Question of the Month - February

February's question of the month is:

What is the impact of the economy on you and your organization? What are you doing as a result?

Me and my organization are one and the same. As I mentioned in my previous blog post I am seeking full time permanent employment instead of continuing on the path I've been on for the last five years which has been contracting. The current economy has forced me to think more critically about what kinds of opportunity's I pursue. As time goes on I need to evaluate how much pay I'm willing accept, location and distance from home and even how closely related to my current position future work might be. In other words how far might I need to stray from Instructional Design. If in the coming year I can't find something in the field of Learning and Development I might have to consider working at Kinko's or Home Depot so I can get benefits for my family and allow my wife to pursue her own career aspirations.

There are a number of reasons for this. While I'm not having much difficulty finding contract work there are very few full time opportunities out there right now. There is a good chance that my wife might be told that to keep her job we'll have to move because her company is being bought out by another company. She is planning on changing careers in the coming months and the most likely route for that change will be to take contract jobs to build up her experience. So for these and other reasons I am considering taking actions that in other economic circumstances I might not otherwise consider.