Is it really about who you know?

Sometimes it doesn’t matter how many skills or qualifications you have, if you know someone who’s high up in a business, there’s a chance you can get a good job with them. Contacts are obviously crucial when you’re developing your career, and you never know when or if you’re going to need them, but there are many businesses out there that have employed people they know on merit.

It’s upsetting for some, as they may see another individual (without the qualifications or skills they have) exceeding them in a career, and you can feel like you’re hard done by. That said, it’s even more of a reason why you should aim to develop as many contacts in your industry as possible, because you may one day be the one who’s taking huge strides forwards thanks to knowing a certain someone.

In most jobs, it’s not ‘who you know’, and there’s almost always going to be certain skills required, but you can be favoured for knowing somebody in a business, so keep developing those contacts.

Becoming Self Employed

Becoming self employed offers a number of advantages to people who have become tired of the life of an employee, and as many people think that it is really difficult to make the change to being self-employed, they may be surprised to hear that it can actually be quite easy to do.

Depending upon the type of profession you do, it can be relatively easy to set out on your own. With various professions there is a big trend towards consulting, which is a type of employment which allows you to agree to do job when it is convenient to you; while managing your workload, who you work with, what work you do and when you schedule.

There are a number of websites which provide a marketplace for small scale businesses and consultants to flog their services. Often times they will take only a small amount of what you charge the leads you get through them, so it can be a highly advantageous situation for those who are just starting out with their business.

Becoming a Contractor

Becoming a contractor has both positives and negatives which those who make the career change to working as a contractor may not expect. Yes, you do have the potential to potential to earn more money, and yes, you do have the ability to choose your own work hours and often the chance to choose your own work hours, but the opposite for all of this can also be true.

Often times, because a contractor will be taking work with numerous different companies, they will have to travel a lot for new work, and occasionally a requirement of the job is to work on site. If you’ve become a contractor so that you have more freedom, then this could quickly disenfranchise you.

You may say at this point that you have the freedom to take and refuse whatever work comes your way and you’d be right, mostly, but when work is few and far between and you have zero job security, you’ll often find yourself having no option but to take every job you can which comes your way.

The last drawback to working as a contractor to go into, is that you only get work and only of a certain quality as to fit your reputation. Now this doesn’t sound like such a big deal, but if you make a mistake, or take a lot longer to do something than you quoted, this could damage your reputation and damage your ability to continue to find work.

 

Asking Your Boss For Further Career Opportunities

One of the risks with getting comfortable in a professional position is that your career could end up stagnating, with you getting neither additional training or opportunities to better your career. You have a few options if you’ve found yourself in this position, such as looking for additional expertise in your career outside of work, changing your career entirely, or what would be my best recommendation; asking your employer for advice on what you can do.

Employers can also grow satisfied with somebody who is doing a great job in their current position, so it can be important that you indicate that you are looking forward to additional responsibilities and promotions and wage increases. This display of ambition needs to be managed, as you don’t want to come off as too strong, but it is absolutely necessary.

Some businesses will offer you training courses where you can learn new skills and more expertise in your field, while others will give you more responsibilities and see how you handle it. It really just comes down to what the business model is, but remember, you still need to ask your boss for more opportunities to develop.