How to Layoff-Proof Yourself and Bounce Back Better

Before we jump in, I want to give a big shoutout to the sponsor of this episode, Canopy. Canopy is the firm-wide operating system that helps accountants build a firm they'll actually enjoy working at. Canopy streamlines firm operations, from client management to managing your financials or your firm's performance, they've got you covered. And something I really like about them is you can actually demo their product with an interactive tour without having to sign up for a sales demo. They let the product do the talking because it is just so good. So if you're running a firm or in charge of improving the operations of a firm, go to getcanopy.com and click on the button that says take a tour to check out that interactive demo. Now one more thing before we jump into this episode, following the layoffs at PwC, the Aprio and PS Plus alliances, so PS Plus who got acquired by Aprio recently, got in touch with me bringing forward a whole ton of job openings to help job seekers land on their feet. The Big 4 Transparency talent pool has been very busy this week and I have been trying to make matches between as many candidates and roles as possible. We've already got a few interviews going for some folks who are let go from PwC, but there are a lot more opportunities available. So if you are a job seeker in accounting, go to big4transparency.com slash recruit, fill out the intake, it takes literally two minutes. And you'll only hear from me if there's a job matching your desired criteria. As a thank you for using the service, we've always paid out $1,000 for any successfully placed candidate. But for the next few months, at least we're going to double that for anyone who is seeking a new job as a result of a layoff at their firm. So we just want to help you land on your feet, give you that little bonus to get you going. So yeah, make sure you go check that out, big4transparency.com slash recruit. If you are a job seeker, I'm going to be honest with you, a lot of the jobs are for seniors and managers, but it doesn't hurt to try regardless. And now thank you very much and enjoy the episode. Hello and welcome to the Big 4 Transparency podcast. Today's episode is going to be a solo episode and I want to talk about layoffs. Not the cheeriest of topics, but one of the big things I want to talk about is how to prepare yourself for layoffs and how to layoff proof yourself essentially just ways where you can kind of bounce back stronger and you know, be in a position to make those moves very quickly. So layoffs have obviously been all over the news in the accounting world lately. There were some very large PWC layoffs lately, I believe it was 1500 employees in the US. Just today as I'm recording this, there were some that were being talked about for RSM as well. So very obviously layoffs are happening across the board. It's often not a huge percentage of staff. So I would say, you know, if you don't have reason to believe that it's about to happen, I, you know, I urge you not to lose sleep over this. I believe the PWC layoffs were maybe 3% of folks and you often kind of leave these, you know, in a very good position to land your next position, although it might not feel like it at the time. But there are things you can do ahead of time just to make sure that, you know, you're going to be one of the people who does bounce back faster. So unfortunately, especially at the very large firms like PWC, probably RSM as well, all of the big four, when you're working there, you end up very siloed within what's going on at your firm. You know, a lot of people are getting their CPE credits through firm sponsored events, firm sponsored webinars, things like that. And you end up really disconnected from the world outside of your firm. And this happens in business and in tech all the time. I'm based in Ottawa. We had, you know, Shopify is one of the kind of biggest industry employers in our city. And people who work at Shopify make it kind of a very large part of their life, a large part of their personality. They hang out with other people at Shopify. And like I said, this happens a lot for very large accounting firms as well. And so what happens is, you know, when you, if you, if you get laid off from that place, it feels like you're losing a very large part of yourself. And all of your network is basically also at that place, also being siloed. And so they're not really connected to what's going on in the industry. And I think that that is a very avoidable and very large mistake that a lot of people make. When you're at these large firms, yes, it's super important that you participate in some of the firm events, right? You should be a part of the firm. You should be proud of your firm, ideally. And you should be participating in the culture there. But what a lot of people do is they kind of cast the rest of everything else that's going on off to the side. And, you know, it can be a financial commitment sometimes to try to attend conferences outside of the conferences that are being offered by your firm or that you're being sent to. But I think that it's really important that you stay connected to what's going on in the industry and that you always have some relationships outside of your firm and some kind of feelers, you know, who can help you bounce back should layoffs ever happen. So I think this is always a good idea, regardless of layoffs. I think it's really important to understand the industry that you work in, understand