There was a piece this week on how to future proof your IT career. It's by Rod Trent, who built a similar site to SQLServerCentral for Systems Management Server and it's successor, Operations Manager. Rod is the go to person for infrastructure management, and he's also a presenter and organizer of the IT/Dev Connections conference. The piece is a bit of a marketing item for the conference and Rod's site, but I think there is good advice inside. As a side note, if you want to attend a conference that covers more than just SQL Server, give DevConnections a look. The event used to be in Las Vegas every year, but it's starting to move around and is in Dallas this October.

Rod has three simple ideas: join a community, go to a conference, and know about more platforms or technologies. All in all, not bad advice because quite simply, there aren't many IT careers that are future proof. I suppose if you're a mainframe person or incredibly good at Cobol you might always have someone that wants to hire you, but there are fewer and fewer opportunities all the time. These days, I think if you aren't learning and growing, you are going to struggle in your career over time. 

There are lots of ways to stagnate in your career. Even if you're an avid reader of SQLServerCentral, unless you are practicing some new skills and better understanding them, you might not be prepared for a rapid change in your career. While I'd like to think that most of us know if we have stable working situations, I'm sure that not all of us do. If something changes, can you respond? Will you have opportunities? It's likely you could find some job, but if it's a large pay cut, in another part of the country, or some other significant change, can you adapt?

I think being a part of a community is hugely important, just like I think networking with fellow professionals is the best way to keep your career moving in the direction you want. Others help give you perspective, ideas, inspiration, knowledge of openings, and even may hire you. Communities and networking are beneficial, but you need to be a part of them before you need them. Spending time at user groups, online, lunching with friends, these are long term efforts. I don't necessarily think this means you need to attend a conference though, especially if your employer won't fund the time.

Rod does have one great sentence: "Don't be a one-trick pony." These days we are combining and supporting more and more technologies. The idea of being a specialist in one area is good if you're established already as the expert and go-to person, but for most of us, we need to know about a lot of different technologies. At least enough to judge where and when they fit in situations and be able to discuss advantages and disadvantages. You might hate the cloud or relational platforms, or Java, but you should be able to intelligently discuss why. 

I try to learn about lots of technologies, improving skills regularly, but being aware of what else is out there. I don't worry about whether I should know Power BI or containerization or some specific technology well. I know I can learn more if there's an opportunity. Or if I'm hired for one thing, but they ask me to do another. 

To me, the best way to future proof yourself is to keep learning, keep building skills (both old and new), and being aware of the world around you by networking with others. That might not prevent you from being let go, but it certainly can help you find a new situation.