Sarah Klymkiw’s present role is visual merchandiser but she still has ambitions to be a fashion journalist. Scarred by job hunting Sometimes time feels as though it’s passing me by. I’m sure I’m not the only person that feels this way but when I look in the mirror before I run to the bus stop with a cold piece of toast in tow I’m noticing at least a new line on my face every day. Panic.
Four months of living in London has become rather a blur. I blame this on hardcore work and evenings spent trawling the net looking for a better job. When I first moved to London I had just quit my job in an attempt to find something better. Within two weeks I had found a temping job, within a month I had been offered a permanent position and four months later I am feeling the wrath of being in a job that I feel is not moving me in the right direction. I am craving a change. My housemate is in her first job since graduating, and when she sent her CV to a media recruitment agency she was surprised to be quizzed as to why she was looking for a new job only six months in. She was told that she would have to come up with a better reply when going to interview than the cliched ‘looking for a new challenge’. I am looking for a new challenge but I also have itchy feet and want to get into the press area as soon as possible before I get branded a visual merchandiser and find it increasingly harder to make the leap. Alas, all this said, I have not changed my approach. I still get in from work at 6.30pm, make a much-needed cup of tea and spend the hours until my eyes tire of staring at the computer screen, until I have exhausted all familiar job websites (and thrown a few new-founds into the bookmarking mix) or simply passed out through tiredness, waking up to the sound of my alarm with the imprint of my computer’s keyboard on my face (potentially not a great facial regime for my ever-wrinkling face). This is the routine, this is my current life and this needs to change. The brick wallI caught up with a close friend of mine in a similar scenario to mine before I moved up to London. Having spent some months temping as a receptionist, she decided it was time to start focusing on her career in graphic design. With the attractive proposition of rent free accommodation and a fridge filled with food she moved back home to pay off debts and explore potential job prospects of the big city. A month later and she has stumbled across the brick wall that is lack of experience. Now she is faced with the gruelling decision to either get some more receptionist work to pay off the debts or spend time concentrating on setting herself up as freelance and getting some unpaid work experience under her belt. As a comparison, my sculptor friend who has just moved to Hackney has taken a medical receptionist job to support the London lifestyle. When I suggested why she didn’t want to get a receptionist job within a design agency or something similar she replied that it wouldn’t spur her on as much as being in a job that she didn’t enjoy with no relation to the arts. This, I believe could work either way. There has to be a balance and surely being in a job you loathe or find mentally and emotionally draining has an adverse effect on your personal promotion when the time is right to move on. My argument was that surely it would be more beneficial being in a job where you can progress, make contacts, exploit the skills gained to get somewhere else. Her argument was that being in a job that didn’t inspire actually inspired her to paint and sculpt. Could it be only a matter of time before she begins to feel hopeless if sculpting and painting slow down and she is all-consumed by negative work energy and all she wants to do with her precious evenings/weekends is to relax, spend time with her boyfriend, her friends and enjoy her hard earned cash before the next working week starts all over again? Spare time is paramount and my weekends are precious. I spend my weekends wandering around Camden Town and the jumble sales of Hampstead inspiring myself and attempting to eradicate the trauma of my working week. This leaves me little time to actually act on the inspiration and so now is the time to move on. My search has intensified and I am determined more than ever to make the leap. The nuclear optionHaving spoken to my wise friend Jimmy, back from Brussels for a few days, he has informed me that there are two ways I can now approach this – I can take the nuclear approach or the non-nuclear approach. The non-nuclear approach being that I stick with my job and continue to apply for new jobs that will be a step up on my CV, and only when I get offered one may I leave my existing employment. The nuclear option being that I quit my job, become a ‘bar wench’ again and focus entirely on networking, my own work and gaining some work experience. The latter, obviously being the most attractive option and far more achievable if I were living back home with less overheads, is by far the most risky financially, and with no guarantee of success or stability, potentially the most damaging. Is it not the risk-takers that achieve the best results? If I continue with a job I no longer enjoy, is there a risk to my positive outlook, to my inspiration to go somewhere bigger and better? Or is there a risk that with no financial backing I may be all consumed by money worries instead of concentrating on my work? And so, I must make a decision… Are you contemplating drastic changes? Can the use of nuclear weapons ever be justified? Send your comments and experience to Sarah. See Sarah's previous blog and her earlier writings:
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