My Lifelong Dream Job

by Leila Ortega · United States

Leila has walked the equivalent of a round trip from California to Maine (and back) in the past two years, all while earning a living!

As a Mutimedia Instructional Designer, I create educational videos that teach customers to use WebEx. I adore my job, it's perfect.

So, how did I land my perfect job? I came across a job posting on Monster entitled Multimedia Instructional Designer. I thought about this for a minute: Multimedia. I have a Master's degree in Multimedia. Check. Instruction. I am an instructor. Check. Design. I like to design websites. Check!

With this loosely connected skillset and no idea what I was actually applying for, I submitted my resume. This and the job interview took all of 40 minutes out of my day. Forty minutes in exchange for a lifetime career I'm passionate about. Pretty good trade, if you ask me.

In creating educational videos that teach customers to use WebEx, I conduct research, write video scripts, shoot and act in videos, create animations, and more. It was challenging at first. I was a newbie, freshly out of graduate school with very little industry experience. During my first year, I felt like an idiot for eight hours a day. But I learned everything that was required: software suites, analysis, design, development, multimedia production, and script writing. The list is a long one.

A year of "pain" for the ultimate lifelong gain. In the end, I learned a powerful set of skills, made many work friends, built a killer portfolio, and learned the art of creative collaboration. And I won an award for innovation. The prize: a trip to the Bahamas with my family!

Cisco has been a blessing for my family, allowing us to have another child, move cross-country to our dream home, and put my husband through college. The benefits are many, I know it, and I want you to know it too.

So here I am, seven years in, constantly looking for new ways to create value by improving customer satisfaction and knowledge retention, while working with cutting-edge technology. The Cisco culture is second to none. I get to work from home full time, which I do from a walking work desk. I walk on a treadmill for four hours of my day, while working at an attached stand-up desk (see the photo). It's awesome, keeps me in top health, gets rid of my back problems, and is one of the greatest perks of working from home. What a great commute!

Pretty sweet deal for a gal who started this job without a clue.

Cisco makes work life balance possible, thank you doesn’t begin to cover it.