Settling Down

Dear Individuals,

(I just woke up from a nap, I've been having difficulties sleeping. Reason is probably a combination of being busy therefore drinking caffeinated stuff. Just changing my pattern.)

I had a coffee morning with a friend as part of her interview for her dissertation. I gave her my learnings from doing my dissertation but to be honest, she sounds like she was on track despite being all stressed out about it. And then she asked for career advice, it's not really career advice, more like "Life After University".

Do you know what you want to do when you left?

My answer: I did, I knew where I wanted to be. At the moment, I may not be doing it just now but I am still pro-active and building up on my skills. Only recently when studying Visual Merchandising, I realised that there was a lot of areas I never thought about when it came to Filming so in a sense, I am glad I'm not doing it. Completely under-prepared.

I get how she feels, from a child through till you graduate, everything was set out for you and then suddenly, you can do whatever you want - stay at home parent, part time, full time, temping, contract, freelance, hobbies, travelling, internships, work placements, graduate schemes, traineeships, volunteering, the list goes on. Where to apply and job roles to apply for is another set of list.

It's daunting.

Plus it's normal to want to settle down right after graduation. Possibly because of the security and stability but nowadays, I think it's normal to go find yourself after living a linear life therefore my advice is not to be afraid to go for an unexpected position. Unless you studied a very specialised subject and even at that, an industry don't just have opportunities for one type of degree, for example retailers don't just have managerial positions, there's accounting, numerical with analytical positions, etc.,

Settle if you wish, explore if that takes your fancy.

P.S. I've had a dude, who claimed to be helping me throw back in my face "you will be doing what you waned to do - marketing - and you are almost thirty so how are going to settle with a family without a secure job?" Don't listen to everyone.