Big apologies for my silence recently everyone
(I know you’ve missed me) - I’m back and ready and raring to blog.
The past few months have been a time of
unemployment for me – not altogether an unenjoyable period in my life (lie-ins
never get dull), but definitely a time of doubts, fears, and questions. After
five months as an exec in a great agency which gave me the chance I needed to
learn my chosen trade, I seemed to be in a good position. However, my job
hunt was still without its challenges. I wasn’t searching for my first position
– I had three relevant internships under my belt, not to mention the good half
a year I’d spent in a full time agency role – but having worked primarily in
experiential, to some potential employers I wasn’t experienced enough to enter
as an Account Exec working with other channels. Which leads me to my other
problem, which was that I wasn’t quite sure
what disciplines I wanted to work in, having not had exposure to them all.
My experiences of the workplace had,
however, opened my mind to other important considerations when job hunting. I
knew that a well-matched culture was important to me. And now I was on the
first rung of the career ladder I felt that I didn’t have to go to every
interview nervous and desperate to impress, because I was fully aware that I
was making an important and career-defining choice and could afford to be more
picky. This certainly helped me in interviews and I viewed it as more of a two-way process, with me trying to find out as much as I could about the company,
people and culture so that I could make a decision for myself. That way I also
didn’t count many rejections as failures and get disheartened, because some
that I went to just weren’t right.
I think when you’re just starting out it’s
better to go for whatever you can get; back then I was certainly in the habit of
convincing myself that I would love whatever it was I was going for. And that
really helped me, for even if it turned out whatever I was doing wasn’t for me,
that experience was still valuable and it has put me in a better position in
the long-term.
Next post – a day in the life! I’ll be
taking you through my experiences as an Account Exec at my new integrated
agency.
