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Do You Want A Job Or A Career?

Present situation

The situation in Europe and especially in Greece is difficult as far as the market concerns.

Especially for young people! It is difficult for them (and for anyone as a matter of fact) to

find a job to pay their bills, let alone to dream of a career. Greece has one of the highest

rates of graduates with post graduate and Post Docs studies in the world! But the

degrees alone, does not guarantee you a job! For that you should prepare yourself!

How I Would Find A Job?

Often, friends and students about to enter the labor market ask me about what would be

the best way and the best method to find a job! My usual answer is that there are no

shortcuts and you have to first develop yourself, in order to develop or to find or to be

ready to exploit the opportunities than may arise.

In a similar inquiry by a Greek student, asking the best ways for entering to e-

Learning market, I have jot down various notes as a reply, that some other people might

find them useful! Of course my then response was in Greek and I have change some

identity elements, but the core arguments of my response are detailed further down. I

hope may proved useful!

A Rather Large Response To A Student

In relation to your questions related to find a job in the area of e-Learning, I would like to

point out, that e-Learning in general is an extremely competitive marketplace! Especially

at present financial situation!

This is not something that should drifted you away from your goals. It may be even the

right opportunity for you to act upon the new conditions. In your place, I would see the

present situation as an excellent opportunity for working in the area and gain the

necessary experience in the field.

Essential Questions

You should though, make some questions to yourself, before take your decisions for

working in this area. Questions such as:

Why I want to work in the e-learning area

Where exactly I want to work (in Greece, in Europe, in USA, somewhere else, etc)

What is the value I can offer in the area of e-Learning

What more can I do for e-learning

Where I’m best at

How I can reach better my goals in the field

How can I better prepare myself for a career in the area

What can I do with excellence/proficiency in relation to e-learning

etc.

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I would suggest to write down these questions and the answers you would provide and to

check them often!

If the answer to all the above questions can be summarized to a “I want only to have a

job” type of answer (a very legitimate answer of course, nowadays), perhaps you should

re-consider your priorities, since the e-learning market in Greece is very small. Maybe

another venue would provide a better job opportunity!

But if your answer is somewhat different, I would suggest to follow a different approach, in

order to find for yourself what it is that you really want from e-Learning field!

Actually, you should answer to yourself if you want a job or a career? And to be totally

candid, about this.

A 7-Part Action Plan Proposition

In order to answer the question “Do You Want A Job Or A Career?” you need to follow a

more structured approach, a one that can really help you find your goals and employ an

action plan able to make you to achieve them.

In order to start, you should take the initiative now and start follow the steps that can lead

you to the field you aspire to work! Here an approach in 7-parts!

The first steps in this process, is, of course, for you to define your goals and to select your

work area.

Defining your goals, is not always, an easy task. It takes time and a lot of “discussion” with

yourself! But the effort, worth it, because it can yield a multitude of results for life and

business!

Let’s see how this approach can be employed!

1. Define Your Goals

Defining your goals, is the one, single and foremost unilateral action you should take either

for personal or professional decisions.

What I suggest, is for you to take a piece of paper (or use any other recording medium,

what it is more convenient!), think carefully and write down your goals and your

objectives! It is important to have you goals in a piece of paper, since this it something

that would help you to review them often, and change them, if needed!

Let me make myself very, very clear. This is not a piece of paper you just jot down some

notes and forget it. It is a small mission statement for your personal and professional life,

since your personal and professional area, often interact among them, in more than one

ways!

To compile it in a short and concise form, in order to help you and support you, it needs a

lot of thinking and consideration. This is a paper containing your orientation in life &

business, and you cannot take it lightly. You write your goals because the simple act of

writing, “obliged” you in more ways that you can imagine at first, and serves you for future

reference.

In this text you think, you evaluate your strengths and weaknesses and write down your

goals in life! Not only the ones associate with the e-learning career you want to pursue

(either in Greece, in Europe, or somewhere else). You should include and the goals that

depended or depend by your career decision (some people would said that this includes

a lot of things! And they would have right!) After the initial writing, and when you are OK

with the result (and feel ready to commit yourself to those goals, another important but

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indispensable component of the procedure!), step back for a day or two and come back

to this paper for a second review!

The objective of the second review is three-folded.

1. To check again what you have selected and test your resolve in relation to the

goals you have select

2. To confirm, refine or remove the goals you think you cannot commit to (aiming at

keep only the goals you can pursue in your life)

3. To convert the actual goals you have selected to pursue in S.M.A.R.T. goals and

make them more robust, concise and easily employable! Every goal you put on this

paper should have an estimated timetable for their completion (otherwise is not a

goal, is just a dream or a “want to do” item).

This 3 folded process, should be repeated 2 or 3 times more (in a cascading mode, with

some time intervals), aiming at leaving only the goals you really want to achieve in a form

that makes them easily understood and achieved (BY YOU. This is your goals, remember!).

Moreover this process would provides you the clarity needed to propel you towards your

objectives.

The final result would be a short (or longer!) list of clear and concise goals with their

estimated time for their achievement (i.e. how you want to do that, when you would

achieve the other thing, etc.)

It is important to review frequent this list, evaluate your progress, and add, update or

delete any goal it is not longer current or feasible!

