However, rather than shoes and ships and sealing wax, I have began to think of the next stage in my career...and this has provoked a lot of questions for me that I thought might be useful to share:
When does a job or work become a career?
Do 'kids' come out of university now with clear ideas about their 'career' (doctors, lawyers and accountants notwithstanding) - or do they get what looks like an interesting job and then see where that takes them? As some of my contemporaries can attest, it is easy to follow the dream - but when do you decide to abandon the dream (realising you're getting nowhere) and get a job that will pay the bills? Everyone has their own limit, depending on their dream, their pride, and the size of their bills.
How many careers are you allowed to have previous to your current one?
A headhunter recently told me that my twenties, when I had a 'portfolio career' of doing voiceovers for cartoons and sales videos, a radio programme, mis-managing local bands (mis-managing because I wasn't able to retire on the earnings), effectively running a small indie record label as well as doing some teaching and translating to make ends meet. What I hadn't realised until the kindly headhunter told me is that that was my 'first career' - which in retrospect of course it was. I was trying to have a life in 'music' and 'voice'... but music lead to the internet and what has now become my 'second career'.
A headhunter recently told me that my twenties, when I had a 'portfolio career' of doing voiceovers for cartoons and sales videos, a radio programme, mis-managing local bands (mis-managing because I wasn't able to retire on the earnings), effectively running a small indie record label as well as doing some teaching and translating to make ends meet. What I hadn't realised until the kindly headhunter told me is that that was my 'first career' - which in retrospect of course it was. I was trying to have a life in 'music' and 'voice'... but music lead to the internet and what has now become my 'second career'.
How long do you have to be in the same line of work for it to become a career path?
Are you working in a particular function, or a particular sector?
This is very much on my mind now, as I have been working in the internet for around 13 years - since the late nineties - covering all areas of the internet from technology selection, specification and design, user experience, e-commerce, online marketing, digital communications and online or virtual learning. So, which is more important, that I can work in any area of the internet, or that I have x years working in a particular sector?
This seems to be an important distinction in the minds of some recruiters. They will see, for example, that I have spent the past 5 years in the education sector (sub-branch: executive education); and therefore assume that I am unable and incapable of working in, for example, the retail sector, or consumer electronics, or financial services.
Fundamentally the strategies one develops and the tools one uses on the internet, whether it is to sell, market, communicate, educate or collaborate, are the same. It makes no difference whatsoever if you are selling a programme on leadership, a pair of jeans, an Android tablet or an insurance policy - you do the same things. As with any area of marketing and communicating, you have to think about your audience and change tactics accordingly. With pharmaceuticals and accounting/auditing firms, for example, there are specific regulations as to what one is and is not allowed to do, but those regulations take all of half-an-hour to learn.
Furthermore, I have found that some firms are looking for a square-peg for a square hole, rather than a malleable peg that will fit any hole. It is no good, for example, being in e-commerce if you do not understand user experience architecture. It is no good, for example, trying to do online marketing if you do not understand social media. And it is no good thinking about online learning without also thinking about how one communicates, how one uses the AIDA framework (for those that don't know, the steps that you must go through on a communications campaign:
This seems to be an important distinction in the minds of some recruiters. They will see, for example, that I have spent the past 5 years in the education sector (sub-branch: executive education); and therefore assume that I am unable and incapable of working in, for example, the retail sector, or consumer electronics, or financial services.
Fundamentally the strategies one develops and the tools one uses on the internet, whether it is to sell, market, communicate, educate or collaborate, are the same. It makes no difference whatsoever if you are selling a programme on leadership, a pair of jeans, an Android tablet or an insurance policy - you do the same things. As with any area of marketing and communicating, you have to think about your audience and change tactics accordingly. With pharmaceuticals and accounting/auditing firms, for example, there are specific regulations as to what one is and is not allowed to do, but those regulations take all of half-an-hour to learn.
Furthermore, I have found that some firms are looking for a square-peg for a square hole, rather than a malleable peg that will fit any hole. It is no good, for example, being in e-commerce if you do not understand user experience architecture. It is no good, for example, trying to do online marketing if you do not understand social media. And it is no good thinking about online learning without also thinking about how one communicates, how one uses the AIDA framework (for those that don't know, the steps that you must go through on a communications campaign:
- Awareness - make the target audience aware of what your message or product is
- Interest - get them interested in it
- Desire - make them want it
- Action - make sure they actually do something about it...
As I discussed in my post on Learning through Advertising and Porn a fundamental part of getting the learning to stick is using the same techniques that are used for advertising and pornography: getting the message across quickly (using advertising techniques) and making the user want to see said communication (porn - although please note that the world would be a better place without porn - this does not condone - but observes and notes its popularity).
And so to the title of this blog:
When did the 'internet' become 'digital'?
When I started creating and managing websites 13 years ago, everyone talked about the internet. With the increase in various forms of communications through the same use of broadband (such as email marketing) we began to refer to it all as online: as opposed to offline (using print or traditional broadcast media).
Now every single job I have seen advertised uses the word digital. This is, no doubt, to cover the range of tools one must now employ online, from websites and email marketing, through to viral marketing, social media, virtual worlds and video conferencing and more.
Fundamentally, though, it all comes down to online stuff and y'know...the internet. And it is shocking at the huge divide emerging between those who have just understood the need for an internet presence, and those who understand that to engage with anyone, be it customers, potential clients, suppliers, employees, management, unions or old media - one has to use the full range of digital tools available. The sector doesn't mater. The industry doesn't matter.
All that matters is that you understand that all things are connected. Understand that, and the rest follows naturally.
No comments:
Post a Comment