Ask HN: How to build F-You Skills

The past few months have been stressful for most people in the tech industry owing to mass layoffs everywhere. Luckily, I survived the layoffs at my company. But I was very anxious during the period it was announced and it affected my mental health quite a bit.

However, on talking to a few other engineers at my company, I realized not everyone was as stressed. They are confident in their skills to get a new equivalent job which would easily support their current lifestyle, even in the current market. They have what I would call, "F-You Skills - Enough skills to know that you would never have to worry about money in your life", a spin on the more commonly known term "F-You Money" [1].

I was wondering if HN users ever think of their own skills in this context. If yes, how should one go about building these skills.

To be clear, I am not talking about interviewing skills, which are also equally important. But I am more interested in technical skills that people believe will easily fetch them "decent money" [2] in any scenario in the short term future.

[1] F-You Money means "Enough money to leave one's job, etc. and enjoy the lifestyle of one's choice" https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fuck_you_money

[2] not insane money to retire early, but good enough to support their current lifestyle.

I found out that the most important skills in the IT industry is the bullshit skill. That's the kind of skill you need to build.

I agree. I strongly suspect the people telling OP they aren't worried about finding another job are bullshitting him. Or in some cases, maybe their egos have them believing it too.

1. Live below your means.

2. Have 6+ months living expenses in cash equivalent.

3. Build retirement / investment savings.

4. Build skills and be able to demonstrate you can ship product.

I've seen many co-workers get laid off in my career, they all landed back on their feet.

If you can code and speak decently well, you already have this.