Like starting any new job, you never know what to expect. Until your very first day is over, you stress, worry, examine every page of the company’s website and explore every social platform they have hoping it will somehow get you past those first day nerves, or at least that’s what I did. Applying for Superfly Marketing wasn’t like any other job I had applied for before. I’ve had a range of different jobs where I’ve gained experience in various different fields of work but there was never anything that I felt would be my future career.
From a young age you’re pushed into deciding what career path you want to take and you’re expected to know exactly what you want to do before you even leave school and enter the ‘real world’. Just like everyone else I knew, I had no idea what I wanted to do in 10, 20, 30 years time, I didn’t even know what I wanted for tea, how was I expected to know my future career. I went down the educational route where I got my GCSE’s at secondary school then went on to A-levels at college and then university. At each stage I decided on a subject field to study, because I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I was older. I chose things that were interesting to me, and what I enjoyed at that time in my life and left the future outcomes for the future. From doing this I kind of got myself into a ‘do now worry later’ attitude and it got me through. All of my friends would worry about their future’s and everything they needed to do to get to where they thought they wanted to be. I took each day as it came and did what I enjoyed, my friends would laugh about this and say they didn’t know how I wasn’t stressed, I just didn’t see the point, we were only young, who knows what the future can bring.
I then continued the educational route and went on to university, this of which I didn’t enjoy. People say either university is for you or it’s not. At first I thought I would really enjoy it, as by this point all the subjects I had previously studied and the experience I had gained, led me on to thinking I wanted to take the route into Graphic Design. It was a subject I hadn’t studied before but everything I had learnt fitted into it and related in some shape or form. The thing with uni, assuming you go straight from college, you’re still young when you go. There’s the freedom, the parties and the heavy studying. Initially managing all that whilst also being skint all the time is already a challenge but then when you go and realise university isn’t at all for you, you’ve moved out and already got yourself into a lot of debt, you feel stuck, where do you go from there? It was never the subject I didn’t like, I was more of a ‘do and learn’ type of person and I never felt I was doing anything productive that I would be doing in a real workplace that actually taught me about that subject field or how I could be successful. It was just essay after essay and PowerPoint galore. I felt I was losing my creativity and this was a passion I had since I was little. Something that is meant to get you to where you want to be and benefit you in life was actually ruining mine.
I stayed at university until my second year whilst having various different jobs on the side. After months of deciding and even going into second year to see if my mind would change, I decided to leave – I still say it was the best decision I’ve ever made. One of my uni friends questioned me so much before I left, asking what I was going to do, the impact it would have on my future and at that point there were worries that were in the back of my mind, but, I had to leave. I got a new full time job after that, I also got my own flat and went on to doing my driving lessons. Although the job, again wasn’t my career goal, money was good and I was happy being able to keep my creativity going. It was a bit of a waiting game at that point but the experience I had since school had now taught me I wanted a creative based career, I didn’t want to give up on graphic design. Whilst my friends were still all at uni complaining about being in so much debt and having so many essays to do, I began to live life in the ‘real world’. I was 19 with a full time job and my own flat, I may have left uni half way through but I already felt I had achieved so much and learnt so much, that I wouldn’t have if I stayed.
Then the opportunity for Superfly came up. It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried getting into design based jobs I had tried every job site there was, looking for something, anything, even personally writing to companies, but the one thing that always came back as a requirement that I didn’t have, experience. It seemed that everyone wanted employees with either a degree level qualification or years of experience. Superfly was looking for a creative individual, experience was not a necessity. I felt like it was an opportunity of a lifetime and although it meant going from a really good wage down to an apprenticeship and having to move out of my flat, I felt it was all worth it to have a future career doing what I enjoy.
I started at Superfly Marketing in March 2016. When that first day ended I realised all the stress and worry I had was all for nothing. It’s such a relaxed and friendly atmosphere to work in and my job is to design, it doesn’t even feel like a job! In the first week at Superfly I felt I had learnt more than I had in my whole time at university. Working on real things, for real clients. Seeing my work go out there and receiving feedback from the people it was impacting, it was what I had been waiting for. I’m not trying to say university isn’t what you should do, as previously I said it’s just not for everyone. I do feel lucky to be where I am now, but who’s to say that if I’d stayed and completed university that I would’ve instantly got the job I wanted to be in for the rest of my life, because I know I can say that now.