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Self-employment: Continuing Professional Development

Taking a look at the importance of Professional Development as a self-employed engineer.

The freelance and self-employed environment is a tough one, and with that in mind it can be more important than ever to make sure you stay on top of your Personal Development (PD).

As a self-employed engineer, your career may involve frequent job changes, you may require competitive selling skills to win contracts and frequently sell your skills in order to ensure work. In addition, clients buy skills with demonstrated competence to solve urgent problems and as ‘The Engineer’; you are the product (Contractor) or provide the service (Consultant).

As such being freelance is a marketing problem, and before PD can be defined, you need to analyse your job and what in involves, so that you can better understand what skills you must improve or keep on top of etc.

This analysis should include:

  • Personal SWOT and Identification of USPs
  • Identification of target market through clear segmentation and identification of skills gap. There are many ways to segment the skills market; by technology depth, technology breath, management level, geography etc.  
  • Estimation of competitors, skills comparison - you only need to 5 per cent better to win the contract

So, why is it important for freelance engineers to keep up with their PD?

“All skills are subject to the effects described the product lifecycle and the Boston Matrix,” says Stuart Miller, of the IET’s Professional Development department. “They wear out or become a commodity.

“The freelance skills environment is subject to Porter’s Five Forces Model,” he continues,” (so) to remain competitive, skills need to be monitored for renewal, disposal or to build new ones.”

So as a self-employed engineer, what should you consider as important factors of your PD?

One big factor is keeping on top of technology. As we all know, all engineering skills are linked to the progress of technology and the market and are subject to the associated risks. With this in mind, it is a good idea where possible to annually review the trends in technology and the market. “Maintain a five year forecast as best you can,” Miller highlights.

“Carefully choose personal skill positioning with respect to the market to manage risks. Early adopter expertise can be very lucrative, but high risk,” he notes. “Early majority skill positioning is lucrative and much less risk. Late majority skills are commodity and laggard skills become obsolete.”

CPD doesn’t always have to involve lots of hard work. Simple things that you make part of your working routine can all add to CPD. Basically, everything that contributes to your learning is professional development. Whether you are gaining increased knowledge, developing a new skill, or improving your performance or attitude, it all counts.

Simply reading industry magazines regularly, or taking regular training courses is all helpful factors, so remember that simple little things can also count!

The next step when keeping on top of your PD is to know where to look for advice, guidance and support. This is where organisations like the IET are able to help you.

Miller offers some simple pointers; “Use an IET Mentor to help guide and challenge development plans and objectives,” he states. Also take advantage of the tools available on our website.

“For best practice advice on the implementation techniques refer to the IET PD-How2 website, he continues, “and also read Continuing Professional Development – a practical approach John Lorriman ISBN:0852969031. Finally, don’t forget to maintain your network to gain market information.”

 

By Keri Allan, assistant editor