Opportunities
Many people in IT have lost their jobs in recent years, and new jobs are hard to come by. A week or two spent moping around the house and watching daytime TV is well-earned after the hard-working Y2K years.
Soon though, you must try to make use of the extra time to increase your money-making potential. Here are some suggestions for how to do so.
Train yourself in new technologies
Working in IT means continually updating your skills. The more up-to-date and wider ranging your skillset, the more money you’ll make when the job market picks up again. If you’re unemployed, you won’t want to shell out for expensive training courses.
Fortunately it’s almost as easy to train yourself. Buy a couple of books on a new technology you’re interested in learning. Vendors often allow you to download free evaluation copies of software from their websites.
Ideally it should be something that job ads are asking for; e.g. J2EE and .Net are good options for web-developers.
Update your vendor certifications
If you’re going to be doing some self-training, you might as well get certified at the same time. Vendor certification often translates into higher charge-out rates and job hunting success. Aiming for certification also disciplines you to learn the material thoroughly.
Build yourself a website
In most modern IT professions, having your own website is a great way to show off your skills. This is particularly true if you’re a web developer. Even for non-developers, it shows that you understand internet technologies and have technical skills.
Many IT professional’s websites are merely brochure-ware for their skills: little more than a jazzed-up resume. This is relatively easy to set up, but unlikely to bring in much new work.
Try to think of a useful service you could add to the internet; a niche that isn’t being served. Perhaps you’re an SAP guru who could start up a local site for others with your skill-set.
This is likely to drive much more traffic to your site than a simple resume. Put a link advertising your skills and expertise. Ideally, you want traffic that is likely to lead to work, so keep that in mind when catering for your web-audience.
Who know, maybe your website will take off and make you millions.
Starting a website while unemployed is also a good way to fill gaps in your resume. You weren’t unemployed for that three months, you were taking time off to pursue your own project.
Network for future opportunities
If you read our previous articles on the hidden jobs market, you already understand how time spent networking can be turned into hard cash. Time out of work is an ideal opportunity to build up your list of contacts and raise your profile.
Engage in some PR
If the market sees you as a well-known expert in your field, your job opportunities and charge-out rate can increase substantially. Offer to write articles for newspapers, magazines and websites covering your area of expertise. Most media outlets have editorial contact details on their websites. Generally speaking, you will have to start writing for niche, or less well known outlets and gradually build up your profile. If you get to the point where you’re contributing regularly to national or international titles, the rewards can be substantial.
Start your own consultancy
The consultancy field in crowded and competitive. Try to offer something that nobody else is. Your niche can be geographical or industry-based as well as technology-driven.
An example would be a web-services consultancy aiming at medium-sized retailers in Victoria.
The market for consultants is at a low ebb at the present time. This can be an opportunity as well as a threat. Not many other people are starting consultancies at the moment and many established practises are leaving the market.
If you can find a good niche and accept low-level profits while waiting for the market to pick up, you may well find yourself in a strong position when it eventually does.
Start your own software company
Many developers get a great idea for an application and rush out to build it. The key to success in this area is market research. Before building, make sure that someone is going to buy your product. Ideally, you should try to find a customer before even writing the first line of code.
