Contracting Matters

As a Contractor I always found it difficult to find the time/motivation to embrace keeping my skills up to date. All the books, guides and common sense tells us that we should do this but taking time off or giving up the weekend – it always seemed a luxury rather than a necessary and with plenty of work about – what was the point?

Fast forward to 2009 and I still get reports telling me of long term skill shortages in the UK and we are still (albeit less) bringing people in to the UK to fulfill roles. I would add that these are professional/technical roles and not related (imo) to the stereotype of “cheap imports”, far from it.

I noted this comment in a report this week, “There is some indication that skill shortages also seem to be slightly more of a problem for the two groups that have made the biggest headcount cuts since August – larger organisations and technology and media firms. This suggests that some organisations within these groups might have cut back too severely since August.”  This report is not unique – I have seen many saying the same thing.

So in the real world – what can be done? My advice (for what it is worth) is to do plenty of research on skills gaps and job requirements being published that are outside your normal sphere and probably outside your comfort zone.  It does not mean that a course in Ruby will get you the chief architects job at Twitter but a plan on making yourself more valuable and wider can’t be a bad move? It may also be, that a non-technical area of improvement could bring advantages.

Now more than ever – there is a need to find some energy and motivation to improve ourselves and remain valuable to Recruitment Agents and Clients. Training can be flexible, is usually tax deductible and for those with a Ltd Co – regional grants still exist.

Train to gain is the cliché – but it’s true.