I am a 35 year old with a BS degree in Physical Sciences{Physics
Major} and halfway through my MS degree in Telecommunications
Management here in the US. I got into the States some 4yrs. ago with
my bachelors, therefore it was hard getting a job. So, I got into
banking and rose through the ranks from teller to Snr customer service
associate, until I got laid off lat month.
It has been very hard for me to find a job related to my educational
career, of course b'cos I have no experience in the IT environment,
despite my theoretical background. It didn't even work for me whiles I
worked at the bank to make an internal switch into the IT dept.
Now my question to you is, with my experience in customer service and
banking/finance and my educational background, how could I advance a
prospective career looking at the current economic dilemma. I wanted
to undertake some, certification exams, like the CCNA,MCSE etc and
beef that up with my degrees to attract some IT employer. But looking
at the demise of the industry I get discourage all the time. I also
thought about transfering credits to read the software engineering
program instead of telecommunications management since the former
looks more vendor specific. Again looking at the industry, I also
considered forgeting them all and just get into the Registered
Nursing( RN) program since jobs are so overwhelmingly available there.
By this time you would've probably guessed my frustration. At this
prevailing economic situation, one is easily tempted to be more income
driven than interest. I think I still have the learning spirit to do
anything I have to.
Could you please advise me as to what to do and how to market myself?
Thanks
Michael.
Hello Michael,
I sense your enthusiasm and frustration about trying to figure out how
set a career direction that will maximize what you’ve already
accomplished and lead to an opportunity to develop and grow instead of
having to start over every few years. It’s obvious from the story
you’ve told that you’re flexible and like to learn. You also seem to
have decided that education is the key to getting what you want. I’m
glad to be able to help you with sorting out your options.
Here are three Web sites that are a terrific starting point for
helping you with your explorations. Each of them offers a rich library
of materials to help you work through the issues you’ve raised in your
message.
http://www.rileyguide.com/prepare.html
Preparing for a Job Search: Explore Options, Prepare for the Search
http://jobstar.org/tools/career/index.cfm
Career Guides
http://www.cdm.uwaterloo.ca/#
Career Development eManual
=========================
CAREER MANAGEMENT PROCESS
=========================
There are hundreds of books and thousands of Web sites that address
career decision making and job search. They can all be distilled to a
three stage model.
SELF ASSESSMENT
Figure out who you are. At this stage you clarify what’s important to
you, what you’re good at, what are your constraints. This translates
into assessing your skills, values, interests, experience, education,
preferences, geographic and salary limitation, preferences in work
styles/settings and anything else that matters to you about how you
express yourself at work. These are the drivers that will help you
succeed no matter where you decide to work.
The University of Waterloo Career Development Manual is terrific for
this.
http://www.cdm.uwaterloo.ca/step1.asp
WORLD OF WORK EXPLORATIONS
Figure out who needs you. At this stage you investigate industries,
companies, business and technology trends, market opportunities, labor
market projections and everything that is of interest to you about who
needs you. You find out what the market needs so that you can present
a convincing case as to why you’re able to fill those needs. At this
point you connect the results of your self-assessment to the realities
of what’s available in the world of work.
The Riley Guide’s Career & Occupational Guides will help open your
eyes to many possibilities and starting points.
http://www.rileyguide.com/careers.html
So is JobStar’s Guides for Specific Careers.
http://jobstar.org/tools/career/spec-car.cfm
TARGETED ACTION
Find the right match. You launch your job search campaign at this
stage by developing a list of target companies and functional job
goals. You package the results of your self-assessment into a resume
that will fit with the requirements of the world of work as presented
in a job posting. You look for opportunities in the posted and hidden
job market. You practice your interviewing skills and network for
connections to assist your job quest.
The career centers at the big job boards have wonderful resources for
this stage of your job search.
http://content.monster.com/
Monster Career Center
http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/CareerBytes/Index.htm
CareerBuilder Career Advice
======================
YOUR CAREER MANAGEMENT
======================
Let’s review your situation to see where you are in the career
exploration process. Your summary gives a limited amount of
information and I filled in what I learned about you as well as the
questions that I think remain to be answered.
YOUR SELF-ASSESSMENT
Age 35
Education: BA Physics, MS Telecom Mgtmt in progress
Experience: 4 years customer service in banking industry (Since you’re
35 you probably have additional work experience.)
Values: interest in learning (It would help to clarify what else is
important to you. Intellectual challenge? Helping people? Advancing
knowledge? Using expertise? etc. etc. etc.)
Skills: physics, some telecom, customer service, additional languages
besides English? (It is important to make a list of all your skills
and rate them as to which ones are your chief strengths and which ones
need development. In addition, you have to decide which one you want
to keep using. These are you motivated skills.)
