IT could be the chance of a lifetime or your worst nightmare – but the credit crunch means that companies will be much more likely to offer employees short-term contracts rather than permanent jobs, new research has found.

A study by Dr Vicente Cunat of the London School of Economics and Dr Andrea Caggese of Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona found that firms with poor access to credit – or smaller, younger and more uncertain firms like start-ups and new ventures – tend to hire more short-term and fewer permanent workers in times of recession.

And as credit gets harder to come by, even more established companies with good access to credit aren’t necessarily any safer in times like these, says Dr Cunat.

“Our paper predicts that all firms will fire some employees but it’s which employees are fired that matters,” he explains.

“JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs, traditionally considered more established firms with good access to credit, fired 10% of their labour force last month.

But companies with access to credit tend to pinpoint who they lay off on basis of merit, while smaller firm that have trouble raising credit anyway will fire employees that are cheaper to fire like fixed-term workers.”

Ultimately, this means that workers who have transferable skills should look for jobs in more mature firms, whereas employees willing to be flexible – doing part-time work or temping – will be an asset for smaller firms.

“Suppose that you are a fixed-time worker in a mature firm,” Cunat explains. “The firm may be receptive to you taking training that improves your productivity and long-term skills if that’s what you’re interested in, which could lead to a permanent position in the company.

“But if you’re approaching a small firm right now, you want to emphasise at the interview that working for six months (or whatever the contract is) is good for both you and the firm, and that you can adjust your hours and be flexible to their needs.”

Making yourself stand out from a pool of workers and approaching a new job with a completely committed attitude will be an asset at this time, says Nicola Bunting, a career coach at La Vita Nuova.

“If a firm’s in a position to only offer short-term employment, they’ll be more receptive to accepting people outside their normal profile,” she says.

“So if you’ve always wanted to go into a particular industry and you have a whole range of transferable skills, this could be the time to take on an adventure.

“Try redoing your CV to target a particular opportunity to rework what you’ve done to date careerwise and what you can do and be proactive: network and reconsider all contacts who might have an opportunity for you and fully commit yourself to the project.

“Don't just respond to advertised jobs while you're looking for work - this is a time for you to treat work as a challenge, adventure and project - and that means you never know what good things it could lead to!”