What is career cushioning?

If you have spent any time on LinkedIn or TikTok in the last couple of years, you have probably bumped into the phrase career cushioning. It sounds soft and harmless, like something you would do with pillows. In a way, that is exactly the point. Career cushioning is the habit of building a safety net for your working life while you are still employed. It can mean keeping your resume fresh, watching the market, talking with people in your field, picking up new skills, or even applying quietly for roles that look better than the one you have today. The core idea is simple: you do not wait for a crisis to start planning your next move.

The term itself is new, but the behavior is old. People have always looked around while they still had a paycheck. What changed is that we now have a catchy label for it, and it started trending after the pandemic and the waves of layoffs that followed. The phrase borrows from a dating concept called cushioning, where someone keeps backup romantic options in case a relationship ends. Career cushioning uses the same logic, minus the drama. You are not cheating on your job. You are preparing for the possibility that your job might not love you back forever.

Why did this take off so fast? Look at the last few years. Entire industries froze hiring in 2020. Then they hired like crazy in 2021. Then many of them slammed on the brakes in 2022 and 2023. Tech layoffs made headlines, but they were not alone. Retail, media, finance, and even some parts of health care trimmed staff. If you were early in your career, you learned a lesson that used to take older workers decades to absorb: jobs can vanish even when you are doing everything right. In that environment, it is rational to want a cushion.

Another reason is that the job market is more transparent than it used to be. Salary ranges are posted more often. Employees share pay data and interview experiences in public forums. Recruiters slide into DMs every day. When you can see opportunities more clearly, it is harder to pretend they are not there. Career cushioning is partly about fear of layoffs, but it is also about curiosity. What else is out there? What would my skills be worth at another employer? What kind of work could I be doing if I aimed a little higher?

For early career people, that curiosity is not a character flaw. It is career development. Think about where you are in your twenties, or even your early thirties. You are still figuring out your strengths. You are still learning which kinds of managers make you grow and which ones make you shrink. You are still discovering how different industries operate. The odds that your first real job is your forever job are basically zero. So why would you act like it should be?

There is a myth that loyalty means staying put unless something terrible happens. A lot of employers still push that story. Some mean it. Some say it because it makes retention easier. But loyalty is a two way street. Companies make changes all the time for their own survival. They restructure. They outsource. They merge. They pause projects. They switch strategies. When those moves hurt employees, the company usually calls it business. When employees take steps to protect themselves, some people call it disloyal. That double standard is not fair, and early career workers should not carry it on their backs.

Let me say something clearly: career cushioning is not the same thing as checking out of your job. Quiet quitting is about doing the bare minimum. Career cushioning is about doing your job well while also making sure you have options. Most people who cushion are not trying to sabotage their current employer. They are trying to avoid being blindsided. Those are very different mindsets.

If you are early in your career, cushioning can be especially smart because your professional cushion is thinner than it will be later. You might not have much savings. You might still be paying off student loans. You might be renting your first apartment and trying to build credit. Losing a job at 24 can be a financial earthquake. Losing a job at 44 might still hurt, but you usually have more shock absorbers. So if building a little protection now reduces the risk of a major setback, that is not paranoia. That is maturity.

Career cushioning can also help you avoid another early career trap: staying in a role too long because you are scared to look around. I have talked with plenty of interns and recent grads who stuck with a bad fit because they felt they had something to prove. They did not want to look flaky. They did not want to be the person who job hopped. Then, two years later, they realized they had learned almost nothing new, their confidence was shot, and their resume looked stuck. A quiet, steady awareness of the market keeps you from drifting into that kind of rut.

So what does cushioning look like in real life? It is usually boring, not dramatic. You might spend an hour a week scanning job postings just to see what skills keep showing up. You might update your LinkedIn profile when you finish a project instead of waiting until you are desperate. You might keep a brag document where you note outcomes you delivered, numbers you improved, and problems you solved. You might take a course on Excel, Python, project management, or whatever your field is pushing toward. You might grab coffee with someone two years ahead of you and ask what they wish they had known earlier. Or you might apply to a couple of roles that feel like a reach, just to test the waters. All of that counts.