the bigger picture and what's going on. But I think this becomes doubly important if you have been laid off. Right. So, you know, actionable items from this. I really recommend you go to a conference. I'm going to firm growth forum here, you know, next week as I'm recording this, I'm going to bridging the gap. There are a lot of other good conferences I've heard great things about that may be more aligned with your area of specialty. You know, I know there's a context to look at scaling new heights. And a lot of these conferences I'm naming intentionally are a little bit smaller. They're kind of the midsize conference at two to five hundred people versus the mega conferences at like a ICPA engage and things like that. I think you it's a lot easier to form more meaningful connections at some of these small and medium conferences and the mega conferences where you're not actually interacting with the same people a lot of times. And having these connections again, each of these people you meet is probably at a firm who is also doing hiring. A lot of firm runners and operators are there who are themselves very connected with large networks of other firm runners or operators. And so it actually doesn't take that much for you to actually have a very, very wide net in terms of bouncing back from a layoff if you are looking for a job. So, you know, going to a conference is a great thing to do. If you are not the type who thrives in that environment, if you don't like conferences or anything like that, you know, maybe there's a community that you can join. I don't know of any kind of super successful top notch communities for employees of firms. I know of a lot of communities for folks running firms. But I think being a part of any kind of a community like this, you know, even if there's like a charity golf event for accountants or professionals or anything like that that you can connect to, each one of these people that you meet outside of your firm, outside of your network, you know, if they're connected to what's going on in the industry, each of those connections might open 50 new opportunities for you or 20 new opportunities for you or something like that. And so getting outside of your firm and doing things and staying plugged into what's going on in the industry is crucial. You can also do that on LinkedIn. Again, if you're like just not someone who leaves the house, you can do that via LinkedIn. I have an episode if you want to go back in terms of the Big 4 Transparency recorded episodes with Chaitin Farley. He is, in my opinion, an absolute master networker on LinkedIn and on the internet. He also goes to conferences, which is, you know, a double whammy. But if you listen to that episode, you're going to get a lot of insight and tips and tricks on how to kind of grow a very effective network on LinkedIn as well. Next up is kind of how you react to the layoff. I wrote a newsletter about this, which I'm going to link in the podcast description. I always just like talking about these things, though, a little bit more. You can kind of get more out of it. You can kind of put more, you know, more detail into what you're talking about because you're not trying to be concise in the written form. But if you have been laid off, again, number one is like, don't panic. You're in an industry where there is a little bit of a shorter supply of talent, especially if you're kind of like senior level or above. If you're at the lower levels, there seems to be a little bit less of a shortage, but it is still a very active industry in terms of hiring. But yeah, don't panic. You're, you know, as an accountant, I think you're really well suited to bounce back. There are also a lot of other roles for you to consider that you've maybe never looked at before. So yes, there are kind of parallel type roles to what you were doing, just joining another public accounting firm. There are industry roles, right? I always, you know, I think being a staff accountant is great. And even if your goal is public accounting, I think working in industry for a couple of years will actually make you a far better public accountant as you go further up the chain because you're going to understand the client perspective a lot better. So even if your goal is to stay in public accounting, I think a short stint in industry can be great for you. There's also other things outside of direct accounting where they're going to be really pumped about your background. I talk about this every once in a while, but the highest salary I've ever been kind of approached for for a job was actually as a process improvement specialist. They really, really like this. You know, insurance companies, places like that, large entities really, really like to hire accountants in these roles because of attention to detail, understanding how businesses operate. There's a lot of tech companies in the accounting space who would probably be pretty jazzed about having someone with an accounting background either, you know, coming on as some sort of like a product manager role or even maybe in a sales role. Sales folks are often kind of the highest paid folks within, you know, within most companies. The last company I was at, you know, sales leadership might make more than the CEO, for example. So that's also a really good avenue for you to consider. And if you've just been laid off and you don't have like immediate financial obligations, I think it is great to take a little bit of a beat. If you can take a week or