Thoughts become things, they say, and as time passes by, more and more people realize this refers to the professional arena as well. Transitioning from a non-key expert position to a top consultancy career definitely requires a lot of effort and perseverance. But having something to lean on, like the DevelopmentAid platform, can make this process easier and faster. Check out some insights from several professionals who have managed to achieve this transition and become inspired to forge their own career path.
“I am, and this has been going on for years, on the prescribed path of an expert. That way, a little over seven years ago, I started from the very beginning, from a junior non-key expert position. I do not want to deceive anyone and say that it is an easy path, especially after a serious career in other areas – you change yourself, you change your approach to the whole job. Before the expert job, I did other jobs, but I firmly decided to dedicate myself to climbing the expert ladder. As on every journey, there were ups and downs. What I would convey as an experience and a recommendation is that you need a lot of courage, perseverance, and faith in yourself. If you believe in yourself, it will not be difficult or impossible for you to achieve anything that is necessary for your personal progress. This is not only related to this type of business, in today’s context and business, you have to really believe in yourself in order to utilize your maximum energy and succeed in beating the competition that is getting better and stronger every day. The downside of this non-key expert position is that you have the least influence on decision-making and organization, but it is also an advantage because you can learn! And not just from your own mistakes. In order to one day be able to make decisions and run a business, experience is necessary, and experience is gained through solved problems. Therefore, when you are in a non-key junior position, do not miss the opportunity to learn by analyzing situations.
After many challenges and experiences of all kinds, I came to a point in my career where I was working on several projects at the same time and each position was more than the one that occasionally had seemed eternal – junior. It’s no secret that I’ve wondered many times if I’m doing the right thing and if I should direct my career to the other side. Still, years of investing in my career and gaining knowledge have paid off. To switch your position, you must first build yourself. By “build yourself” I mean upgrading your CV, on a realistic basis, because through it you get in touch with employers, but it is more important to build yourself as an expert who deeply believes – in yourself! What is even more important is that you believe in your knowledge and ability to solve situations at work. When you gain confidence, you start to radiate it and it no longer matters whether you are a junior, senior, or a key expert – people who work and do business with you will trust you. That means you have built yourself up. With the growth of self-confidence and professional knowledge and experience, you reach the situation when at one point you think “Hey, I want to do something more!”. And then, according to the logical sequence of things, it all opens up to you. But you have to build yourself first!
Currently, I deal mostly with websites for public institutions. Not only programming and design but also designing, connecting, and integrating web-based systems. I think that with the experience I have gained the opportunity to understand the needs of the person whose website I am working on and to either fulfill these or pass them on to the person who needs to fulfill them. Recently, an offer, the technical part of which I wrote, won an EU-funded tender, and I think that is the biggest success of my professional career so far. I hope for further successful cooperation with the company, Sofreco (France), with whom we cooperated on that occasion because the course of cooperation and the final result were great. In addition, I have specialized databases that are quite messy in the public sector and require someone with a lot of experience (and nerves) to “tidy them up” a bit. However, what I would especially emphasize, and what I think is a great advantage of not only gaining experience in IT but also in working with people, is the possibility to be an “interface” between the administration and the IT profession. Like Google Translate, I understand both sides – the needs and requirements of both jobs, so I have the opportunity of really helping in the effectiveness of such collaborations. It is an advantage gained through work, time, and experience.
The DevelopmentAid website is, for me, a relatively new option that I learned about two years ago from a colleague and it is invaluable in the type of work I have been doing for the last seven to eight years. If you want to do expert work, moving from one project to another, building your career internationally, cooperating with companies from all over the world, then the DevelopmentAid website is definitely a very important option for you. I think that the concept of the DevelopmentAid website is absolutely business-oriented and that through such a concept, the essence of such a website is best achieved and that is business cooperation. I will not disclose business information but I would state that I achieved a good part of cooperation in the previous year through the DevelopmentAid website and I am very grateful for that.
There are some tips I can offer and I will try to present these as briefly as possible. First, believe in yourself. Base your faith in yourself on your constant progress and improvement, not on vanity. Second, value yourself. Do not allow yourself to be underestimated or humiliated. There is always a job and none is worth losing your essence. Thirdly, don’t be ashamed of a situation where there is something you don’t know at that moment or you are not sure. Learn the “great” skill of pronouncing the sentence “I don’t know at this moment”. After that, ask for time to think, consult someone or literature (traditional or the internet), and give a much better answer than you would give if you relentlessly avoid the stated sentence. The fourth thing is, of course, use the DevelopmentAid website to find jobs and employers. If this doesn’t happen immediately, look at yourself – what’s wrong with your presentation. Maybe something is putting employers off and maybe you’re not “targeting” the right areas. Fifth and foremost, there is no stopping learning. If you are on the internet, it is constantly growing and bringing new knowledge. If you think you’ve learned enough – you’re wrong, you’ll be out-of-date again tomorrow!”
