Hi Jessica,

After reading through your posting on your experience as a graduate finding work, then falling into roles and organisations that failed to bring out the best in you got me thinking about my own experience. I was fortunate enough to secure my first job while I was still at university.

I did a Media & Comms degree, and our course leaders where fantastic at pushing us to go and secure work experience every year throughout the course. The best advice they ever gave us was to think about our career aspirations and knock on the doors of the organisations we would have loved to work for, so I did. I didn't take no for an answer and found myself work experience for a well known consumer women's magazine - but it was nothing like I expected. It was insightful because it gave me a real taste and I realised quickly I was not suited to this environment, so the following year I tried a different route. I knocked on the doors of a leading contract publisher (business to business) based in London and ended up being offered a job six months before graduating.

However, my point is that while work experience served me well, after my lucky start, I soon met lots of frustrated graduates who found it tough to get into their career of choice and had no guidance, or working in appalling environments where they were just told to get on with it and quickly became disengaged with the world of work.

Jessica, if there are any graduates out there that find themselves in the wrong job, then hopefully your story gives them hope, but how did you go about deciding that you couldn't bear it any longer and how did you start investigating your career change? What was your thought process and what steps did you take to get into your new role where you finally found your career satisfaction?

Hi Natalie

Thanks for sharing your experiences too. Sadly I think there are lots of similar ones out there.

The important thing to remember when you are in a situation in which you are not feeling supported and out of your depth is that sometimes the grass is greener!

Making the decision to move on in your career can be a really hard one, especially if you are leaving due to stress or leadership issues that are out of your control. I felt like a failure and I actually shed quite a few tears ( which is quite unlike me.) Then I realised it was not my fault.

The way I came to the decision was through a slow and thoughtful process. I decided that things were not going well when my manager was still on site and that I was being given an unaccepttable amount of responsibility and no training what so ever. The communication style was also terrible. I basically decided that my leader was not a role model I wanted to learn from and the organisation was not somewhere I wanted to build a career.

Whilst still in my position I decided to enter The Olive Barnett Award 2006 and actually won 1st place as Front of House person of the year. As well as giving me a grant of £3000 for career development this also raised my profile lots and allowed me to see that what I was going through was not the norm and didn't have to be the case.

I made up my mind to leave but also felt it was important for me to try and rectify some of the leadership issues my teams were facing before I did. I contacted my area manager and made a formal complaint, followed by another and another until something was done. Eventually when things were not changing I wrote an email to the MD of the whole division (pretty senior!). He had come and worked at our site the previous summer and I felt it was important that he knew what was going on at an operational level. I felt that surely someone must care and be able to make a difference.

Not surprisingly once he knew, things started to change rapidly. The manager was suspended and then fired and after a long wait the new GM was brought on site. I had saved commission from my sales role and decided to hand in my notice and leave as although the new GM was a big improvement I felt let down by the whole sittuation. I worked out 3 months notice and did just that. I had nothing to go to but it didn't matter. I knew that it was the right thing to do and after winning the Olive Barnett award I felt for sure that I was employable and would find the right position.

Recruitment was a small blip in my CV and something I did because I was asked to rather than through passion. Whilst working in recruitment I was invited back to the Olive Barnett Award final 2007 where I met Jon Reed and Jane Sunley and then moved into my role within learnpurple. After my experinces in the industry both as a chef in the kitchen following Chef School and then my work in Catering I knew that this role would give me the opportunities I wanted to encourage change and it really has.

I would say:

• Take time when making your decision about moving on and think about all the areas of your life that will be effected. Try and rectify any issues before you leave as it always feels better.
• Don't rush into the first thing that comes along. Maybe seek out some careers advice. There are plenty of people in the industry who would be happy to speak to someone enthusiastic and passionate. You just have to ask.
• Don't feel like a failure. Moving on is not a negative thing. Sometimes the situation you are in is out of your control and if you have no power to make a change within the organisation, then you still have a choice to make a change within your career.
• Finally I think the best thing I did was to take control of my career and responsibility for where it was going. My tips would be to: enter awards, raise your own profile, volunteer in areas you have a passion or simple contact people as Natalie did and ensure that you end up somewhere you are going to flourish.

For anyone in any industry, when interviewing for a position, you are interviewing them too. Ask questions, speak to the person leaving the role you are taking or find out why they have left. Research on the net what kind of turn over that organisation or job role has and why. Most importantly always think before you leap in or out!

I would love to hear from anyone with similar experiences or ideas as well as anyone thinking about moving forward.

Jess

Wow Jess, I think your story is inspirational. You took very brave steps, but it shows you took back control of the situation and weren't afraid to take risks. I think this is where potentially a lot of others may fall down, because they start feeling trapped and don't know how to get out of the rut they are in. Well done.