10 steps to take before you get laid off

"it’s easier to keep a job than find one. We’re hearing about companies cutting 25% or 33% of their headcount. That means you need to be in the top 67% or 75% to avoid a pink slip. Other than an entire plant, division or office closure, the decisions about whom to keep and whom to let go are based on performance, salary and redundancy of position."<p>Unfortunately this is not always true. I have seen two really good developers loosing theirs jobs recently. If you are paid too well, then you are in the x-ross if layoffs come.<p>While your manager might appreciate your skills, some hire management just views you as a cost, and really Don"T realise that some people are better in order of magnitudes.<p>When that spreadsheet comes, it is ordered by salary, and the top people are the first to be scrutinized, even though they good performers, and worth the money, they might get the axe.<p>Unfair, but this is how it is.

#11 - Take advantage of your health and dental insurance. If you haven't gone to the doctor or the dentist in awhile, or if you have an appointment that you should make in the coming months - make it now!

#10 is my favorite.<p>Anyway, I think most of the list is good advice in general, even if you aren't planning on getting laid off. It basically boils down to: keeping your skills up and maintaining your contacts. It's who you know <i>and</i> what you know.

A modest proposal:<p>No more top 10 or 10 steps or whatever pithy articles on HN.<p>P.S.<p>I am only slightly more serious about this then eatin' babies.

#3. I don't "really" have one. But one can feel free to check my HN profile and you'll know what interests me (submissions), what I think of most issues (comments) and also how I react to criticism or when someone offends me (troll). All in there buddy.

Actually I liked #3 quiet a bit.<p>"Start a blog that contains at least 50% professional material"<p>I think atleast in a technical field that really shows what you are passionate about.

The title's funnier if you remove the last word.

Work out??? Oh no no no no no. If you get hired because you look good, either you are incompetent (work out and do it man) or you should not take the job. ALL jobs I interviewed for dug deep within my brain to get a taste of my problem solving skills and knowledge of programming. Good people skills help, if you can get along with the interviewers (a few laughs to ease the tension) then you have a better shot than someone else, but that's where it ends.<p>If it is a choice between a weak candidate who looks good, is fun, and has a ton of linked in buddies, or a strong candidate who is worse at all of the above, I doubt the pretty face is going to get the job.

#11. Make friends <i>at your current job</i>-- as many as possible, preferably with some being "diagonal-up" (e.g. not your boss, but at a higher level). Bonus points if they are unlikely to be cut. You will need them as references if your boss gives you a bad one (which you should check 3-5 weeks after being laid off, using a professional ref-checking service).<p>Friends from the old company are not just potential references, but also possible co-founders or recruits at the new job.<p>#12. Move all your side projects onto off-work computers, and try to make sure that they're deleted from your work machines nightly and automatically. (Of course, this is not the time to do something moronic, so only delete true side projects, e.g. things that the company doesn't know or care about but that you still need to unambiguously own for future purposes.)<p>#13. This one applies mainly to large companies. In good economic times, you want to make yourself as replaceable and obsolete as possible (write well-documented, easy-to-follow code) so you can move on to more interesting projects and, if laid off, leave on good terms to a better job. In bad economic times, try to make yourself irreplaceable, even if that means making your code difficult to use. If you feel the need to be unethical, you can hide time-delay bugs. At worst, you'll be asked to train someone else in the technology and offered a severance package in order to do it, which is better than being let go cold.