Layoff-Proof Your Career

Live Workshop (Sliding Scale Pricing)

Wednesday, January 7 @ 2pm ET / 11am PT

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There is no unemployment insurance like preparation.

You can't stop your company from laying you off, but you can build a career that survives and thrives anyway.

Learn the Three Pillars of Professional Resilience so you aren't trapped in your job or chained to your employer:

Have sufficient savings to weather the storm or walk away before it hits
Build a robust network that offers you opportunities
Maintain marketable skills so someone always wants what you do

What to Expect from Layoff-Proof Your Career:

I'll explain my financial resilience strategy and how it's changed over time. Building savings is essential, but I had to learn some hard lessons before I was able to get consistent and effective at saving and investing.

This is more common that most people realize. If you're in the same boat, don't feel alone or embarrassed about where you are in your journey. You have to start somewhere to get somewhere.

I was among the many talented professionals laid off by @voxmedia today.

While I'm disappointed, I know I'll be ok because this is not my first rodeo. (It's my third, actually.)

I've been preparing to get laid off ever since I took this job.
— Phoebe Gavin (@phoebegavin) January 20, 2023

Yep, I started preparing to get laid off on Day 1.

Not because I didn't have faith in Vox or didn't believe in its mission. Not because I doubted my ability to make a positive impact or thought I would fail.

It's because I'm not interested in building my house on rented land.
— Phoebe Gavin (@phoebegavin) January 20, 2023

We'll talk about how to develop your network authentically and sustainably. Without being awkward or transactional. This is the most important and most procrastinated Pillar.

When people know who you are, why you're special, and what you're trying to accomplish in your career, they will naturally offer you opportunities. When done well, these offers will be extended organically at random moments here and there.

If that's happening, you'll get an absolute FLOOD of support if A Bad Thing happens (like a layoff).

Plus, I'll show you how to identify, develop, and evolve your monetizable skills so you're always marketable. Many professionals get complacent about staying on top of their skills, but that makes it really hard for you to stay relevant in your industry and get lots of callbacks when you enter the job market – whether by choice or by force.

For me, that evolution turned into a side hustle (this career coaching company!). But it DOESN'T have to.

Not everyone is meant to be an entrepreneur and that's ok, but NO-ONE is meant to be trapped in a crap job because they don't know how to leave.

NO-ONE is meant to be unemployed or underemployed because their skill level is out of step with their potential.

My first media layoff was after The First Facebook Algo Betrayal of 2014, when so many pubs lost 40%+ of their traffic overnight. (If you know, you know.)

I remember reading something a Buzzfeed exec (I think??) said about how the industry had built its house on rented land.
— Phoebe Gavin (@phoebegavin) January 20, 2023

Whoever said it, it stuck with me.

Media had staked its future on FB traffic they had no control over.
Similarly, I'd staked my future on a company that I had no control over.

FB will always choose itself.
Companies will always choose themselves.
I should choose myself too.
— Phoebe Gavin (@phoebegavin) January 20, 2023

Layoff-proofing your career isn't about making you impossible to lay off. It's about making layoffs easy to bounce back from.

Companies exist to make money, not to be nice to us. So if you leave your livelihood in the hands of a company, it's only a matter of time until the company's interest differ from your own.

That might look like a layoff. But it could also look like lack of growth opportunities, plateauing pay, lack of flexibility, or an unsustainable workload.

Layoff-proofing help you withstand layoffs, but also frees you from having to tolerate bad jobs.

Layoff-proofing compounds over time. If you find a way to start and find a way to keep going, it will be there for you when you need it.

As the months and years stretch on, your efforts will generate spontaneous opportunities. You might get introduced to a hiring manager at your dream company by a networking contact, find yourself perfectly qualified for a promotion, or even discover your most meaningful and fulfilling skills could become a profitable company.

Layoff-proofing isn't just layoff insurance, it's a career investment that starts paying off right away.

So I kept working and never stopped choosing myself.

I did each job at the highest level I could. But...

👉🏾 I was always putting money away for savings – even when it was painful.

👉🏾I was always growing and maintaining my network.

👉🏾And I was always working on a side thing.
— Phoebe Gavin (@phoebegavin) January 20, 2023

Hi, I’m Phoebe Gavin

A career coach who helps women and people of color build careers they don’t have to recover from. My work blends strategy, structure, and emotional intelligence. I’ve helped over a thousand clients across dozens of industries get unstuck, level up, and move forward (even in difficult markets like this one).

I’ve also been featured in The Washington Post, Time Magazine, CNBC, Fortune, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, New Yorker Magazine, CNN, and Netflix.

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