I’ve noticed that sometimes people fall into the trap of becoming an “employee”… perhaps they get bored and start calling it in. The job becomes a 9-5 thing. Where’s the challenge?!? What keeps you interested, and growing?

Rather than continuing to build your reputation as an employee, why not work at building your personal brand?

Develop your personal brand…
Start treating your name like a trademark (mentally add the TM at the end!). The average turnover time in IT now is like 2 years. Learn to sell your services, and keep selling your services… you’re going to keep needing this skill.

… and sell it!
Sell yourself as an authority, as a guy who can get things done to your high standard. Even if you’re unsure, just blog and engage with confidence… you clearly have experience, make sure this shows! Make people want what you have, and make it very easy for them to choose you!

Build your presence online
Setup a website with a portfolio, blog about your successes and philosophies, integrate your brand with the rest of the internet through social networks. Make sure your web presence demonstrates your experience, successes, and story.

I love this myself, but YMMV:

Try to prevent yourself from being an “Employee”, and stay “Contractor”
(if not in practice, then in spirit)I think the contractor/client model is very powerful because it is implied that contractors have a powerful reason to keep providing value (who wants to keep a contractor around that isn’t doing this?).

If you approach each relationship like this, then you start seeing opportunities, and thinking in terms of project plans, cost/benefits, ROI… and leadership. Have Fun!

June 2nd, 2008 by Jeremy Sisson | Trackback