Course, Interrupted

I’d had a rough few years at work, a change into a high profile general management role from my first love of communications meant I had lost a fair bit of confidence as I obviously wasn’t the right fit for what I was doing. Facing redundancy was a scary prospect, a whole organisation reorganisation meant I had to go for interviews in the last few weeks of pregnancy (in fact I missed them as I ended up in hospital with high blood pressure) so I ended up in redeployment and served my compulsory redundancy notice when I should have been enjoying motherhood, but that could be the subject of a whole other blog!

I’d read about Digital Mums when browsing Facebook on maternity leave (because that’s what all new mums do right? At 2am.). I was facing redundancy and was thinking about my next steps — I was going through the whole redefining priorities that I now know is really common after having a baby. I thought it sounded interesting and got in touch with Nina, the course was full for the next few months so I waited for an opening. I was still really keen and when recruitment opened for the courses in the New Year I was on it!

As soon as I started the application form I knew it was for me. I was writing about communications and I knew there and then that I’d made the wrong career choice in moving away from that. Yes, the money wouldn’t have been as good but my sanity would have been saved. Anyway, I got through the application and interview process and the scary journey into social media began (I worked in communications when it was called ‘new media’ yes I’m that old).

The course started and the first few weeks were, dare I say it, easy and enjoyable for me — my communications background really helped with user personas and strategy writing. In fact, it was writing the strategy that made me realise I still had talent, I’d finally admitted I was good at something again. My confidence took a turn for the better. So good in fact a friend told me about an interim marketing role that had come available at an arts organisation where she was on the board, a sector I had no experience of. I didn’t think twice — I updated my CV and I was ready to face the world of work again. I got the job and I’m still doing it now 3 months later and I hope to stay another three.

Doing the course for just a few weeks had changed my attitude about my abilities so much and had got my mind from ‘new mummy’ to ‘communications specialist’ and earning real money! This was however, a double edged sword. Whilst I was working in a great environment, (I’m not joking when I say I can be working on a re imagination of King Kong, a transport themed arts festival and turning a disused Blackpool hotel into an ‘Art BnB’ all in one morning never mind one day!), I was now very time poor and this meant I was under real pressure to fit the Digital Mums course in. I would not recommend taking on a new job when doing this course, talk about guilt — I had mummy guilt, client guilt, course guilt and new job guilt. I had a real feeling I wasn’t doing anything to the best of my abilities.

In stepped the ‘Tina Feys’, my course sisters. Without this group of women, I definitely wouldn’t have finished the course, (I actually still haven’t but I wanted to write this blog first…). The best thing about the live learning experience is that whilst being remote, you still have loads of interaction with your peer group. They have seen me sleep deprived, breastfeeding on more than one occasion whilst on a google hangout, crying and best of all laughing about our experiences. They definitely got me through wanting to throw in the towel when it all got too much. I can’t wait to meet them in real life in a couple of weeks

I won’t lie and say the course has been smooth sailing or the proverbial bed of roses, it hasn’t. It’s been tough. Very tough at times. I can’t yet say social media management is the job for me but I do know I love writing strategies and I think that’s where my talents lie. If you are reading this thinking about doing the course, go in with your eyes open, but go in anyway — it’s changed my life.

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