With more than 25 years of experience working in publication management and knowledge sharing for international organisations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), Camille Pillon has built a successful career leading complex editorial and communication projects.

In a recent webinar (see recording below), Camille shared why at this stage in her career she’s chosen to invest in her professional development with Cambridge Advance Online.

I'm going through a professional transition, and I thought it would be the right time to update my skills to meet new challenges. So, I decided to take two courses, Compelling Communication Skills and Creativity, Problem Solving and Design Thinking.

I've spent most of my working life in international organisations. I'm a knowledge management specialist – I coordinate the production of information products on multiple dissemination platforms.

So, day-to-day, my job involves speaking to a lot of people, writing to a lot of people to explain what we need, how and when. It's about organising workflows, tracking progress, and spotting and solving problems.

These courses gave me a lot more confidence

With 25 years of professional experience, I already know what I can do, but these courses helped me put words and structures to the skills I’ve been using for years.

They also introduced me to a lot of new tools and approaches that I didn't know about previously, that I can now apply to my work, which are making a big difference.

I now have a clearer vision of what problems are

With Creativity, Problem Solving and Design Thinking, you have to focus on a problem you face in your workplace. And this is hard, because in my role, there are so many problems we want to think about and solve.

You get ideas of things that you want to solve, then halfway through the course you realise that maybe you've misread what a problem is and what you were thinking was a problem was not a problem after all.

You start having a much clearer vision of what problems are. Your perception shifts, and that's very valuable.

I'm now taking a much more structured approach to my work, not just in problem solving, but in planning and organising ahead of time. So I can identify or solve issues before they happen.

My perspective on public speaking did a 180

I also knew I wanted to improve my communication and public speaking, which is why I took Compelling Communication Skills.

I went from being absolutely terrified and turning down literally all opportunities to speak in public to still being terrified, but knowing that with the right tools, this is something I can do. And it’s actually something that can be fun.

And now I really want to do more of this in my professional life. So that is a real shift.

There's so much to learn, to discover, to read

I'm a geek so learning new things is a thrill. I could do that every year.

Taking these courses, is an investment of time and money. I made that for myself and for my future. It's important to remember that when you start on your learning, because it's not a light endeavour.

If you're really clever and pick up things quickly, you could breeze through the course very quickly. But you would lose so much, because there is so much material in these courses, there's so much to learn, to discover, to read.

So it's a time investment. It's time management. You need to set aside the time and be regular about dedicating time to your learning.

What’s really amazing is you're part of a group, you’re a cohort

For six weeks, you take in everybody else's impressions and ideas, and even if you're alone, working behind your computer, you're in fact part of a group, and that's really precious.

I don’t know how big the group of learners was, but it was well coordinated as cohorts and I always had very quick feedback from the tutor in both courses.

It was really well managed and any question I had was answered very quickly.

Don’t be afraid of speaking up

Another piece of advice I have, especially for people who, like me, are reserved and often prefer to sit back and listen, or are a bit shy and concerned about speaking out.

Speak up and interact with your cohort, because it's your team for six weeks. And when you share your ideas, you get feedback. That's a great part of learning in a cohort.

When taking these courses, you can feel like you're alone, but you're not really alone. So speak up and make use of that community as much as you can.

See Camille share her story, alongside other Cambridge Advance Online alumni, in this webinar:

Thinking of taking a course, but not sure where to start?

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Book a call with our enrolment team(Opens in a new window) or contact philip.perren@cambridge.org.uk for more information.