Career Changing: Having Realistic Aspirations and Keeping True to your Values

This week I have been busy applying for lots of entry level publishing jobs, but also reflecting on what my aims are while I make this career change. One of the most important goal for me is to make a decision that I know is well-informed. And I think I need to say it again: people are awesome and have honestly been my best resource. I’ve been reaching out a lot more this week with LinkedIn and using the expertise of my friends to help branch out a bit more with social media (see my profile picture? Shot and edited by the particularly talented and kind Phoebe Rountree who then took me out for a burger and a pep talk afterwards). I’ve had friends who I haven’t spoken to in years reach out and give advice — even down to which agencies to use — on how to get into publishing, and friends of friends offer up their friends’ details so I can ask them questions. Short of actually landing some work experience, I am feeling pretty informed.

Which leads me to the moment where the ‘I Can Be Anything I Want, The World Is My Oyster!’ party has to be pooped. Those that have read my first post will be aware that one of my mistakes when choosing teaching as a career was to be too idealistic: I pressed on, focusing only on the great things about teaching (of which there are definitely many), and ignoring all the negatives such as workload, pay, scrutiny, work/life balance etc. Sadly, although I think I would absolutely love to continue working in a literature-centred job, I think I am going to have to draw a line under my publishing career aspirations. Yes I would get to geek out about books, maybe meet authors, maybe get to work in journalism writing about travel, food etc, but I would be letting history repeat itself if I ignored the drawbacks.

Publishing is highly competitive. Many English graduates are drawn to publishing as an alternative to becoming an English teacher, and many who go on to land a career in publishing will have a Publishing MA. Work experience and internships often form part of these Masters courses, so there are lots of others seeking the same entry-level jobs as me who have not just an MA, but experience too, and there just aren’t really that many jobs out there. Those jobs that are there do not pay all that well, and still expect long hours. What’s that? Long hours and not much pay, even after doing a postgraduate qualification? Ringing any school bells? Unfortunately, it is all sounding a bit too familiar for me. I will still be keeping an eye out for any jobs that I like the look of, especially any that would allow me to use my experience of working in schools, but I am going to be drawing the publishing chapter of the career changing journey to a close (and I make no apologies for the pun).

The career path I was mainly looking at within publishing was marketing and publicity. I like the idea of tracking current trends, of working with different brands and helping them appeal to customers and grow their business. Being passionate about books and education, this is something I would love doing within the publishing industry, so the next logical step was to look at what I could do within marketing beyond the world of publishing. This week’s research has come courtesy of ‘Careers in Marketing: The Complete Guide to Marketing and Digital Marketing Careers’ by Eric Siebert and, while it has been very useful, it’s worth noting that it is actually very difficult to find books about marketing that aren’t out of date! It seems the industry is changing very quickly due to changing technologies, social media etc, which probably makes it very exciting and means that I need to be using more online resources such as blogs to find out more.

What I have found is that marketing is actually a very diverse area of business. There’s whole careers based on finding out about what customers want, what their habits are, what their “hidden fears and anxieties are” (presumably so that they can be exploited — a tad creepy), and that sounds very interesting. There’s careers in managing brands, creating promotions to keep customers loyal, working with the people who develop the products to make sure they’re creating something that the customer wants.

All of this sounds very interesting, but so far nothing has gotten me particularly excited though. I think if I had the right brand or the right product then I could be passionate about marketing it. Which is why I’m still on the lookout for jobs marketing books and education-related resources. But what else would I be excited enough about to dedicate my working day to promoting? Other than perhaps Nutella, Harry Potter and maybe Sailor Jerry’s rum?

Now a big part of quitting my job and undergoing this career changing process was to find something that will make me happy. That’s really important. I want my next career to be the thing I do until I retire, to join a company that I’m going to want to stay working for for a long time and to feel good about what I do. So a while ago I did a Career Anchors Questionnaire, and figured now would be a good time to go back to it. ‘Career anchors’ are sort of like job themes that relate to the kind of work that suits your personality. Examples include ‘Service/Dedication to a Cause’ and ‘Autonomy/Independence.’ My results were:

Career Anchors — 3 things I have noticed:

1. Values — having a job that helps others is more important to me than I thought

2. I like to own projects and have space for my own ideas and creativity

3. Security is not a priority — I am willing to take career risks

My two strongest Career Anchors:

1. Lifestyle (having a healthy work/life balance)

2. Service/Dedication

Whether or not these things can be compatible with marketing, I am yet to find out. I have, however, applied for a job within an Ethical Trade department with a retailer, which would fit the bill very well. Next, I’m going to have to look more into marketing and use these values (which were spookily accurate, much more so than the ‘Which Hogwarts House Would You Be Sorted Into’ quiz that I did shortly after) to give me a bit of direction in my search. Any suggestions would be gratefully received!