Unemployment is over!

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.