It’s not what you know it’s who you know? in most cases its true and even more so in the current state of the market.

Our whole ethos is to promote the contractor to the wider Oracle community. We provide the blogs and white papers as a way to achieve this. But the reality is that even without these, there is, no doubt, if  someone has been a contractor for a while, they will have already built up an enviable network of contacts.

That’s where the “its not what you know its who you know” becomes relevant. If a contractor is available and looking for work, they should get back in touch with those old work colleagues on the social networking sites or attend the SIG’s, and promote themselves via the white paper or blog campaigns we are doing, there are so many ways to do this, they need to pick one and if that doesn’t work they should try another one!!

Making and fostering old or new relationships is a great way to get out there and find new opportunities, its all about being at the front of their mind in some way or another.

If a contractor knows certain project managers on a personal level or even just as part of their team in a previous contract, then it makes sense to touch base with them and see how they are, see what sort of project they may be on, fish around!! They already know what what the contractor can do, how he or she works and what they can bring to the table so it makes sense to give it a go! They would not lose anything for trying although they may be losing out on a contract if they don’t.

When ever I was project managing an implementation or upgrade and I had to build a team to implement, the first people I would look to would be the tried and tested contractors that I had worked with before. With contractors you have worked with previously, you know their strengths and weaknesses. Also, should the people you have worked with before not be available then a personal recommendation is second to none. ‘Better the devil you know’ is a saying which holds true in this context.

The only time when “It’s Not What You Know Its Who You Know” becomes less applicable is that once you have a contract then it is what you know as opposed to who you know that becomes relevant.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 23rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm and is filed under - Global Oracle Contractors Network, Job Market. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.