“As a Senior Non-Key Expert, my previous position was for Wyg Turkey in OPINA Platform Project, funded by IPA II in Turkey. Particularly, the position was full of new project opportunities and new organizational networks to extend my consultancy career in the future. I was in the position of preparing new & original project ideas for COSME, Erasmus+ Program Alliances for Innovation, and Horizon EUROPE Program across Europe and globe. While new and original R&I projects have new opportunities to succeed new career victories/successes, the position has also some risks to overcome the mission successfully. However, risks present new success story for my career pathway towards future-orientated missions. Risks in original and unique projects have full of added-value improvements for my career if I complete my assignment successfully. In short, the critical success factor in my career development is to join in unique projects and overcome the challenged issues at the end of the position/project.
My current position is a Senior Project Expert in designing, developing, and preparing original and unique project ideas and project proposals at national and international levels. The main succeeding motivation factor is to include in original and risk-full project stories for me. The behind reason of deciding to switch my career pathway is to have new succeeding stories at the international level. Also, to meet new network opportunities and to provide added-value services for project consultancy and expertise.
DevelopmentAid website helped me in accessing potential consultancy firms at the national and international levels. Certainly, lots of job positions in your website helped me in finding new potential assignments. Thus, DevelopmentAid is a key role for my career improvement as an international interface.
I can give advice for newcomers as follows: Firstly, they should have future-orientated individual targets, dedicate to individual vision and have individual principals, and useful strategies to succeed in their jobs. If possible, they should prepare a brief documented plan covering their career phases for 1-year, 5-year, and 10-year periods. Secondly, they should always work hard for their career. Thirdly, they should have some critical unique networks to access for new potential customers. Fourthly, they should definitely deliver their assignments on time. Finally, they should get feedbacks for their completed works and projects in order to improve their careers in the future. I strongly believe in that the career pathway I suggested for them will deliver on their defined career points.”
“DevelopmentAid has been instrumental to my consultant career. It encouraged me follow my dream for an international career and work hard to improve my professional skills to match the requirements most employers’ desire. Starting years ago as a non-key expert with narrow specialization in wine, it took me a number of short-term assignments before I was able to qualify as Key Expert. My last engagement as a Senior Non-Key Expert GI was in the project “Introduction and implementation of Common Market Organization measures” in the Republic of North Macedonia. Currently, I am working as a Key Expert in the project, “Strategic advice and capacity building on the implementation of the necessary activities related to the termination of the use of the name “cognac” for products originating in Armenia and for the development of a new name of brandy in Armenia”. Needless to say, the road to a successful international career is paved with hard and dedicated work, constant life-long education, active networking, and gaining the respect of your peers in the field of your work internationally. This I managed to achieve by becoming certified as an international wine judge in most of the world-famous international competitions, as well as actively participating as a lecturer and speaker at numerous world conferences and also contributing as a writer to several professional wine magazines. Altogether these provided good visibility as to who I am and what I do professionally. Upgrading to a KE also required for me, besides all the professional skills and work experience, a very good knowledge of the region where the assignments were located. In most cases, this is considered a great advantage. I always thought being from Eastern Europe and speaking the local languages plus Russian increased my competitiveness and helped me win quite a few contracts in the ex-Soviet and the Balkan countries. Finally, DevelopmentAid helped me realize what a big world of opportunities we are living in and that it takes, first of all, strong will and decisiveness, followed by hard work and a persistent endeavor for excellence, to go out there and make your dreams come true. My advice to all that follow this path is to never give up, know your strong points, and trust you can help others.”
Since June 2002 we have accumulated experience in the protection of children’s rights, respectively in the Romanian social field, as well as in the writing, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of various social projects and not only projects financed by our government, from European or EEA funds too. The position of non-key expert came as a result of a recruitment announcement posted on DevelopmentAid by an organizational consortium and so I participated in a project funded by the World Bank for the development of a new system for the registration of people with disabilities. Seven years ago, I moved to another professional level so that since then I have been monitoring social projects funded by EEA and Norwegian funds. My employment at my present workplace followed a very difficult exam, but the experience gained helped me tremendously in obtaining and sustaining this position as a monitoring officer. If I were to want a change, I would like to work for an international organization in the Middle East. My advice to those who are at the beginning of their careers is to turn their work into satisfaction because in the social field you can’t work out of obligation in any country in the world.
See also: Why I left a permanent job for an independent consultant career. Experts’ Opinions
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