Ryan Bingham (AKA George Clooney) delivers another redundancy interview in Up in the Air. Photograph by Dale Robinette Ryan Bingham, the corporate downsizing expert played by George Clooney in the film Up in the Air, has a talent for killing people softly. "Anybody who ever built an empire or changed the world sat where you are now, and it's because they sat there that they were able to do it," he says, as he makes yet another employee redundant. In the first six months of this year, 316,000 people were made redundant, according to the Office for National Statistics. Many of them will have sat in front of a Bingham-type, unaware their career with their present employer was about to come to an abrupt end. Several business experts have expressed reservations about recent optimistic forecasts for the economy, and many public-sector workers are anxiously waiting to find out if they will still have jobs once budgets cuts kick in. So it makes sense to think longer-term by insulating yourself from the shock and preparing for a new role, should the worst happen. In the current environment, where the public sector alone is estimated to lose 610,000 jobs by 2015, " redundancy -proofing" seems even more pertinent. Losing your job is ranked alongside bereavement and divorce as one of the most traumatic experiences, but the options are myriad. You could look for a new permanent role, consider a portfolio career (where you take a number of part-time or freelance roles), start