How does upskilling work?

[VectraMan]

Most roles have a key skills and a "would be useful" list. You may not be able to blag the key skills without real experience, but you never know when having at least a reasonable understanding of the others might make the difference.

And then you get into the gig, get some commercial experience of the new stuff and you're set next time round.

[d000hg]

Good ideas about open-source & pro-bono work.
I suppose it's also a time when doing a project through one of the RentaCoder-esque sites has some merit... you are actually getting paid even if the amount is something you'd normally be insulted by.

[cojak]

..and it's not just coders.

I'm upgrading my BS15000 to ISO 20000 internal auditor cert.

I believe that a spruced up CV always looks better to clients..