my mindset. In fact, I believe…

Staying positive is the best medicine for any recession.

To develop a positive mindset and keep going, here’s what you SHOULDN’t do…

DON’T:

  • Browse negative news. In a lab study, people who watched a negative TV news bulletin felt more anxious and sad, and they blew their own personal worries further out of proportion8. The worries didn’t even have to be about the news!
  • Gamble on a quick payoff. When money gets tight, a get-rich-quick bet can look awfully tempting. Before any big financial move, sleep on it and talk it through with someone you trust.
  • Hang around toxic people. Draining, non-supportive, and difficult people are one of life’s greatest challenges! During a recession, can you recognize the categories of toxic people, such as the Emotional Moocher and Drama Magnet? Yes, we wrote an article on it! Check out 7 Types of Toxic People and How to Spot Them.

Instead, here’s what you SHOULD do to prepare for a recession!

DO:

  • Learn to reset. How do you remain calm, find courage, and stay strong? I personally love a bit of daily meditation. We’ve even done our own research on why meditation is so good for you!
  • Join a club. Have you heard of job clubs? These clubs are like Mastermind groups, but help others find jobs. A review of trials with people who were out of work found that job clubs eased depression for up to two years, especially for people at higher risk9! And it’s no surprise… I’ve always believed that having strong social support is important when you’re going through tough times. You can even form a club with your friends!
  • Be more likable. You can practice likability like any other skill. Our guide to being more likable walks through five science-backed strategies.

Recession Resumé Takeaway

  1. Rewrite three resumé bullets this week so each one leads with a result.
  2. Email one former boss or colleague you haven’t talked to in a year, with an article they’d like.
  3. Record one STAR answer on your phone, trim the ramble, then run it past a friend playing the interviewer.
  4. Add up your must-pay monthly expenses and set an automatic transfer toward three months of them.
  5. Block one lunch break a week on your calendar for a course.
  6. Mute one news alert that spikes your stress, and check the headlines once a day instead.
  7. If you sell for a living, send three past clients a no-pitch check-in this week.

Here is the bottom line…

Any preparation for a recession is better than no preparation at all.

Now pick one thing to target and do it.

When that is done, come back and grab one more action item. Start with the easy ones like updating your LinkedIn profile or watching some educational videos.

You got this!

Ready for the interview itself? Here are the best interview questions to practice with, and what a strong answer sounds like.

Sources:

  1. National Bureau of Economic Research — Business Cycle Dating
  2. National Bureau of Economic Research — US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions
  3. National Association of Colleges and Employers — The Key Skills Employers Seek on College Students' Resumes, Job Outlook 2026 Spring Update (2026)
  4. Rajkumar, Saint-Jacques, Bojinov, Brynjolfsson & Aral — A Causal Test of the Strength of Weak Ties, Science (2022)
  5. Maurer, Solamon, Andrews & Troxtel — Interviewee Coaching, Preparation Strategies, and Response Strategies, Journal of Applied Psychology (2001)
  6. Federal Reserve Board — Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025: Savings and Investments (2026)
  7. Prelec & Simester — Always Leave Home Without It: A Further Investigation of the Credit-Card Effect on Willingness to Pay, Marketing Letters (2001)
  8. Johnston & Davey — The Psychological Impact of Negative TV News Bulletins, British Journal of Psychology (1997)
  9. Moore, Kapur, Hawton, Richards, Metcalfe & Gunnell — Interventions to Reduce the Impact of Unemployment and Economic Hardship on Mental Health, Psychological Medicine (2017)