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New Year, New Career?

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Unless you’re in the business of making virtual meeting platforms, 2020 has probably been a pretty grim year for your sector. Numerous customer-facing businesses have had to scramble to take services online, with varying degrees of success and survival. Among them, EFL teaching has taken a big hit: COVID-19 proved the final nail in the coffin for some long-established academies, including giants like International House, which closed its doors in September, leaving students without teachers and teachers without a paycheck.

So, whither now, teacher? The obvious answer used to be translation but that, too, is under pressure from ever-better machine translation, right when companies are watching the outsourcing pennies carefully.

As Winston Churchill famously said, though, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” A global recession may not be the obvious time to make big life changes, but redundancy offers an opportunity to take stock of where you are, and see whether you’re happy there. Fortunately, these days career change is increasingly common and acceptable at any age. I should know: at 49, I’m on my sixth professional incarnation, having taken redundancy as the push I needed to transition to my dream job of penniless (but much happier) writer.

So how do you go about it? And what are the options for someone with experience in languages or education? I talked to Barcelona Activa Employment Consultant, Sara Jurado, to find out.

Sara explains that the first step is to analyze your options and determine whether you want to move sideways in your current industry—for example, to teaching other subjects—or transition to a new one. Of course, the more drastic the change, the bigger the challenge. If you’re up for it, the next step is to identify your interests and any relevant non-work experience, what she calls “the hidden curriculum.”

This is where career coaching is invaluable. A good coach will help you think outside your professional box and challenge fixed ideas or limiting beliefs you may have about yourself and your abilities that prevent you from seeing new possibilities. They’ll also help you assess your personal situation: how much do you need to make rent or care for people? What are the limitations on your time, mobility, resources, etc.?

As a first step to identifying your goals, Sara recommends Barcelona Activa’s online Key Skills and Professional Interests tests. The latter suggests job profiles based on your answers which you can then research.

I did some digging and came up with a few options:

Communications Sector

Journalism. If you have good people, communications, information-sourcing and fact-checking skills, you’re halfway there, though you’ll also need a nose for the newsworthy. Journalism has changed a lot with the Internet, full-time newspaper staff reporters are a rare breed these days and it’s not easy to make a living. However, there are thousands of general and specialist interest titles out there that do pay for contributions, and journalists are present in all types of media, from press to radio to television to company communications departments and agencies. And, with content increasingly consumed in the form of videos or podcasts, writing isn’t the only skill you can leverage. Most importantly, a journalist’s varied skills set translates well to:

Marketing & communications. All the above is a solid foundation for roles like content creator, content marketer, content strategist or marketing and communications manager. These people develop coherent strategies to communicate and publicize a company or brand by developing branded or non-branded written and multimedia content for websites, blogs, social media, events, marketing materials, etc. Content creation is an essential part of marketing and a valuable tool to drive online traffic and, ultimately, sales. Creativity and a working knowledge of search engine optimization (SEO) tools and techniques is an advantage.

Community manager is a related role that often falls under the above but really warrants a full-time position and specialization in its own right. Community managers write on-brand social media messages and create multimedia content—videos, memes, ads, polls, surveys—for distribution on the channels appropriate to their brand or company. The aim is to build an online image and grow, moderate and interact with the community to engage customers or attract new ones. It’s an integral part of marketing and communications and a powerful sales or customer care tool that requires creativity, commitment and good communications and community building skills.

Technical or scientific writing. If you have a technical or scientific background or are good at getting your head around complex concepts and communicating them in a way that’s accessible to a variety of readers (think irregular verbs), this could be for you. These writers prepare articles for publication in academic, specialist or trade journals, draw up instruction manuals, catalogs, promotional sales material, informative material, reports or advertising material related to a specific product or field.

Editing. If you’ve spent years correcting and improving other people’s written grammar, style, spelling and formatting, then you are already an editor. In addition, professional editors perform important functions like adjusting text or copy to available space and selecting content that will interest their readers or fits a particular brand image. Proofreading is a discipline in its own right and a vital part of quality control that involves checking final drafts post-editing and making sure content is ready for publication. If you’re a stickler for getting it right and have a strong command of the rules of language, you’re off to a good start.

