For corporate workers who feel trapped. One email every Sunday: one number or decision for your escape plan, and one thing to do before Monday. No hustle culture.
6 months of runway or 12?
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Hey, Two numbers from the same government report, same month. The median job search in September ran 11.5 weeks. The average ran 24.8. Same people, same month, more than double apart. Most runway advice quotes whichever one makes its point. The gap between them is the only part I care about. The median says most people land something in about three months. The average gets dragged up by the long searches, and those are growing. In September, 27.1% of unemployed people had been looking for more than six months. A year earlier it was 23.6%. Even the median crept up, from about 10 weeks to 11.5. You don't buy insurance for the typical outcome. You buy it for the bad one. And if your job pays well and does something narrow, you're more likely to end up in the long searches, because there just aren't many buyers for what you do. That's why I hold more cash than the old 3 to 6 month rule says. It costs me some growth. I'm fine with that. I'll never let an employer trap me again. The good part: you get paid long before you hit 12 months. One month stops you financing an emergency on a credit card. Three months covers the typical search. Six months changes how you carry yourself at work, because you're harder to scare. Do this before MondayPull out last week's number, your monthly survival cost. Swap in what health insurance would cost with no employer paying part of it. Then multiply by a realistic search time for someone at your level. Not the median. Yours. Write it down and date it next to last week's number. This week on the site
Hit reply with one word: median or long search? Which one do you think you'd be? Talk next Sunday, Job search figures: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, September 2026. This is not financial advice. Your market, your role, and your situation are your own. |
Off The Treadmill
For corporate workers who feel trapped. One email every Sunday: one number or decision for your escape plan, and one thing to do before Monday. No hustle culture.
Hey, Jack here. Thanks for being one of the first people on this list. I'm going to keep these short, so here's the deal up front. I spent 15 years in corporate America. At one company, I survived 23 rounds of layoffs. I was never the one carrying the box. I watched a man who gave them fifty years get five minutes. And I ended up in the ER twice with my heart racing at a rate no status meeting is worth. What finally changed things wasn't quitting in a blaze of glory. It was a number. Not a...