Interests: IT, Telecom, nursing? (It’s important to review your life
history to see what kinds of things you’ve been interested in all your
life, what kinds of things you like to read about, learn more about,
feel comfortable to you, or you naturally gravitate to no matter what.
Interests are usually closely tied to values and will frequently help
you identify functional and geographic areas you want to work in.
They’ll also point to preferred work settings and work styles.
Preferences: Your preferences are usually an expression of your
personality and relate to what kinds of/how many people you like to
work with. Are you a loner or team-oriented. Do you like projects that
have a clear ending or prefer cyclical and ongoing assignments. Do you
care about the size of the company, the geographic location and any
number of qualifications that matter to you personally.
Requirements/Constraints: Salary, hours of work, location,
coordination with others.
YOUR WORLD OF WORK EXPLORATIONS
You’ve given a sketchy outline of your career and the reasons you
chose your fields. It’s not clear what was your intent when you
majored in Physics and why you decided to give up on it. Now you’re
enrolled in a master’s in Telecom Management. Again, it’s not clear
why you chose this field. In the meantime you’ve gained some
experience in customer support in the banking industry. You’re looking
at finding an IT job but you’re not competitive for these positions.
You’re thinking of switching to software engineering and wondering
about various certificate programs. You’re also looking at nursing
because the job market seems to be good.
Because your thinking about what’s next is diffuse, it will be very
difficult for you to sell yourself as the best candidate for any job
opening that’s not directly related to what you’ve already done. I
recommend that you complete a self-assessment program to get clear
about what you want to take forward from your prior education and
work. At the same time you can start your world of work explorations.
I recommend that you greatly expand your knowledge of jobs and
industries first, before trimming down your list because of industry
prospects, educational and salary constraints. By all means
investigate IT jobs and nursing and anything else that appeals to you.
But don’t stop there. The Web is wonderful for doing company/industry
explorations.
One of the easiest way to start exploring any industry or functional
job target is to simply search on “xxxx jobs” with Google. For
instance nursing jobs or telecommunicatins jobs.
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=nursing+jobs
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=telecommunications+jobs
You will quickly get resources that are targeted to your area of
interest. You’re looking for mega-sites or job hubs where someone has
already collected information about your target area.
Use the Google Directory to explore a topic from a broader
perspective. Start at a higher level and follow the links to whatever
looks interesting. http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Telecommunications/
http://directory.google.com/Top/Business/Healthcare/
Combine your interests wherever possible. For instance, I found this
using healthcare telecommunications as the search terms.
://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=healthcare+telecommunications
http://www.the-infoshop.com/study/wg7268_healthcare_telecom.html
Healthcare Telecommunications Markets: Positioning to Participate in
High Growth Segments, Forecasts to 2005
YOUR TARGETED ACTION PLAN
A lot depends on how urgent it is for you to find a job. If you must
find something as soon as possible you should develop a resume that
reflects your most marketable skills and proceed to search for a job
that’s in the same field and/or functional area. (Most obvious:
customer support in banking.) If you have the time, you should
complete your self-assessment and world of work explorations. Once
you’ve achieved clarity in these areas, doing the targeted action plan
is easy.
=================
GETTING LIVE HELP
=================
College Career Center
You say you’re enrolled in a Master’s Program. Be sure to visit your
school’s career center. Most institutions have individual counseling,
group workshops, a physical library and online resources to help you
with all the issues involved in the career exploration and job search
process. Here are a couple of examples:
Here is a school with a Master of Science in Telecommunications
Management.
http://telecom.canisius.edu/telecom/default.htm
Their Career Center offers a wealth of services which is fairly
typical of most schools.
http://www.canisius.edu/careercenter/
State Employment Development Department
You say you were laid off. If you haven’t yet, be sure to file for
unemployment insurance. Many states offer extensive career services as
well.
Here is the national map to locate One Stop Career Centers near you.
http://www.doleta.gov/usworkforce/onestop/onestopmap.asp
ProMatch at NOVA is a public service program available to Silicon
Valley job seekers. Similar services (frequently called Experience
Unlimited) are available in many other locations.
http://www.novapic.org/job_seekers/Promatch.html
Michael, you have a lot of exploring to do. The more energy you put
into it, the more likely you’ll find something satisfying. I hope I
haven’t overwhelmed you. The amount of information available can be
intimidating. Please ask for clarification on any of this.
Good luck with finding a satisfying career direction.
czh
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SEARCH STRATEGY
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Personal knowledge of career management process and familiarity with
online resources.
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