I posted just one of the survey results, and if you would like to see the others, follow the link below. This is a really cool survey about our industry and a big thanks to William for doing this every year. Danger Zone Jobs covers all contractors and not just security contractors, so this stuff gives you a good feel for where we are at as a whole.
Probably the big surprises for me was how many 1st year contractors there were, and how little folks are moving around to different gigs. I would have expected to see a lot more contractors jumping contracts? This is probably an outcome of the economy and of companies becoming more stable and professionalized.
The Facebook results were interesting too. Meaning more and more contractors are using FB to network and research ideas for jobs. It makes sense and that is why I hang out on FB so much. Plus, folks use FB to communicate with home and friends, so it is not that big of a jump to use it for work related stuff. Not to mention all of the really useful groups on FB, which is now starting to compete with the utility of the forums.
Networking and applying for jobs through company websites were the two top methods of getting a contract according to the survey. No shock there.
This one graph I posted below though, was the one that grabbed my attention. I would have thought that more contractors would have had military backgrounds? But that is just not the case. Although for the security contracting side of the house, I would have to say that a large percentage are former military or police, just because that is what is required for the job application. Of course when it comes to medical contractors being used on security contracts, we are seeing the companies not caring about military or police backgrounds. Primarily because there are not enough medically qualified folks to draw from in this military/police pool. That is at least what I am seeing.
The other other statistic that would be interesting, would be how many folks are using mobile devices or tablets over laptops/home computers for work related stuff? More and more soldiers and contractors are depending upon mobile devices for their everyday digital life, and I would suspect that there are a lot of folks that use that stuff. It is why I souped up my mobile game for the blog. Interesting stuff and check it out. –Matt
2011 State of Overseas Contracting Survey Results
September 22, 2011
Here are the results from our third annual State of the Overseas Contracting Industry Survey. This year 1,263 people took the survey, which is about 100 more than last year. I will be releasing the Advice from Contractors section a bit later after I have finished editing it.Link to survey here.