How to prepare for job insecurity
Ramon Padilla
Published: 02 Dec 2004 11:55 GMT
Personal strategies
On a more personal level, there are three tracks that professionals can take in their careers that can affect them in a layoff or outsourcing situation. None of them are bad per se, but they have different opportunities and consequences.
- The first is to become super-technically competent and/or to be a super DBA, able to leap terabyte upon terabyte of data in a single bound. The upside is that this strategy may indeed help you be one of the last persons standing in a layoff situation. The downside is that in an outsourcing situation, this may not help you at all. There is always someone else out there that is, or claims to be, better than you -- and they might be cheaper. In either case, if you are laid off, you are at least well positioned technically for your next job.
- The second is to do nothing different and to do your job as you always have and let the chips fall where they may, come layoff or outsourcing. This strategy is not a bad one necessarily, as you will probably experience less stress about your job future than someone pursuing the other paths. The consequences are also variable and depend more on your reputation and political savvy when it comes time for layoffs or outsourcing.
- The third path is to become more managerial and less technical, focusing on developing your management and people skills. This path has you involving yourself more in the planning and monitoring of projects; developing an understanding for formal project management methodologies; creating policy and procedure; developing a thorough understanding of your organisation's operations, both technical and non technical; and, most importantly, playing a very active role with the end users. The crux of this personal strategy is to position yourself so that you can manage personnel or be a liaison to the personnel working in an outsourced environment. If not successful, you at least have a mix of technical and nontechnical skills that many employers are looking for.
Be prepared
In the short run, it is difficult to determine what course of action businesses will take with regard to cutbacks and outsourcing. Has the economy truly turned the corner? Has the debate regarding outsourcing caused enough friction to slow down the trend? Only time will tell. In the meantime, it never hurts to prepare for whatever may come next.
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