Job Security Through Optionality

Job security doesn't exist.

You're not guaranteed to keep your job, remain at your company, or eliminate the fear of losing your job. The best we can do is to build a career in which we minimize the probability of being without a job and maximize the probability of getting a new job quickly, if we need one.

How do we do this?

How to minimize the probability of losing your job?

The answer is simple: Be eminently qualified.

Be a leader in your current role. Be the top performer on your team. Possess the highest level of technical skill. Build strong relationships with your peers, boss, and other leaders in the company. Amplify your strengths. Correct and improve your weaknesses.

Leave no stone unturned.

How do you know you're becoming eminently qualified and reducing your probability of getting canned?

You will know if you're getting promotions, favorable performance evaluations, raises, positive praise, constructive feedback, and opportunities to challenge yourself.

If you're getting these things and getting them on a regular basis, you're on the right track.

How to maximize the probability of getting a new job?

Have unlimited options.

You need the ability to work for any company or industry, be able to take any job, excel as an individual contributor, and lead a team. The more you can check off this list, the more options you have. The more options you have, the easier it is to get a new job.

If only have one skillset, one piece of domain knowledge, or, one solid relationship, you're at risk.

Beware of strategies that reduce the probability of losing your job but don't give you more options.

It's possible to do well in your current role in a way that's only beneficial to that role itself and doesn't maximize your options. Brown nosing, being a yes-man, and learning skills that are too specialized are ways you can excel in your current role without increasing your options.

When in doubt, optimize for optionality.

How to maximize optionality

The best way to maximize optionality is to focus on timeless skills that can be applied to any job, company, or industry.

Things like leadership, social intelligence, asking smart questions, and even project management. These are skill domains that are effective at work and in your personal life. That's a signal that they are infinitely transferrable.

As you master these skills, focus on the technical aspect of your job. Be great at the craft your industry demands of you. I work in analytics, so I should be focusing on improving all necessary analytical skills that are demanded in the marketplace. You should do the same.

Technical competence is a form of leadership.

The combination of leadership and technical skills will maximize your optionality.

You'll never reach full job security.

But you can always get one step closer.