career advice – Clairey Sweetie

Why you need to take the career pressure off in your twenties | World Mental Health Week

Claire / 19th May 2023 / No Comments

My twenties were fucking exhausting. I started and finished a dental nursing course; then I started and completed a degree in media communications; I met my future husband; worked a couple of jobs while waiting for my break in marketing; then spent the rest of my twenties feeling as though I was playing career catch up by progressing myself quickly.

In summary, it was a ton of effort to climb as high as I could to only fall down from the top of the ladder anyway. (That does sound a bit dramatic and I was out of my twenties by this point, but I’m still feeling a bit burnt after being made redundant shortly after returning to work from maternity leave).

But in saying that, would I go back and change anything? No. I needed every single one of those different experiences to shape my future self, the one I am now who empowers capability.

My mental health during those years was at its most unstable, which is why my advice to others is to not feel like you have to go at a hundred miles an hour during your twenties to achieve whatever goals you have set for yourself. You’ll get there, you have time, believe me.

During my teenage years I battled depression and medication supported me through those very deep lows. But gradually I learnt to recognise when I was about to take a dive and reached out for help during those times which is what got me through and eventually, able to cope without medication.

I spent most of my twenties in the grasp of social anxiety and it wasn’t much fun. It has never gone away but I have better control now during triggering situations, and how best to navigate them.

I didn’t mind school but a few things a certain teacher said to me when I was making those bigger decisions about my future triggered an exhausting need to constantly be proving myself to others in the years following. Proving I was/am actually clever (we stan August babies!); I am capable; and I can achieve anything I set my heart to.

I spent my twenties feeling as though I had to be able to articulate exactly where I was going and fully back-up all my decisions, and to be fair I pretty much did to anyone that stopped still long enough. If I was feeling unsatisfied, I went looking for the next thing.

I wanted to sprint, not just run, but sprint to the next stage of development. I felt arriving into marketing at twenty-five I had to play catch up and race to progress myself. The one positive of this was that I never got too comfortable in a job, once I was ready for progression if the opportunity wasn’t there (and it invariably wasn’t), I moved on.

Turning thirty was a bit daunting for sure, but life this side is so much better and calmer (even with toddlers turning the house upside down on the daily!).

Did you know that Oprah when she was 23 years-old got fired by her employer? It was probably a huge punch in the gut for her, but how life changing was it? Huge probably. But she (still) went on to become Oprah.

Was that firing instrumental to Oprah’s overall success? I don’t know but it shows that somethings though big at the time, will be just mere bumps in the road in the long run. That is basically your twenties in a nutshell; a series of bumps that just make you re-navigate your path.

So remember that set-backs aren’t always bad; it’s okay to experience failure.

To anyone reading this and the above is sounding very familiar to you, take the career pressure off a little. Please.

Maybe you’re stressing about when it will be the right time to have a baby, or have your thirtieth birthday in your sights as the time to have all those career goals met, just stop. There is time and if you’re motivated you’ll get it done, and then you’ll reflect back on these years and realise there is truth in what you are reading now.

But in all seriousness, mental health is something to be aware of and keep in the forefront of your mind as something to protect. Life is complicated, we fill it to the brim with too much a lot of the time so learn self care, take the time for it, and NEVER be afraid to reach out for help if you need it.

Until next time x

Internships in London: four reasons why London is great for starting your journalism and media career

Claire / 22nd November 2022 / No Comments

Have you ever considered coming to London from abroad or maybe even elsewhere in the UK to explore internship opportunities? Or maybe you’re already here living the city life working in another industry but dream of starting a new career path in journalism and media.

I have written before about the benefits of work experience which I am a strong advocate for, particularly while at college or university and making those critical decisions about your future career.

What is an internship?

Internships take work experience a step further, they last longer and fully immerse you (likely a student or graduate) into your chosen field of work as you learn the ropes of the job and gain knowledge about the industry and its key people. There may be a degree of tea making, but internships are treated as real jobs and therefore the expectation of you and your fellow interns is higher.

Having a good internship under your belt and listed on your CV can be worth its weight in gold, particularly if you’re ambitious and looking to fast track yourself into higher paid positions of employment quicker.

Internships also differ in their style of format, some are brand or company hosted, meaning that you go to work for an often large organisation in-house that funds their own internship program to attract the best (graduate) talent. Fabulous if you can snap up a lucrative place on one of these programs, but they are hugely competitive and often require a long and intense application process.

Journalism internships London

Alternatively you can opt for an internship that operates like a course, where your learning and work cover a number of companies and/or brands that you may later be employed by.

This is what Journalism internships London offers and while it is a paid for course, it offers a broader experience in journalism which at the beginning of your career, can support a better foundation of learning as you’re not constrained by one set of ideas and way to do things that an in-house internship program might do.

If the prospect of an internship wasn’t exciting enough, London is an amazing city, bustling with a diverse multi-cultured array of people, art, music, theater, and history, and a wealth of magnificent sightseeing to list just a few reasons to visit and study here; you would never be without things to do.

View Full Post

Planning work experience: employer guide to creating tasks for interns

Claire / 21st March 2022 / No Comments

Planning work experience can be tougher than you think. I was recently reflecting on the work experience I did while at university, and I got to thinking about the tasks I was able to complete for the companies I interned for and how it could have been improved.

I have also been in charge of looking after work experience interns a couple of times and it’s amazing how hard it is to fill up a week with tasks, job shadowing etc. without risk of leaving them idly sat at a computer or reading mounds of company literature.

I have written before about the benefits of work experience but this time I thought I would create a post for employers, about how to ensure the time an intern spends in a company is productive and beneficial.

View Full Post

Career Advice you didn’t get taught at School

Claire / 24th June 2018 / No Comments

The career advice you didn’t get taught at school. It has -at the time of writing- been 13 years since I was at school, and it is only later in life you acknowledge how small a part of life school plays, but at the time it quite literally is your whole world.

While the national curriculum might still be questionable as to how much of it you’ll actually need in the real world, your teachers spend a lot of time trying to prepare you for the world of work and plug in career advice where they can. However, what you are told and what you experience in the workplace and further education can be quite different.