2. Define The E-Learning Area You Want To Work Or Make Career

The second step for a job or career in the e-learning sector is to clarify at what area of e-

learning you want to work. Every expert and company in the field is specialized at some

specific section of e-learning.

You may be want to work at consulting, at instructional design, at courses development &

production, at the development of learning material and resources, at social learning,

etc. The field you want to work in, is entirely at your disposal. But once you select it, you

have to work very hard to develop the knowledge, skills and the expertise you need to

cope effectively in the area.

Furthermore you have to evaluate your strengths and weakness in the area you have

selected to focused on, to see what more you have to offer and check if the area is wide

enough and “rich” enough to help you achieve your goals.

Your decision on what particular section of e-learning you want to focus on, defines your

later career and connected closely with the achievement of your goals and objectives!

Well, how it is going? Have you consider, yet, if you want a job or a career?

3. “Re-Build” Your CV

Since you have defined your goals and the field of e-learning you want to work in, you

need to “tweak” you CV to be compatible with the aims you want to reach. This is an

important process, most people seeking for a work, usually forger!

It is basically an optimization process, aiming at magnify the elements of you CV that are

more suitable for the field you want to work in and to promote your “candidacy” in a

more effective way! This step includes for you to:

1. Review your CV and update it

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2. Isolate the elements (knowledge, skills, experience, etc) associate with the field(s)

of work you are interested in, and

3. Re-structure you CV focusing and emphasizing more the elements directly

connected with your future work, and

4. Review it, once more, in order to re-write it under the view of the new elements you

have emphasize in the earlier phase.

As an example, if you want, to work in the area of training content development, you

should focus in you CV all the skills, experience, previous works, etc relate to development,

writing, instructional design, management, etc.

4. Search the Area

If you have completed, the previous steps, now it is the time to build a list of companies,

that are “compatible” with your goals! Do the search via Internet, specialized magazines,

connections, contacts, etc. aiming at compiling a small catalog of 10-15 companies in

Greece (or in Europe, or in USA, or anywhere you have selected to work!) specialized in

the area you wish to work later on. From these companies, you should select only the ones

you wish to cooperate with, omitting the ones does not are compatible with your work

requirements (as location, size, complex administration hierarchy, etc.)

This step includes, the development of a small spreadsheet including your final list of the

companies you would be interested in cooperating with! In this list, you should also include

contact persons, addressed, telephones, e-mail and any other information would help

you later to communicate with them! You should categorize this list in a sorting order by

your interest for cooperation with, leaving a column for observations after each company.

When you finished this catalog, re-search any information you can find, for this small group

of companies, via Google or specialized networks as the LinkedIn, etc. and complete your

spreadsheet with information has meaning for you (i.e. enhance or lower your resolve for

cooperation with the specific company).

Based on these observation re-order the companies in your spreadsheet in an order of the

most interest to cooperate with, to the least interested for cooperation (for you)! This

process would provide you all the necessary information for the companies you would

want to focus on for future cooperation!

5. Pinpoint Your Search Area

After completing the previous step(s), you have a small, compact and focused list of

companies, for cooperation with. Now it is the time to use all the results from the previous

steps in a concise manner. At this phase you should, at least, have:

clear defined goals for your work area,

a clear decision on the area you want to work in,

a suitable, restructured CV, compatible with your working pursue,

a small spreadsheet of the companies (in the area) you want to work, in a sorted

mode!

Having these “assets”, you should contact the responsible departments of the companies

you have selected (usually the HR departments) and send your new CV along with an

accompanied letter. In this letter you should include the reasons you are seeking

cooperation with the specific company, the reasons made you to send your CV to them,

what more you can offer them professionally, all you contact data and everything other

information you think as pertinent in your introduction to them!

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6. Develop A Network

Competing the previous step, usually, is enough, to have a chance or two for a job

interview. If the process have not provide you with a job opportunity, you should restart

the process, taking more care at your goals, your knowledge and skills and the general

condition of the market!

But even when you have already hired for a specific position in the company you have

selected (and especially then, I believe) it does not mean that the process have ended.

You see, the goal of this particular process is to make you think in a more flexible way in

relation to labor market. In ourcurrent, internationalized, market there is no guarantee for

a permanent working position, and that fact dictates a more flexible mindset by the

modern workers.

This is the reason, that the job and career directions are more even separated today, than

they were at the previous century. Today you have a job in a company or an organization

but you have career (and experience, and connection and associates and collaborators

in relation to all the positions you held in different companies, to all the projects you

participated, etc.) in a working field!

For this reason you need to develop along with the skills, the knowledge and the

experience required for effectiveness in the filed you have selected to work, and

analogous initiatives and activities in the area of professional social networks (as

the LinkedIn is, for example). These activities might include new connections and contacts

in you area, transactions and interaction with them, with groups of interest, posting of

information and articles, etc. All you effort in the area of social networks, should be

directed towards providing more value (new insights, approaches, ideas, connections,

etc) to your field and to the people working in that field.

In this activity you should also consider and the contact with people of interest, mentors,

coaches, contacts, collaborators and everyone might provide you with more

opportunities for learning and interaction and deepen your understanding for the area

you have select to work in!

7. Learn, Learn, Learn!

Last but not least. If you want to excel in your field you should always find time for more

learning opportunities, catching up with the new developments in your field, interacting

with people of influence in your particular line of work and providing more value to all the

networks (personal, professional, social, etc.) you are associated with!