One Million and Beyond

Backing up your Skills

By Matt - Wednesday, October 25th, 2006

One of the things that I’ve learnt since I first started working in the late 90s is that you need to continuously update your skills. You need to keep abreast of the changes in your work space and you need to keep learning new things to keep you ready for the changes that will come in your working life. Back in the 50s and 60s you could learn your job and do pretty much the same thing for years and years. Now things aren’t as cut and dry especially if you work in the technology space.

When I found myself out of work back in April there was something that I learnt that went above and beyond this and that was to back your skills up. Most people now are paranoid about loosing the data on their computers. And justifiably so; lost data can cost your company millions. But what happens when you find yourself out of a job? You get to polish off your resume add all the nice neat new skills that you’ve put on your resume but the problem is just putting them down doesn’t mean you’re good at them.

This is where backing up your skills is an essential thing. By getting certifications and taking training seminars you have something tangible that you can show a prospective employer that will help put you above the people that you’re competing against for the job. Most people unfortunately don’t think about this until they absolutely need to. Thankfully I was able to get a job without some additional certifications and I had intended to back up some of my skills but since then I’ve become complacent in getting a decent paycheck with the thought that I’ll take care of backing up my skills soon. There’s no better than now to do this; your future might depend on it. And remember when looking at this from a financial point of view: the money you make from your job is your primary source of income you can’t stand to not have it.

Tags: Work, Skills, Back up your skills.

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