Karena Plepel (left), Nicholas Jenkins (center), and Maahir Sharma (right) each invested time outside work to build and protect their careers.Karena Plepel (left), Nicholas Jenkins (center), and Maahir Sharma (right)Workers say finding a job and protecting their careers requires more effort than it once did.Layoff prep, upskilling, and personal branding are becoming time-consuming career investments.Many workers say hard work and experience are no longer enough to build and sustain a career.When a strategic shift at Intel made Kent Ha worry his digital marketing job could disappear, he didn't wait for a layoff notice. He started looking for his next job."I figured worst case, I'd land another offer and have a backup plan," said Ha, who's in his 30s and lives in Oregon. "Best case, I'd keep my job and wouldn't have to make any changes."By the time he was laid off last July, he'd already spoken with his financial advisor and was about a month into his job search.Ha is among the workers who say finding a job, keeping one, and building a career now takes more time, planning, and effort than it used to. For some, that means spending nights and weekends learning AI. Others are building personal brands online, relocating for better opportunities, or preparing for layoffs before they happen.Call it the career protection era: a time when many workers say strong job performance and years of experience aren't enough on their own to build and sustain a career.Kent Ha started preparing for a layoff before losing his job at Intel.Kent HaInvesting in your reputationWhen a former Microsoft manager was laid off last year, he thought finding another job would involve the usual: update the résumé, tap the network, apply online.Instead, he encountered a labor market where one role attracted more than 1,000 applicants and standing out required a lot more than a polished resume.At first, recruiters and career coaches emphasized networking and referrals. Over time, he said, the advice shifted: Build a personal brand. Post on LinkedIn. Make yourself visible so recruiters can find you."We all have to be content creators on top of our actual jobs — or lack of jobs — and perform being a candidate, so we can get noticed and shoot our way to the top of the résumé pile," said the former manager, who is in his 30s and lives in the Seattle area.Within weeks, he went from rarely posting to posting regularly about his field and spending hours digging into LinkedIn's algorithm to boost his visibility. He said he sometimes felt more like an author trying to market a book than a job seeker, but he felt he couldn't afford not to try.After seven months, he finally landed a job. He's not sure his LinkedIn posting helped directly, but said the extra effort he put into optimizing his resume and applying early may have made a difference."If you don't figure out all the mechanics of a properly formatted resume, apply to jobs early with the right keywords, work the connections you have, and trawl for knowledge on best practices for online posting, you're out of luck," he said. Business Insider is speaking with workers who've found themselves at a corporate crossroads — whether due to a layoff, resignation, job search, or shifting workplace expectations.Share your story by filling out this form. Investing in your skillsThe extra work doesn't stop at personal branding.In recent years, workers have increasingly pursued non-degree credentials like certificates. The number of those credentials listed on US workers' résumés jumped nearly 35% over the past year, according to a recent Brookings Institution report, which attributed the rise in part to rapid advances in AI and growing concerns about job security.After being laid off from her senior hub manager role at Microsoft in 2023, Karena Plepel earned multiple life coaching certifications while launching a coaching business."I believe pursuing an independent source of income is worthwhile, particularly with the tough job market and the seeming lack of job security these days," she said.For others, the most valuable learning doesn't come with a formal credential.Maahir Sharma, a software engineer at a Big Tech company, spends about 20 hours a week outside work experimenting with AI and building side projects to avoid falling behind in a rapidly changing industry. Recently, he built an AI agent that called hotels to negotiate room rates on his behalf.Sharma said it's no longer enough to simply build projects in private and list them on a résumé."Recruiters, hiring managers, everyone wants to see what you have built out in public and whether there are actual users for that project," he said.Investing in your networkSome workers say today's labor market demands a bigger investment in fostering professional relationships.That can mean messaging hundreds of recruiters and hiring managers on LinkedIn, tracking down their email addresses, or paying to join professional networking com
Don't miss out on breaking stories and in-depth articles.