Translation and localization specialist goes beyond just language translation to encompass the whole process of adapting a product, website, software, publication, etc. to a local market. It may include researching and implementing cultural and regulatory norms and requires the ability to understand different cultures and people, as well as good project management skills to coordinate the different people and stages involved in launching a product onto a new market.

Tech Sector

Content manager. If you’re highly organized and reasonably tech-savvy, this could suit you. Content managers are responsible for defining, categorizing, classifying and publishing website contents using a content management system (CMS or website ‘backend’), as well as editing and optimizing images, etc. (In smaller organizations, this person may also create the content.) A working knowledge of HTML and SEO is required but, while some corporate websites use custom-designed platforms, customizable templates like WordPress are popular and relatively easy to get to grips with (if I can…). Content managers need good teamwork skills to collaborate with others like the webmaster who develops the site or the content creator, if their roles are separate.

A related role is information architect, someone who makes sure information in digital spaces and platforms is well-organized and easy to navigate. IA goes hand in hand with user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) design, which aim to ensure smooth, painless use of and interaction with digital tools and applications. It’s often said that if these are done well, they are undetectable.

Computational linguist. AI, automation and machine learning have huge implications for all sectors in the near future. While developments in natural language processing, machine learning and speech recognition pose a threat to traditional occupations like translation, they also offer linguists an opportunity to reskill and go to work for companies developing the technology. Developers can write the code that makes applications work but need professional linguists to explain the myriad rules, nuances and use of language that help software understand it. (Let’s face it, teaching a machine may well be easier than a 56-year-old executive).

Instructional designer. Language processing isn’t the only area that requires input from diverse experts. Educators can find new opportunities in the education technology (EdTech) sector in roles like instructional designer. Somewhere between editor and graphic designer, they create learning experiences, interactives and materials from “raw” educational content, adapting and structuring it for different online environments and audiences. Many large companies and institutions have internal training departments and demand for online learning is only set to grow in the current climate.

Training

Online course designer or trainer. If you can keep 15 kids on Zoom focused on the present perfect, you probably have what it takes to create, deliver and adapt content for virtual tools to deliver in-company training. It’s a role that may collaborate with human resources training specialists responsible for identifying employees’ needs and knowledge or skills gaps and how to fill them.

Education officers or activities coordinators typically work for museums, sports organizations or cultural institutions. It’s their job to create educational or entertaining programs or activities based around collections or resources to facilitate learning. This can involve putting together an educational plan or strategy, developing and delivering talks, activities, materials and presentations and liaising with educational institutions.

Events

Events manager. Responsible for planning and executing events—sporting, cultural or corporate—to give visibility to a particular topic or organization, disseminate information or facilitate debate. Requires excellent planning and project management skills, not to mention the ability to keep your head while all about you are losing theirs. And if you have experience doing it all online, you’ll be hot property right now.

To find out more about any of these, or start your own search, Barcelona Activa offers support, coaching, business advice, training, courses, key skills development and more. It also has online tools to research career profiles and requirements and browse job opportunities.

It’s worth noting that while many positions stipulate higher or professional qualifications, these days the paths to career change are many and non-linear. Employers increasingly value transferable skills and experience, as well as “soft” skills like agility, flexibility, and willingness to adapt and continually learn. Upskilling or reskilling to add a digital layer to your profile can also put you ahead of the pack.

Once you’ve worked out where you want to go, start putting yourself out there. Don’t wait to acquire every scrap of knowledge or have everything perfect; jump in and learn by doing. Create your personal brand, be proactive, go to events and Meetups, and work that social media. Many jobs get filled without ever being advertised so networking and leveraging your contacts is key.

And remember, everyone suffers from imposter syndrome.

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Kate Williams.

Kate Williams is a freelance writer, editor, translator and Director of The Writer Stuff. She left her native England for Barcelona in 2003 and never looked, or went, back. When she isn’t writing or discovering all the cool stuff going on in the city, she enjoys hiking in the Catalan countryside, kayaking on the Costa Brava, and volunteers at a local animal sanctuary. You can read more by Kate here.

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