 |
Looking for
a new career?
Try out these fields. |
Pay attention to the skills required and the interests and issues that
the field taps. Ask yourself:
Please
select from one of these Career Fields:
Association Management | Charitable Nonprofit | Investor Relations
Careers In Multimedia
Association Management
Overview: Doctor, lawyer, merchant, chief, and secretary, engineer,
electrician, car dealer, . . .
Every profession, industry, trade, career field has a nonprofit
organization that supports
its members. These
associations offer training, business services, networking,
conferences, and
other products and services that help the profession, industry, trade,
or field grow,
develop, and thrive.
These nonprofit
associations have paid staffs that include: an executive director (CEO),
and people who oversee finances, membership development, conventions and
events, government relations, marketing, and education to name a few.
Associations are small to medium sized organizations, often
headquartered near state capitals or Washington D.C. However, every
major city or county has association chapters with paid staff members.
These organizations tend to be less structured and hierarchical.
Opportunities exist in almost every position to be creative and
flexible.
Their goal is to serve the members of the profession, industry, field,
etc. so they tend to
be "service and people" oriented. However, because they represent people
in the marketplace, they tend to be more closely tied to business than
do charitable nonprofits such as the Heart Association, Cancer Society,
etc.
Skills / Experience Needed: Associations draw on a
multitude of skills, just as the business-world finance,
management, marketing and public relations, business development,
education. Most
positions, but not all, require good people skills and the ability to be
enthusiastic about the organization and its services. Other skills
depend upon the specific position - such as
marketing or business development. Some experience with an association,
either as a paid member or volunteer, is helpful. You may be able to
enter this career if you promote
yourself to an association that is related to your current career. Your
knowledge of the
field may help you obtain a position.
Interests and Issues:
You do not need to have a passion for the associations' members or
cause, however, it
should not be a field or career you find objectionable. Association
Management is good for individuals who are people and service oriented,
like events and social gatherings, and enjoy helping people gain
knowledge and information to improve their work.
And yes, there is an association, for people who work in association
management. In California, it is the California Society of
Association Executives.
Charitable Nonprofit
Overview: If you like small, more personal organizations,
the opportunity to have variety in your work, a common goal among
workers to help some segment of society, a drive to be of service to
people, you will do summersaults to work in a nonprofit! Functions you
can perform within a nonprofit include management (executive director),
programmatic (running the various social programs), volunteer
coordination, fund raising (development), marketing, training, outreach,
public relations, and public affairs.
Skills / Experience Needed:
Skills include Leadership, management, sales, organizational skills,
project management, superb interpersonal skills, influence and
persuasion skills, and communication. Helpful experiences to bring to
nonprofits include volunteer work, event planning, sales or business
development, management, public speaking, writing, marketing, experience
running a department or business.
Interests and Issues:
Nonprofits fall into many categories, so it’s easy to find one that
taps your particular interest or issue: Medical (disease related),
education, cultural and historical, scientific, environment for example.
They focus on youth, the elderly, women, abused, homeless, orphans,
housing, and transportation, to name a few.
Investor Relations
Overview: Do you like to communicate,
persuade, inform, keep up on business and economic trend? Are you
interested in the financial, investment, and research aspects of
business, without having to be financial guru or CPA? If so, add
Investor Relations to your career possibilities. Investor Relations
serves as the public relations and communication arm for the financial
function of an organization. As an investor relations person for your
organization you would keep current on your company’s activities. You
interact with stockholders, stakeholders, business and financial
analysts, media, and others to inform and communicate the initiatives
and status of your organization.
Skills / Experience Needed: Investor
relations needs people who are comfortable with financial information,
but are not so technical they can’t communicate to non-finance people.
Rather, it’s best to have a background in public relations, corporate
communication, communication, public information. Skills needed include
writing, public speaking, interpersonal skills, research, problem
solving and analytical abilities. You can work in-house as an investor
relations, or for a public relations agency that consults with companies
on their investor relations activities.
Interests and Issues: Business, business trends, finance, Wall Street,
informing and educating, researching.
Careers In Multimedia
Overview:
“At a simplistic level, multimedia can be defined as the combination of
more than one medium – text, graphics, sound, animation, and video –
commonly assumed to be in digital format.”
(Careers in Multimedia, by Vivid Studios, published by Ziff-Davis
ZD Press, Emeryville, CA).
Multimedia Products:
Multimedia efforts, usually called “projects” - create engaging,
sometimes interactive experiences, and include a wide variety of
products and services that include entertainment, reference materials,
games, children’s learning and storybooks, music, education, business,
training, marketing and sales.
Industries:
Industries that produce and/or use multimedia include entertainment,
advertising, game producers, computer hard/software, telecommunications,
online services, retailers, publishing, sports, to name a few.
Skills and Types of Positions:
In
addition to the obvious creative and technical roles (graphic artist,
visual designers, sound and lighting, writers, programmers, etc.),
positions exist that use transferable skills, such as 1) interface
design and 2) content expert. Interface designers devise the
navigation pathways and content maps to make sure the program is easy to
use and provides an engaging, meaningful experience. Content experts
are authorities that lend their expertise to provide authenticity and
accuracy to a project (history, firearms, geology, politics,
architecture, dinosaurs, etc.).
One Coil and Associate client recently entered the field of interface
design with an education in art history and experience working in an art
museum. Multi media careers, in general, draw on skills such as problem
solving, determining the flow and sequence of information, creating
appealing visual presentations, integrating a variety of information and
techniques, and coordinating projects.
Interests: Multimedia is a
great career for people with artistic and media technology skills and
interests. It draws people interested in entertainment and education
delivered in an entertaining way. It is a good field for people who like
to be on the cutting edge, since the technology changes rapidly.
Want
to share information on this website about a career you love?
If you love your work and would like to share it with others, email
me and tell me about your
career. I’ll include it in this page and give you credit.
Would you like to talk to others about your career?
You’ll be amazed about how much you learn about you skills,
successes, and reaction to your career when you share it with others who
really want to listen to what you have to say. If you would be willing to
talk to one or two people a year about your career to help them make
a better career choice, email me. |
