On Starting My Career

Part of my desk at work featuring super ancient telephone.

In May this year I will have been working in my current and first 'proper' full time job for two years. A year before that I finished university and had no flippin' idea what to do next. A few stints of work experience and an incredible internship in NYC later (still don't know how I managed to pull that off), I was back on home turf, broke and applying for 10 jobs per fortnight to fulfil my Centrelink requirements.

A month or two later I landed an interview with an organisation in Sydney who I'd never heard of and frankly, really had no idea what they did. I heard the words 'communications' and 'not-for-profit' and thought that sounded alright. I was sure I'd blown the interview and remember talking to Mum afterwards and saying that I really didn't know how I would feel if I got it. When they offered me the job, I spent about a week considering whether to take it or not. A conversation with my beautiful grandpa changed my mind. He told me to think of this as just one small part of my career and that any opportunity was a good one and that I would look back on this time in my life and appreciate the experience I had been given.

About half of my belongings packed into my car when I moved to Sydney (and Ben being a creep).

Eventually I was packing my life up into my tiny car and heading down the freeway to my new home - a shoebox bedroom in a very old apartment in North Sydney with a severely water damaged ceiling (I was blinded by the incredible view of Sydney harbour - still miss that view!). Once again I was leaving Ben behind to pursue something new and terrifying.

I have always been a nervous wreck when starting new jobs. When I worked in a coffee shop after finishing school, my boss asked me to make her a latte so she could see how I was going. My hands were visibly shaking and she had to tell me to relax - such a horrible memory! Thankfully, when I started my current job, I'd had my internship in NYC to kind of ease me into professional working life, but it's still a weird experience. Every new person you meet (outside of your immediate colleagues) wants to know 'where you were before'. You're introduced to this new thing called 'KPIs' and you're now expected to sign off all your emails with 'Kind regards' instead of 'xo :)'.

The amazing view from my first apartment in Sydney.

In my job I have a lot of interaction with external people due to the nature of what we do. We have a lot of events and meetings which means I'm often chatting with people much older than me, with many more years of experience and in very senior roles. This has the potential to be very intimidating, if I let it. At an event a few months ago I was chatting to a group of women who asked me how old I was and when I told them they said I was 'just a child'.

I've learnt that I can't let my age or my perceptions of my abilities get in the way of doing my job well. I'm finally at the point where I feel like I have some good ideas to contribute and that they will be beneficial for the business. Realising that you're not just some uni graduate but someone who can actually contribute in a professional working environment is pretty awesome.

Being super nerdy holding a copy of the magazine I am editor of.

I still don't know what I want to be when I 'grow up', but from what I've heard I probably won't know for a while yet. Like with any job, there are times when I'd much rather curl into a ball and hide under my desk than make that phone call I've been putting off all week. But you know that experience my grandpa told me about? Well, I sure am getting a lot of it and one day when I'm rich and famous, I'll show those ladies that called me a child who's boss!