This post by Clarke got me thinking about professional development and how important it is in our industry. At the pace of change in our business if you do nothing to teach yourself new skills you will be obsolete within three to four years and unemployable in seven (67% of statistics are made up).
You may look at that and think – thats a long time, I can probably afford to be ignorant for two years and then pop my head out of the rabbit hole. Not so – change is constant and your chances of being able to catch up with that two years of exposure (let alone experience) are pretty slim.
For sure, your employer is going to provide you a certain amount of paid professional development time, but the reality is that it should fade into insignificance compared to the time you put in yourself.