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Writing in Public: The Career Insurance Policy Layoffs Made Obvious
Tech layoffs in 2026 have already passed last year’s total. The leaders who weather it best have an audience their employer login can’t take away.
By late September 2026, the Skillsyncer layoffs tracker had counted 225,122 tech workers laid off since January 1, more than the 205,773 it recorded for the whole of 2025. Challenger, Gray and Christmas put the year on pace for roughly 370,000 job cuts across sectors. State of Brand reported on the trend in October, and on a quieter shift that came with it: more professionals responding by writing in public.
Senior leaders aren’t immune to any of this. Restructurings reach VPs and directors too, often with less warning and fewer comparable roles to move into.
What disappears with your login
When a leader leaves a company, a surprising amount of their professional standing leaves with the job. The internal reputation, the Slack history, the decks they built, the relationships that ran through the company’s systems. Colleagues scatter. The work itself usually can’t be shown.
What stays is what was public: what you wrote, where you spoke, who knows your thinking because they’ve read it. For many senior leaders, that’s very little.
Why writing works as insurance
A body of public writing does three jobs at once, and all three matter most at exactly the moment you need them.
It proves your thinking without a reference call. A recruiter or board chair can read six months of your posts and know how you approach problems before they speak to anyone who worked with you.
It keeps your network warm. People who read you regularly feel they know you. When you reach out after a layoff, you’re continuing a relationship rather than asking a favour from someone who hasn’t heard from you in three years.
It brings opportunities to you. Leaders with a steady public presence get approached for roles, advisory work and stages that are never advertised. You want those approaches arriving before you need them.
Owned audiences, and why the email list matters
State of Brand made a useful distinction: a newsletter or a steady body of posts is owned media for one person. LinkedIn followers are valuable, but the platform controls the reach. An email list you control is steadier still.
For most senior leaders we don’t recommend starting a newsletter on day one. Start with consistent posts, then add a monthly long-form piece, then consider an email list once people are clearly reading. The order matters less than starting before you need it.
“I can’t write publicly while I’m employed”
This is the objection we hear most, and it’s usually based on a misunderstanding of what needs to be said.
You don’t need to signal that you’re looking. You don’t need to discuss your employer’s strategy or numbers. You need to write about your field: the problems you’ve solved, the decisions you’ve faced, what you think is changing. Done well, this makes you look more valuable to your current employer, not less.
The practical safeguards are simple. Agree with yourself, and if needed with your comms team, what’s off limits: employer names in certain contexts, client details, forward-looking statements. Then screen every draft against that list. Our Voice StudioX process does exactly this before anything reaches you for approval, and anything you mark as private, such as an active search, never shows up publicly.
What a minimum viable presence looks like
You don’t need to become a creator. For most senior leaders, a durable presence looks like this:
A LinkedIn profile that describes the role you want next, not just the one you have.
Two or three posts a week on three or four themes you want to be known for.
One longer piece a month that shows how you think.
A short list of 20 to 30 people you engage with regularly because they matter to your next move.
A quarterly look at how search and AI describe you, so you know whether it’s working.
When it pays off
When a former Nokia SVP of HR and Transformation worked with us to move toward board advisory work, the shift came from a clear transformation narrative and steady publishing, alongside one-to-one introductions. Within 90 days, more than a dozen executive search partners had connected with him. As he put it, boards don’t hire resumes, they hire narratives.
Build the narrative while you’re secure, not after. Start with a free AI visibility scan to see what the market finds today, and see how our Leaders program keeps your search private while you build in public.