The Game Changer

Traditional career paths are nearing extinction due to a highly competitive global marketplace. Instead, forging your own path and designing –as well as marketing—your skillset is essential. To be an innovator or game changer within your field, you have to aim towards generating your own opportunities. In this case, those with an entrepreneurial mindset will thrive. Expand your understanding of funding, marketing, sales, and professional development; it will allow you to pitch ideas, write proposals, make savvy financial decisions, and strategically market yourself and your skills. This knowledge is particularly relevant for those with broad or general degrees such as liberal arts and fine arts who will enter a highly competitive industry with non-traditional career paths.

Be an innovator in your field by staying abreast of ways to gain experience or exposure, and develop new ways of reaching your target audience.

• STAND OUT. Use social media platforms such as YouTube and SoundCloud to gain recognition, exposure, and experience. Create your own e-portfolio and/or website to showcase your skills.
• NETWORK. Build and maintain relationships with professionals in your field through events, professional organizations, social groups, LinkedIn, and Facebook.
• OUTSMART. Invest your energy on startups, apps, and innovative ideas. Be creative!
• SPECIALIZE. Gain experience within your field by selling your services and skills through websites such as Fiverr or Distilled.
•  DREAM BIG. Reach your full potential by seeking support from others to fuel your ideas. Crowdfunding websites such as Kickstarter allow you to garner donations and investments towards your projects.

Skills such as strategic thinking, creativity, and adaptability will be essential to succeed in such an open market. Game changer, leave your mark in your field!

Marketing your Hispanic Heritage

Striking a balance between marketing your skills and promoting your specializations or areas of expertise without pigeonholing yourself is a difficult and continuous process. As a Hispanic professional, how do you market and use all your skills wisely? This is not as simple as listing your language abilities on your resume. You have to think of your contributions to your department or organization and eloquently market them to prospective employers. During the job search, speak about what you bring to the table. These will be the same facts you can discuss during salary negotiations. In your career, use your knowledge and expertise when opportunities to improve your organization arise. Engage others in a discussion about race and diversity. Do not shy away from raising awareness of barriers you notice in your workplace, but focus on the positive improvements that can be made. Think of diversity as a whole, including all cultures, levels of ability, and sex orientation. Making sure the work environment is inclusive to all employees and outside members is an ongoing effort. Raise up to the challenge of finding solutions to the problems you see.  

Welcome Old and New Friends!

In any new job there is a learning curve. Different work dynamics, reporting relationships, goal setting strategies, and procedures take some time to learn. This may take a few weeks or even a couple of months, depending on the company's size and your role in it. So if you are starting a new chapter in your career, take a deep breath and use your listening skills to glean all the information coming your way. It may not seem like it sometimes, but you will quickly gain an understanding of the inner workings of your department. Use this knowledge wisely and find opportunities to improve the status quo.

Similarly, this blog is a new beginning for me and I expect there will be a slight learning curve. Make yourself at home, browse through my posts, and feel free to ask me any questions about careers, job searches, resumes and interviewing you may have. This blog is the evolution of WSU's blog written by Jan Mead, Assistant Director of Career Services. I am excited to see how it develops from here. Thank you for reading!