No one is layoff-proof: How intellectual capital can ne your best protection

Throughout my career, I’ve had countless conversations about career paths with colleagues, mentees, and professionals in transition. In those talks, I often share practices that have helped me personally along the way.

But this article is different. It’s transparent and honest.
Although I’ve spoken about parts of my story with people close to me, this is the first time I’m sharing it so openly, including my mistakes, lessons, and reflections in a public space.

And I want to start with a phrase that has guided me for years:

“Badges are temporary. Intellectual capital is permanent.”

The myth of absolute security

For a long time, I believed that working for a big company meant stability. But reality proved otherwise: Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and many others have all made massive layoffs affecting brilliant professionals in high-impact roles.

Layoffs aren’t always about performance. Often, they’re driven by factors beyond our control:

Corporate strategy: shifts in focus.
Market: investment downturns and economic cycles.
Efficiency: cost reductions, even in top-performing teams.

Job stability doesn’t come from a badge. It comes from preparation and that’s built outside your job description.

What is intellectual capital?

Intellectual capital is the collection of knowledge, experiences, and insights you accumulate throughout your journey. It’s what you know, how you think, and the way you apply that knowledge to create value.

It’s portable: it moves with you wherever you go. It’s scalable: it grows when shared and externalized.

Shyness as a starting point

When I was younger, I was extremely shy. That made it hard for me to speak up, but it strengthened my writing.
What once seemed like a limitation ended up shaping my entire career.

Writing became my way of thinking, organizing ideas, and sharing them. Later, that skill became the foundation for everything: blogging, personal branding, portfolio building, recognition.

Often, your limitation is also your opportunity. If you don’t like public speaking, write. If you don’t like writing, make videos. What matters is externalizing your knowledge.

TV Globo: Discipline and documentation

At Globo, I worked in rotating shifts supporting critical 24×7 systems. That’s where I learned one habit that I’ve carried through life: document everything.

I had to leave detailed shift reports for the next person. I’d stop up to an hour before my shift ended just to write them properly.

That routine taught me:

Clarity in written communication.
Documentation as a tool for continuity.
The importance of leaving work bigger than the individual.

That practice became the essence of what we now call the brag document.

📌 The brag document emerged in Silicon Valley as a “professional logbook”, a personal document where you record projects, achievements, learnings, and impact. It helps with performance reviews, resume updates, and interviews. In short: it’s career insurance.

2005–2008: The first blogs and the birth of a domain

My technical writing started simply: on a WordPress.com blog. I documented scripts, labs, and discoveries that helped me day to day and might help others too.

In 2008, when individuals could finally register their own domains in Brazil, I registered ricardomartins.com.br. From that point on, I started organizing my knowledge in my own space.

Without realizing it, I was building a public portfolio. What began as personal notes evolved into something useful to others, and later became the foundation of my personal brand.

Takeaways:

Don’t wait to have “big things” to start.
Use what’s available (a simple blog is enough).
Consistency and externalization matter more than perfection.

2012: Peixe Urbano and the cloud boom

In 2012, I joined Peixe Urbano, the first AWS customer in Brazil. That was my first contact with cloud computing, and probably the time I grew the most in my career.

I learned in months what had taken years before. As a result, I started writing even more articles, tutorials, reflections. It was a virtuous cycle: the more I learned, the more I wrote, the more I solidified my knowledge.

Lessons for today:

Moments of disruption (like cloud in 2012 or AI in 2023) create huge opportunities.
Those who engage early in these cycles learn faster and gain visibility.
Growth depends not just on time, but on learning intensity.

2015: Bemobi and the power of personal branding

At Bemobi, I had a turning point. An AWS Solution Architect (Felipe Garcia) heard my name in a meeting and said:

“Oh, you’re Ricardo from the blog!”

That moment was a huge validation. I realized that the blog I’d been maintaining since 2005 was making me recognizable in the market. It wasn’t self-promotion, it was branding in practice.

The 3 pillars of personal branding:

Clarity: Define what you want to be known for.
Consistency: Show up regularly.
Credibility: Demonstrate real impact.

Networking: when doors open

The story didn’t end at Bemobi. A few months later, Felipe moved to Microsoft and when a position opened up, he referred me.

At first, I was surprised. I didn’t think I had the “profile” to join a company like Microsoft. But it was exactly what I’d built outside the badge: my blog, writing, and personal brand that opened the door.

Three layers of strategic networking:

Direct collaborators: colleagues and former colleagues.
Technical communities: meetups, open source, user groups.
Opportunity connections: people who find you through your content.

Networking isn’t about asking for favors, it’s about being remembered for what you contribute.

Financial and emotional readiness

A layoff can shake both your bank account and your self-esteem. That’s why you need protection in two areas:

Financial:

Keep an emergency fund (3–6 months).
Avoid consumer debt.
Have simple, low-risk investments for security.

Emotional:

Don’t confuse your identity with your badge. (See this article I wrote sometime ago)
Seek support, mentorship, therapy, community.
View transitions as part of the journey, not as failure.

Ask yourself: How many months could I sustain myself today without income?

Continuous learning

What’s kept me relevant is never stopping learning. From Linux to Kubernetes, on-premises to the cloud, there’s always a next step.

A practical approach:

Be T-shaped: deep in one area, broad in several.
Balance soft and hard skills.
Learn for the market, not just your current role.

Ask yourself: What’s tomorrow’s skill that I should start learning today?

Master the fundamentals, because everything else will change

There’s a phrase that summarizes my philosophy about learning:

“Learn the fundamentals. The rest will change anyway.”

Reference: “Lean the fundamentals” – A note to self

Technologies, languages, and tools come and go, but fundamentals stay:

Networking and operating systems.
Data structures and algorithms.
Distributed systems and concurrency.
Security and design principles.

These are what gave me confidence to move between career transitions, from on-prem to cloud, from legacy to distributed systems. Whenever I had to learn something new, fundamentals were the shortcut.

Exercise: Choose 3 core fundamentals in your field and spend 1 hour per week revisiting or applying them in small projects.

Be ready to tell your story in 5 minutes

If someone asked me to summarize my career, I’d say:

Shyness made me write.
Globo taught me discipline.
Peixe Urbano was my learning explosion.
The blog became my brand and opened doors.
Networking led me to Microsoft.

This kind of clear, concise narrative opens doors in interviews, events, and unexpected encounters.

Conclusion: Security comes from preparation

My career wasn’t built on badges. It was built on the intellectual capital I shared.

Writing gave me a voice.
Documenting gave me discipline.
Consistency gave me recognition.
Content-based networking opened doors.
Mastering fundamentals gave me confidence to adapt.

And I want to end by reinforcing the phrase that guided this entire reflection and hopefully, will guide you too: