Are you prepared to lose your job?

Not to scare you or anything, but it might be wise to take these basic steps

Barbara Rose | Chicago Tribune

5/19/2008 - 5/20/08

CHICAGO — Not to spoil your day, but how prepared are you to lose your job?

There's little excuse these days for not being ready to kick a job search into high gear at a moment's notice. Better yet, aim to become the type of perennial passive job seeker who stays in touch with former colleagues and industry peers and gets a call every now and again from a recruiter looking for candidates.

There's little mystery about how it's done. The hard part is remembering that it's necessary. The threat of recession is a good reminder.

"In survival mode, people hunker down as opposed to taking risk," said Sharon Noha, senior vice president at Bannockburn-based executive development firm Robertson Lowstuter Inc. "There's tremendous opportunities for people during mergers and restructurings to step out into areas where they don't have a lot of experience. Yet, in the times when there are the most possibilities, a lot of people lose out.

"If you've got your head down and you're tucked in a little corner someplace, your boss leaves and then who knows you? If you've done your work by creating some visibility, you have a much better chance of somebody carving out a new responsibility. It's not really that different from networking externally, and you need to be doing both."

Here are some other suggestions from experts:

Be visible. Neil Schermitzler, a regional human resources manager in Rosemont for Fujitsu Computer Systems, recommends, "Be visible in a very positive way. Volunteer for projects. Volunteer for overtime."

Network online. If you haven't created or updated your profile on a professional networking site such as LinkedIn, you are missing out on an easy way to raise your external visibility, said Diana Smith, managing director in Chicago at The Novo Group, a professional-services recruiting firm.

"It's like your Internet business card," Smith said. "Treat it just like you would a good résumé, only you're not limited to two pages the way you are on a résumé Show concrete accomplishments and information about what you could bring an employer. It's a way of getting that information out there without the awkwardness of your employer seeing your resume posted on job boards."

Ask your boss to write a few sentences about you for your profile, she recommends, or "write one for them first and ask them to return the favor. I've had a lot of my staff ask me to do this for them over the years. As a manager, I would expect them to put themselves out there and stay in touch with colleagues."

Set benchmarks. Financial planner Michael Haubrich of Milwaukee-based Financial Service Group Inc. recommends benchmarking yourself every few years against the job market to find out how relevant and transferable your skills and experience are and what others in comparable positions make.

"It's a good tactic for everyone periodically but especially now," he said.

He recalls a client who initially resisted the notion that her biggest financial risk was job loss because she was overpaid, based on a career adviser's assessment of what her job was worth and her transferable skills.

"When the company was sold, her job was on the chopping block," he said. "They kept her long enough to do the knowledge transfer. She ended up working in a different industry, but her income is considerably lower."

Start a career fund. Haubrich also recommends preparing for the inevitable job changes and career transitions by starting a "career asset working-capital fund," in addition to your emergency reserves of three to six months of fixed expenses.

The fund has three functions: to continue lifelong education, to finance job changes and to fund sabbaticals during career makeovers or when you step out of the workforce for family or personal reasons.

One option is putting money aside in a Section 529 college tuition savings plan, where it can grow tax free. Most people think of using 529 plans to save for their children and grandchildren, but you can make yourself the beneficiary.

The main lesson from Haubrich's suggestion is that you will need to invest in maintaining your most important asset, often without help from an employer. The amount depends on your salary, your career's volatility and how many changes you make.

Young workers face the prospect of changing jobs nearly nine times before they reach age 32, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In March, the average length of unemployment for all ages was nearly 17 weeks.

Workers over 50 face longer job searches.

"It's obvious that a fund for job-change costs is a necessary part of a personal financial plan," Haubrich said. "Figure out how much are we talking about and where can you get access to it so it's available when you need it."