A few weeks ago I was catching up with an apps developer I hadn't spoken with in quite some time (we'll call her Mary). In years past I'd submitted Mary for consideration to many clients due to her sr. level experience developing middle tier apps written in a cutting edge and widely used coding language. As our conversation progressed she mentioned that she'd accepted a position with a new employer. With pride she informed me that she was no longer "just" an apps developer. Her new employer utilized a system where resources where rotated into different roles every so often. I came to find that in the short 18 months with this new employer she had worked in the capacity of systems engineer and most recently was in a business analyst role. While she was happy to be learning new skills and becoming a Jill-of-all-trades, I couldn't share her enthusiasm. I knew that Mary's in-demand skills where quickly becoming diluted and that her employer was minimizing her value to the organization. If everyone on a team can do everyone else's job it's a lot easier to be replaced isn't it? Mary or anyone else on the team could resign or be fired and the employer's operations wouldn't skip a beat. Not much leverage for a salary increase is there? Great for the employer, not so great for the employee. Very diplomatically I offered congratulations on her new position and made a note to call her in a few weeks so I could gently share my perspective on some of the positives and negatives concerning her new career path.
Decisions like Mary's are never made in a vacuum but a thoughtful analysis of where we fit in the marketplace regarding our skill sets is necessary to ensure that we make right decisions about our career paths and not emotional decisions. There are some very basic questions you can ask yourself to achieve a greater awareness of your leverage within the marketplace.
1. Define Your Niche
The first step in achieving leverage is to learn how to view your skill sets in the same way that hiring authorities will view you. The following is a general format I've used in presenting resources to clients over the years:
-Primary Skill, e.g. J2EE dev., Oracle DBA, Project Manager, Quality Assurance, etc. etc.
-Secondary Skill, e.g. Weblogic dev., Data Warehousing, Infrastructure Projects, White Box Testing, etc. etc.
-Contextual Experience, e.g. Portal env., Clustered/High Availability env., Small/Fast Moving Projects, Web Apps env., etc. etc.
-Type of Business, e.g. Consulting, Health Care, Technology, Ad Agency, etc. etc.
A typical resource summary may read something like this: J2EE dev. with Weblogic exp. in the Portal env. from a consulting background. Understanding how you fit into this matrix is crucial because it enables you to see yourself from a skill set perspective in the same way others do allowing internal (current employer) and external (marketplace) comparative analysis of your value equation.
How would Mary define herself based on this format? It would be pretty tough wouldn't it? She's all over the board and unless there's an employer out there that's interested in her unique amalgam of skills she's probably out of luck.
2. Assessment & Comparison of Internal & External Demand
The second step in achieving leverage is to understand your value equation from your employer's perspective and also from the perspective of potential employers. You may be surprised to find a big difference.
Internal- Ask yourself some of the following questions to assess your internal value equation:
-How easily could you be replaced by an internal resource? What about an external resource?
-How is the technical environment changing? Are you where the "puck" was or will be?
-How critical are the technologies you work with to the functioning of the business?
-Is your team hiring or laying off resources? How about the company as a whole?
-Has there been a change of management or ownership? How could that affect you?
-How's your companies industry doing as a whole?
-Are competitors outsourcing? What kind of resources are they outsourcing?
External- Ask yourself some of the following questions to assess your external value equation:
-What types of skills are in high demand on job boards? How do your skill sets match up?
-What kind of secondary skills are employers looking for? What about contextual exp.?
-Are you skilled in technologies that are growing or fading away?
-Are salaries for resources with similar skill sets trending higher or lower?
-How often does your phone ring regarding new opportunities?
-What part of the economic cycle are we in?
-What part of the technology/project implementation cycle are we in?
Reflect on your answers to the internal and external questions independently and then comparatively. You may find that you're considerably more valuable than you realized to your current employer or you may find that you're less valuable to your current employer than you would be to prospective employers. The importance of this evaluation is that it gives you an understanding of your value in the context of the marketplace as a whole.
Not enough information was conveyed regarding my story about Mary for use as an example in step 2. but I can tell you since she's been put on a skill set merry-go-round she's easily replaceable and as a recruiter, I'll unfortunately have a lot less to talk to her about from an opportunity perspective in the future.
Be Proactive in Attaining Your Leverage Niche.
Now that we've examined where our leverage lies and how our value equation is seen by both internal and external clients, we now must analyze the results. Analysis will point our career compass in one of two general directions: redefine & modify skills and/or seek a new opportunity. As simple an exercise in logic as this sounds, you'd be surprised at how little most individuals utilize this or similar processes when thinking through career moves. As I mentioned earlier in this post, it's imperative to make right decisions and not just emotional ones. If gaining more leverage and job security requires redefining & modifying your skill set, you may have to consider moving on to a new opportunity to fulfill that end. If gaining more leverage and job security requires working for a different employer, you may have to redefine & modify your skills to achieve that goal. Acquiring that certification you've been meaning to get, finishing your degree, or simply becoming proactive in keeping your eyes open to new opportunities (which is something everyone should do always) may become necessary. Whichever approach is right for you, if you understand your niche and compare your value both internally and externally, you'll know what your next best move will be in maximizing leverage, job security, and earning potential. Best of all, you'll be able to take comfort in the fact that you'll be moving in the right direction.
Never stop moving forward. Our complacency is our own worst enemy.
For further information, feel free to contact me directly.
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