Recession-Proof Job Ideas

Have you been searching for a solid, steady, recession-proof industry? Ask yourself this: In troubled times - and what times aren't? - what can you always count on?

Well, trouble itself.

There are plenty of people in the trouble business - from manufacturers of fire extinguishers to liposuctionists. Misery doesn't just love company, it loves companies. If you're looking to start or expand a business, just find an answer to this question: Whose problem can I solve?

But there are also corporate employees who are building careers by looking for trouble. It's difficult to make a reputation doing routine work in routine times. Look at the military - what's the difference between a bureaucrat and a hero? War. And in the corporate wars, the heroes are those who pull off surprising victories.

An engineer told me of the benefits of being a "troubleshooter" and searching out failing projects to save. Not only does a struggling project have more visibility, but, the odds of a turnaround are often quite high. Management will give a troubleshooter authority, money and deadlines that an ordinary employee would never get. He says that the time to negotiate with company executives is "when they are in panic."

As for executives, many of them recognize that they're in the business of trouble management. Having spent some time with an businessman, most businesses have an employee or two, who fire employees. These days, hiring and firing is 75 percent of management. They do drug testing, background testing and reference checking.

As for the last of these, most owners scoff at those who think that it's no longer possible to check references. All you have to do is ask questions and listen to what a former employer doesn't say. When a former boss says, We're only allowed to give out dates of employment or tell me one thing: Would you hire him/her again?

The former boss - especially one who's been coached by an attorney - might respond with, It's against our policy to rehire. What if it wasn't against policy? I'm not allowed to say. If an employee was wonderful, why wouldn't they say so? You learn to play the odds. There are bad employees out there - you want them working for the competition.

As for good employees, they may tend to be intimidated by the "big boss." If you want to know about problems before they get out of hand, you have to find a way to get employees to confide in you. So businesses use an automobile to extract the truth..

Employees will open up while riding in a car in ways they won't in his office. The conversation is out of the usual setting, there are no interruptions, no eye contact is required, and the employees needn't fear being overheard. So now when the person who does the firing needs to drive somewhere, he often invites along an employee. It's his way of driving away trouble.

And so we have a trouble trilogy: trouble business, troubleshooters and trouble management. In each, adversity is such a nemesis it becomes an ally. Those who make a living by looking for trouble come to understand that.