What do I do? And where can I go?

[charrison]

Hi, I'm doing a bit of a self audit, trying to work out where I am in my career. It seems some people on here may be able to help me identify where I stand within the industry.

I currently work for a large financial institution in their direct marketing department. I started in a non-technical position three years ago, managing the process of direct mail solicitations. However, I guess my technical background shone through (my degree is in Software Engineering) and I was moved into a more suitable position.

My title is simply 'Process Manager' or 'Names Specialist', both kind of vague. So I wondered what my position would normally be called in the technical industry. I work with a large database of prospects with financial data. Getting instructions from Marketing Analysts I create specs and then proceed to set-up and execute suppression and segmentation strategies in a 'campaign manager' called DoubleClick Ensemble.

Sometimes this is straight forward work - entering criteria into data fields, but at other times it can require some creative thinking on my part. I also use some basic SQL to debug and to pull reports for the analysts.

When searching a few key terms on monster, the position of 'database analyst' comes up quite a lot. I'm not sure if this is exactly the kind of position I'm in, since I do more executing than analysing. But I could see it as somewhere I could move to. Are there any other common positions that these skills and tools might lead me to? Where should I look at developing in my current role in order to better prepare myself?

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[baltman]

- What do you WANT to do?

- Large financial institutions often offer to pay for onging classes and training. If so, take advantage.

- Large financial institutions typically have a lot of diverse jobs openings and give hiring preference to current employees. Take a look on your company's job postings and go to a few interviews. Note that you should be able to do this through HR without your current manger knowing.

 

[charrison]

I don't know. I like problem solving, I like aspects of what I do now, but I don't necessarily like the financial industry. That's why I'm looking at my skills rather than the positions available in my current company.

I would like a better incentive to do what I do, more of a purpose if that makes sense. Something I can buy into. That's why I want to see what my of skills and experience equate to in other companies.

 

[baltman]

I think you'll find that you can learn a lot about yourself by going through the interview process. Generally you learn about another job position and how your skills and knowledge fit.

During the interview process ask what knowledge the job requires and thus you will find out how to prepare for the next interview.

I have learned something from every interview I have ever been on. I think it is the only way to find out what your options are.

Society would collapse without banking and finance, what more of a purpose do you need?

Brian

 

[NickFerrar]

Not really sure it fits neatly into a standard role as it sounds very application specific (i.e. you title would really be Doubleclick Ensemble Analyst). In vague terms you're probably somewhere around a Systems Analyst role. A DBA role is usually much more focused on database configuration/maintenance rather than writing queries to use the data (which seems more what you're doing).

 

[Onyxpurr]

I would suggest going somewhere like monster and look up various position descriptions.

most positions (unless you're working for a very large company) fit into one nice category.

e.g. I worked as a 'help desk specialist' one time, but in actuality most of my work included db and frontpage programming.

The job I have now probably fits you're description more accurately, data or business analyst.

A business/data analyst determines user needs and also generates reports to identify trends, issues, or opportunities for improvement.

Hope that helps!!

 

[lexus]

Not sure if you fit this bill but a growing area is Data Warehousing. You may want to check into that as well.

**Quiquid latine dictum sit altum viditur.**