two, just self reflect on what, you know, what's next for you, what you really, really want to do next instead of being reactive and just kind of trying to jump right into the next accounting job that's available. I think it is good if you can be, you know, a little bit selective. If you are someone who has financial obligations, you got to do what's best for yourself and for your family, right? A lot of people are really freaked out about, oh, you know, I'm really scared of taking this job. That's like an eight out of 10 for me. And then, you know, missing out on the next job. If it's what you need to do for yourself and your family, I don't think anyone's going to really fault you, especially if you don't have a history of job hopping. If you take a job and it doesn't work out. I have discussions with candidates all the time through the Big Four transparency pool, you know, where they might've been at a new place for six months, but their last job, they were there for three years. And then that's completely excusable because everyone's gone somewhere that wasn't a fit for them. So don't panic if you need to just find a job to get yourself through and then you kind of continue silently searching for the right job for you. That's an option as well. And then the next thing is sort of being open and honest about it. Some people are kind of like have this weird shame around being laid off and they think it'll make them an undesirable candidate. I think, you know, from an ideal perspective, it's always easier to find your next job when you have a job, but I don't think that being laid off is generally viewed negatively. With the latest round of PwC layoffs, I actually ended up collaborating with the Aprio Alliance and an email was sent out saying, Hey, we have a whole bunch of candidates who are recently laid off and people were jumping at those candidates to try and get them to fill the role. So I'm actually recording this one week after those layoffs. I actually have an offer from one of those firms going out to a candidate already. There's already a dozen or so candidates who are being introduced for interviews from those layoffs. People are not thumbing their nose at candidates because they were laid off, assuming they're low performers. They know that this is often just kind of a numbers game and you got the short end of the stick on that one. You're not going to be viewed as a low performer. So that being said, I do think posting about it on LinkedIn is a great idea. Putting that you're looking for a job very openly. Even if you don't have a big network, places like LinkedIn, Reddit, Fishbowl are great places where you're essentially increasing the surface area that you have for luck and serendipity. So if we pretend that luck and serendipity is like a dart being thrown with your eyes closed, well, the more places that you've talked about this, the more chance that that lucky dart that was thrown lands on you and you actually end up landing that role or getting that connection that'll get you a foot in the door somewhere. So don't be shy about that. Please, please, please. And then the last piece of advice I want to give for anyone who wants to kind of lay off proof themselves. And I have a love-hate relationship with recruiters. I also have my own talent pool. So this can kind of be part of that, but is to start with someone who's already on third base, right? So recruiters, if you can find good ones, if you need access to a good recruiter, let me know. I know some great ones. They're really starting the job hunt for you on third base because odds are they've spent the last seven, 10, 20 years or whatever that might be with their singular focus being, I need to develop a network of places where I can place candidates and I will then reach out to candidates and try to find them to put them into these roles, right? Versus if you're starting, it's a little bit of a, you know, it's a flat start. Like you, you maybe don't already have those existing relationships. You should, like I mentioned, ideally if you're going to conferences, if you're doing your networking on an ongoing basis, but if you don't, these recruiters are already kind of starting that process on third base. I'm starting it as well, a little bit further ahead with the talent pool. I've got existing places that I know are always hiring and there is no shame in reaching out and looking for help. I think that, you know, especially if you need something kind of quickly, that's probably the best way to go about it. So all in all, you know, if you were affected by any of the recent layoffs, I'm really sorry to hear that for you. If you weren't, count yourself lucky. However, you should maybe just kind of follow some of these steps regardless so that if you ever do, you're in a position to bounce back very quickly and into a job that you would like. So yeah, that's that. That's the episode. Like I said, we're making a lot of introductions right now through the talent pool. So if you are looking for your next job, even if you weren't laid off, I am very happy to help. We have a lot of remote firms that are hiring through us. We also have some in-office firms. So I mean, maybe that works out in terms of your geography and where you're willing to work. But yeah, keep your head up high if you were laid off. Again, there's no shame in that. And I wish you luck in your job search. And if you haven't been laid off, like I said, these are great steps to kind of lay off proof yourself. Thank you.