This week I reached a fork in the road.
For a year now I have been working as a Digital Account Executive for an Search Engine Optimisation boutique agency in Sydney while studying full time at university, and balancing the events and hectic schedule of a social media influencer.
It has been easy, and I have become comfortable with my life. Too comfortable. I do not want to be complacent with the life that I have, nor do I want to get up in the morning and not feel an electric fear from the prospect of facing something challenging.
I need to be challenged. I need to grow. I need to step out once again from my comfort zone, and enter the daunting work force.
As I start my final semester at university (only two units/3 hours a week), I am reminded that I am transitioning from full time obligation to education, to a full time obligation to a career. I remember my first week of university, all the lecturers, tutors, and guest speakers would reinstate to us was that without experience, you are nothing special to an employer. Which is true. Almost everyone applying for jobs in professional careers have a degree. What sets us all apart besides our appearance, age, and gender?
Experience.
Please my readers, do not get comfortable with your life while you are young! Get so much experience, and not just from directly relevant pathways to your desired career.
I want to ultimately be the head of marketing for a corporation, but I studied a bachelors of communications (Deans Scholar) in Advertising and Public Relations. I've been working since I was 14 in event management, customer service, marketing, public relations, advertising, digital and social media, promotions, SEO, videography, acting, photography, children entertainment, and music.
Don't just walk into a employers office with a piece of paper that said you graduated with a degree. Walk in with years of experience in all facets of life. Walk in with more than they're asking.
So as I start applying for jobs in companies I wish to grow, it reminds me of the quote from Greys Anatomy...
“Today’s the day my life begins. Today I become a citizen of the world. Today I become a grown up. Today I become accountable to someone other than myself and my parents. Accountable for more than my grades. Today, I become accountable to the world. To the future. To all the possibilities that life has to offer. Starting today, my job is to show up wide eyed and willing and ready. For what, I don’t know. For anything. For everything. To take on life. To take on love. To take on the responsibility and possibility. Today, my friends, our lives begin. And, I for one can’t wait.”
Do not go quietly into the night.