None of these things require you to be sneaky in a bad way. They require you to be thoughtful. You still show up. You still hit deadlines. You still treat colleagues with respect. Career cushioning becomes a problem only when someone lets it become an excuse to stop caring about the job they are being paid to do. Some articles warn about that risk, and they are right to mention it. If cushioning turns into constant distraction, your performance will slip, and your manager will notice. The fix is not to stop cushioning. The fix is to cushion in a way that fits into your life without stealing your focus.

There is also an ethical line you should not cross. Do not use your employer time or tools for a full blown job hunt. Do not take proprietary work with you. Do not bad mouth your company to recruiters or on social media. Do not accept interviews during work hours unless you are using PTO, a lunch break, or another arrangement that keeps you honest. Those rules are not hard. They are just professional. You can protect yourself without burning bridges.

One more thing that early career people sometimes worry about is, what if my boss finds out? That fear is real, and sometimes it is justified. There are managers who take any outside interest personally. But here is the truth: a good manager expects you to grow. They may not want to lose you next month, but they know you are not going to stay forever. If your employer reacts badly simply because you are investing in your future, that is useful information. It tells you something about the culture. It might even confirm that cushioning was the right choice.

Career cushioning is also a way to build confidence. When you are new to the workforce, it is easy to feel like you are one mistake away from being exposed as a fraud. You do not yet have the history to prove to yourself that you can bounce back. The act of building options is grounding. It reminds you that your career is bigger than one company, one manager, or one job title. You are learning skills that travel with you.

And travel they will. The average worker changes jobs many times over a lifetime. Early career workers do it the most because that is when you are exploring and leveling up fastest. Some people call that job hopping, like it is a bad habit. I call it professional sampling. The key is not how often you move. The key is whether you are moving toward something. Cushioning helps you do that on purpose instead of by accident.

There is another hidden benefit. Even if you never leave, career cushioning can make you better at your current job. When you are watching your field, you see trends earlier. You learn what tools are rising and which ones are fading. You pick up language that helps you communicate with stakeholders. You notice what other companies value, which can shape how you pitch your own work internally. That awareness can lead to raises, promotions, or cooler projects right where you are. The cushion does not always turn into an exit. Sometimes it turns into leverage.

Let us talk about the emotional side for a second. Early career life already comes with enough anxiety. You are trying to prove yourself. You are trying to learn office norms that no one ever taught in school. You are trying to figure out how to be an adult with a budget and a boss at the same time. The last thing you need is to carry guilt for taking care of your future. Career cushioning is a way to swap helplessness for agency. Instead of hoping everything works out, you are quietly making sure that if it does not, you will be ok.

If you want to start cushioning without overthinking it, keep it simple. Set a small routine. Maybe Sunday night is your check in. Spend 20 minutes looking at postings in your field. Notice what is common. Notice what is new. If you keep seeing a skill you do not have, add it to your learning list. If you see roles that look exciting, save them. Reach out to one person a month to expand your network. Update your resume every time you finish something worth bragging about. Those habits add up fast.

Also, remember that cushioning is not a panic move. It is not supposed to make you feel like you are constantly on the edge of a cliff. If it is doing that, dial it back. The goal is a gentle safety net, not a life of nonstop scanning. Think of it like brushing your teeth. You do it regularly so you do not have to deal with a bigger problem later.

At the end of the day, career cushioning is a response to reality. Work is less predictable than it used to be. Companies are faster to change direction. Skills go obsolete quicker. And early career professionals have the most to lose from a surprise hit. Building a cushion is a responsible way to navigate that world. It respects your current employer because you keep doing good work. It respects yourself because you do not leave your future to chance.

If anyone tells you that you should just be grateful to have a job and stop looking around, smile politely and ignore them. Gratitude is fine. Blind trust is not. You can appreciate the opportunity you have today and still prepare for the opportunities you will want tomorrow. That is not disloyal. That is how grown ups build careers that last.