Welcome to life! I'm a Gen Xer and this has been pretty much the state of things throughout all my life. Looking at American history this seems to be the statu

Welcome to life! I'm a Gen Xer and this has been pretty much the state of things throughout all my life. Looking at American history this seems to be the status quo also. European history isn't much better - everything always in flux, everything always in crises. That's what they mean by fighting to survive. The process of biological life is going against the grain. It's never easy. I'm no economist but my career spans the "is this a depression?" recession of the early 1990's, the Y2K crash after 2000, the market collapse in 2008 and whatever the hell is coming up for us now. The 2000 crunch was the absolute worst - BY FAR. Between the Y2K work ending, the DotCom Bubble bursting, and the towers falling programmers were being let go by the tens of thousands all at once. The market was flooded with people looking for work. The 2008 recession and the recession in the early 1990's didn't have nearly that impact on developers. So far I'm not seeing a reason to be overly concerned about this recession either. If anything, companies are going to be looking to improve efficiencies and they're going to be looking to technology to do it. As long as you're focused on saving hard dollars and you can quantify those results, then you should be fine. What do I mean by "hard dollars"? That's actual savings, a reduction in accounts payable as a result of your work. For example, terms like "improved efficiency" are too vague - how about we improved efficiencies enough that we avoided having to hire X FTEs, or we were able to improve our sales by X% using the same staff resources, or we were able to take on X more clients as a result. Something measurable, impactful, and actual money being saved or being made. As long as you're always focused on the bottom line you should be okay. In the past some people have responded to me by saying developers don't always get that information. That's true - but I've never worked for a company that would withhold that information when asked. Typically they're thrilled to have a developer who talks business and dollars and cents. They just assume you don't want to hear it. Ask. You should always know why you're doing what you're doing and saying that's what the BSA put into our requirements is not a good answer. If your career has been focused on delivering cool, whiz-bang features or your revenue is largely derived from advertising - then all recessions are bad. Those developers are the first let go. Advertising slumps during recessions and companies tend to shift from whiz-bang features to belt-tightening and improving operational efficiencies. Bottom line - companies are always interested in people who can make them or save them money. Understand your business value.