OK so I emerged out of university 3 years ago, starry-eyed and excited at what the world had in store for me.
Sitting here on a cold November Sunday I am struggling to make sense of my "career" to date.
Career - the buzzword, one of the things we are meant to accumulate as an adult, especially as a Graduate. I have been floating around from placement to contract to contract role without any stability and seemingly, no career progression. We were advised at Uni that every bit of experience helps, and will all add up to ultimately a grand career in Graphic Design.
Yeah, fucking right.
I did the whole unpaid placement thing which really should be illegal as basically it allows sought-after creative companies to use students and graduates to do all the monkey-donkey work i.e. tea-making, photocopying, faxing, errands, basically all the shit jobs. At the end of it you get zero pay and if you're lucky some good contacts and possibly a permanent job offer.
But it has happened too many times, where I have landed a foot-in-the-door. The problem is I still feel I am on that first rung of the ladder.
After a year of unpaid work and very red bills from HSBC, I decided to opt for a "safer" route of doing in-house design for corporate companies around London. My golly I might have committed career suicide if there is such a thing. Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choices, but you never know unless you try different environments out. I liked dressing up smart and working the hot secretary look, with pencil skirts, trendy specs et al, and the camaraderie of working in an office sans pretentious "creative" types. It was actually refreshing to work with people who weren't obsessed with their egos and big ideas, who were more down to earth. The money was better for a while and I thought, hey I could do this. The downsides were that I was usually doing marketing material or making very boring things look pretty, but I had no interest whatsoever in the content. I worked in Law, Property, Finance, but all of the literature and corporate speak bored me to DEATH. Going to countless pointless meetings which resulted in nothing but stupid action points and "common goals", yeuch I hate the corporate world.
I also feel like a real-life Dilbert in that I felt I have been shitted on too many times working in the corporate world. I have many stories to tell about pervy ass bosses, bitchface marketing execs who used my ideas and didn't even keep me on, ass lickers who took credit for my work and worst of all the boss who promised me a long-term opportunity before sacking me in the last week of a SIX month probation.
Sitting here now with no real job and a string of temp roles on my CV, I have been doing some long-hard soul-searching about what I really want to do. I can't believe how much my interests have changed, even in the past year I feel I have just come alive! I don't know when that eureka moment happened, but at 26 I am edging away from the idea of what I wanted to be before graduating.
I have taken on many new hobbies this year and they have completely changed my life. I absolutely love Salsa dancing and I made it to Advanced level within 6 months! It has made me so happy and I am happiest whilst dancing. It has made me more appreciative of dance in general, I have the bug now so I want to try out other dances very soon!!
They say other things to do when considering a career change is just write a list of the things you love. Here's mine:
Dance, dance, dance!
Latin culture
Reading, anything and everything
Fashion
Health, beauty
Alternative therapies
Exercise - gym
Food, eating out, cooking
Film, especially world cinema
Learning languages
Reading and writing about men, relationships, dating, sex
Cool girly brands
Retro glamour: 1940s style
I also want to do more writing hence me starting up my blog again. I have been looking at Editorial Assistant jobs but it will be very tough and I am starting from the beginning again, oh well nothing new there.
Surely there should be a way out of a 9-5 where no-one really wants you to become successful. I am currently reading "The 4-Hour Week* for some inspiration on how to escape the rat-race. Wish me luck people!
