Is recession talk a big April Fool’s Day joke on resume-sending job seekers?

You want the truth about recession? Here’s the truth about recession. It takes two quarters – six months! – of negative growth before anyone can officially declare a recession.

For anyone to be calling “Recession!” right now is the equivalent of calling “Shotgun!” for the front passenger seat before anyone’s decided to even leave the house.

All the talk in the media about recession is essentially scare-mongering. No, I’m not saying things aren’t bad, or that we aren’t in a recession now. (They’re right, we probably are.)

But it’s getting completely blown out of proportion. I’m convinced that the so-called “pundits” who are blathering on about it will actually do more harm than good. They’re going to take the negative effects of a recession and turn it into a vicious circle that ends up making the eventually-declared recession a lot worse than it could have been, if they’d have exercised a little restraint.

Wall Street may be seeing chaos, and it’s possible some of the shareholder retribution will involve layoffs or job cuts. The employment numbers coming out this year don’t seem to bode very well either.

But employment surveys we’ve quoted before have said as recently as September of 2007 that the balance of power – especially at the management, executive, and professional level – is tipping in favor of the resume senders, not the resume receivers.

What does this all mean for you, the mid-career job seeker? It means that, for the most part, nothing has changed.

Networking? Just as important as it always was.

Updating your resume? Still necessary.

Defining for yourself what your ideal job or next step there looks like? You had to do it before, and you have to do it now, and you’ll have to do it until you die. Or retire.

And now (perhaps more than ever), you need to focus on the value you deliver. Document your results. It’ll offer you some cover in the job you already have, and it’ll concretely demonstrate what you can do for the next employer who evaluates your job candidacy.

Wanna succeed in the face of a recession? Just follow through.

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