Software Devs Are Sharks — We Have To Keep Swimming

Keeping your skills sharp can save you in the event of a layoff

Photo by Jakob Owens on Unsplash

I had a surreal experience recently.

I posted an income report here on Medium, mentioning specifically that my largest source of income was a “stable full-time job”, but that stable jobs don’t always stay stable. “While this is a comfortable salary, it isn’t a permanent salary,” she said, foolishly refusing to knock on wood.

Immediately after I posted that, the universe winked at me. The company I work for executed a round of severe layoffs. I was spared (this time), but my team was absolutely gutted. I’m still kind of in shock, and I know from experience that my less lucky coworkers are feeling much worse.

As wild and coincidental as this was, it underlines the idea from that post that having multiple income streams is a great idea to create freedom and stability. It can help protect you in moments like this.

But income streams take time.

You can see in my report that I’m not paying a mortgage with my side income — I’m not even paying for a load of groceries each month — and I’ve been working on them for years.

Alas, catastrophe doesn’t wait for us to be ready before it strikes. So, how can we prepare for the worst if we don’t have side…