The economy always goes through a cycle of several ups and downs. It is easy to go through the good times but million dollar question that remains is, how to sail the boat when heading for the tough times? Should we wait till we are hit or should we prepare well in advance?
As a Software Testing professional, it is very common these days to hear news about layoffs, but what are we going to do about it?
I totally believe that when other people lose jobs, it is called a “Recession”. But when we lose ours, it is not the recession, we call it “Depression”. Now economic recession can be a setback or a source of stress to every person whether you are working as an employee or whether you are at a CEO position. That is the time where instead of just sitting idle and hoping and praying that it shouldn’t affect us, we should do something about it.
We need to prepare adequately, cut costs wherever possible and think creatively about other sources of income as well to bulletproof our economy.
Now let’s discuss as to what all we can do to counter it:
Manage Your Emotions:
I was terribly shocked to hear about a Pune based professional who threw in the towel and committed suicide after getting laid off. Now if we really think deeply into it, maybe he wasn’t able to manage his emotions. Managing stress during such difficult times is equally important as to finding ways to overcome it. I have seen from my personal experience that we lose the ability to take right decisions under stress.
What to do to Win over stress?
Stop Overthinking: Instead of thinking about what all things can go wrong, can we feel grateful about the things that we have? Do we have parents? Do we have a loving spouse? Do we have lovely kids? Do we have wonderful health? I strongly believe that we have enough reasons to be happy and work towards finding a solution to bullet-proofing our economy.
Do Exercise & Yoga: If we are not an exercise-type person, we can start maybe 5-10 minutes a day that too at home.
Pursue Your Hobbies: You will surely get a smile doing things you always longed to do.
Go out for a short break: Going out on a weekend or maybe taking just a day off won’t do any harm, rather it will rejuvenate your spirits to focus on the work ahead.
Best Option is to “Become an Expert in Your Field”
Jack Canfield told us many years back if you want to get to the top 1% knowledge level in the entire world, it’s pretty simple to do that – by reading 5 books on one subject. Read 5 books on one subject and you will know more than 99% of everyone else in the world on your subject as the majority of people are too lazy to do that. Don’t believe me? Ask yourself how many books on Software Testing/Automation Testing you have read in your entire career.
A most useful tip I ever got on reading is that “Read a book as if you are required to give a training the next day”.
Do you want to have an edge in your career? Then get up and do what the majority of people are not willing to do. If you want to stay an average tester – Never ever upgrade your knowledge. If you want to the best tester – upgrade your knowledge, upgrade your skills.
Now you may ask, how do I get the time? Well, if we are really serious about it, then it’s okay not to use Social Media for one day and we will get enough amount of time.
Immediately Start working on having 6 months of living expenses in your bank
We all have heard the fable of the Ant & the Grasshopper but the majority of us have forgotten to take the most important life lesson from it i.e. about taking responsibility & preparation. In case some of us have forgotten the story, here it is.
The Grasshopper has a good time in the summer playing and having fun. He never thought about the cold and hungry days. The Ant, however, works very hard instead of playing. Now when the winter came, the GrassHopper dies a painful death.
Unfortunately, most of the people live their entire lives with the foresight of a Grasshopper as the majority of them think only about the present and rarely about the future. Warren Buffet, the legend says something worthwhile “Don’t save what is left after spending, spend what is left after saving.”
If you can’t save a lot, save a little – it adds up over time.
The majority of Indians live paycheck to paycheck according to a survey. In case you are one of them, you might find it impossible to save and invest. But never ever forget the Power of compounding along with disciplined budgeting. You can invest just 5000Rs/100$ a month, you can actually be a Millionaire. All you need is discipline & long term strategy.
You may start Blogging as an alternative source of income:
You may find this strange that I am mentioning something outside a Testing job. However, it’s my perspective and you don’t necessarily have to agree with it. However, since I have seen huge success myself through Blogging over a decade, we can’t ‘this fact either.
Till few years back, people use to write blogs out of hobby but now-a-days many people are seriously considering blogging as a decent alternative source of income. It’s no surprise to see people making an income of Rs. 1 Lac/month from blogging alone. One of my blogger friends is making well over Rs. 10Lakhs/month, which still inspires me till date to blog. Well the possibilities are endless.
In case you are seriously considering starting blogging as an alternate source of income and looking step by step help, we would like to help you. Shoot us an email @ software.testing.genius@gmail.com
You may consider starting a Business
Now why Business? The only reason is for getting a secured income. In a job, there is always one man show, so it does not matter whether someone is at a ground level or a CEO of a big MNC, the income is always dependent upon one person’s ability to produce. However, all successful businessmen use the power of leverage to compound their time.
Now many people will think, it is risky with my full time Automation testing job and that I don’t have a business experience. Yes, totally agreed but there are ways too.
In case you are seriously considering starting a business and looking step-by-step help, we would like to help you. Shoot us an email @ software.testing.genius@gmail.com
People who want to build their own venture/startup must read this book and your lives will never be the same. This book is truly a masterpiece.
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Author:
Er. Piyush Gupta
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An expert on R&D, Online Training and Publishing. He is M.Tech. (Honours) and is a part of the STG team since inception.
Thanks for this wonderfully written article.. I have seen many layoffs happening across my industry where people with high packages are getting laid off every now and then. It was becoming a more of an alarming situation till I decided I need to do something about it.
Thanks Piyush for sharing your insights. Much appreciate it