Today I briefly spoke with a woman who works in my building whose department is being closed sometime this year.  Everyone at the company is either moving to another department within the company or they are going to be laid off.  The deciding factor on whether or not these people keep their jobs?  Diversity of skill.  If they posses skills that can be utilized elsewhere in her company then they will fill a vacant position or projected positions elsewhere within the company.  If they do not posses current skills that are in need in the other departments, well, it’s going to be a long Fall and Winter.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, in the modern economy you have to have a diversified skill set in order to stay viable.  Technology and business is in a continual state of flux and evolution.  If you feel comfortable in your job right now, you should probably start searching the want ads because it likely means your skill set has grown stale.  You should always be learning something, pushing yourself just slightly out of your comfort zone in order to grow stronger each day.

This can be done a number of ways.  The way I’m doing this is three fold, first I read as many books as I can and try to actually absorb the content.  The most recent book I’ve finished was Sun Tzu’s Art of War for Managers.  Although not a life changing book or anything it did contain information that helped me grow as a leader and manager.  Second I am in school at least half time.  Although this isn’t always the right thing for everyone, there are always certificates, certifications or just informational classes available, sometimes for free.  Remember it’s not about building credentials as much as it’s about keeping those skills sharp and learning new ones.  Lastly I volunteer for projects or additional assignments, preferably ones that will ask me to do something I’ve never done before.  Most recently I’ve begun work on a communication and collaboration project learning technologies as wide ranging as Wikis of various types to community technologies similar to Facebook, forums here, blogs, etc.  As you know by now I’m pretty familiar with blogs and forums which helped me here, but using Wikis and social websites for business purposes is a whole new world for me.  

Anyhow my 3 year plan is to earn my PMP solidifying my project management skills, earn some form of Six Sigma certificate or certification, finish my MS degree, read all kinds of books becoming increasingly familiar with application development technologies and IT project management (I’d like to learn .Net) and probably branch either into Information Security and/or Networking and Telecommunications.  In the meantime I will keep volunteering for project teams and stretch myself professionally wherever possible.  What’s your plan?