choosing a career
What do you want to be when you grow up?
When you look at that question, do you remember the answer you would’ve given when you were a child? The answer will always vary depending on who you ask. For me, ever since I was little I knew I wanted to be an inventor. The idea morphed as I got older; it then turned into “creator,” which I guess is kind of the same. Moving forward it was a traveller. For a second it was even a pro-wrestler during a WWE phase as a child. Then it was a basketball player, which switched to footballer, followed by a complete U-turn into film director. Now, as I sit here, I’ve finally landed on writer.
As I got older, my dream job constantly changed. However, writing was always a constant in my life. When I was in primary school I loved writing stories, and that continued into high school. Then when I left school, I hit a lull. It wasn’t until 2018, when I decided I was going to study film, that I started writing again.
In my job at the time, I had a lot of downtime, so I took the opportunity to carry a book around with me. In this book, I brainstormed ideas, wrote stories, and learned about screenwriting to prepare for my eventual film courses. Throughout the two and a bit years studying film, I made sure I always had ideas and stories ready to go when it came time to film anything. In hindsight, I could have applied myself more to other areas of film projects, but I think I was so focused on the stories that I neglected the different aspects of filming that ensure those ideas are brought to life. In the end, I made a couple of short films I was proud of, but in the years that followed, another lull set in.
Fast forward to 2022 and my career started coming to fruition. I tried my hand at being a journalist for a popular Facebook page that had recently been bought and wanted to produce news articles about Wellington. This wasn’t where I thought I’d end up, but I started enjoying it when I was writing about things I believed in and getting paid for it. However, a few months down the track I started realising I was one of many being used to push an old man’s agenda in the media. He wanted to leverage the page’s following to bad-mouth MPs. I was asked to write attack articles aimed at local politicians and large companies. I tried writing these pieces, but I would never write with an attacking mindset, and this is where it went downhill. My articles stopped being used.
In the end, I’m sad it finished the way it did, but I don’t regret it. That experience helped me land my next writing gig: a junior copywriter position for a well-known tech company. I was ecstatic. Honestly, I believed this role was going to be the springboard for my career. By September, I was in a job I loved and doing great work. Unfortunately, the flow-on effects of the pandemic caught up with the company and by the end of the year, the soon-to-be new CEO hinted at the inevitable job cuts.
In March 2023, the CEO announced that up to 800 staff would be laid off. I had a hunch I would be one of them. Looking at the ever-changing restructure plans, I felt surplus to requirements. I had never been part of this process before, and I knew the only way I was going to get through it was by seeing redundancy as an opportunity. By May, I was back on the job hunt again. While I was looking, I started a podcast too and buried myself in a passion project that I’ll write about another time.
Ironically, I found a new job by September 2023, about a year after starting my previous role. This time it was in Marketing and Communications at a commercial law firm, and much to my surprise, it was nothing like the TV series Suits. However, I learned a lot about working at a law firm and just how demanding the work can be. I can safely say it was one of, if not the biggest, challenges of my career to date. I would have loved to stay longer, but by August 2024, my next challenge was waiting.
It still baffles me how fortunate I’ve been to work in so many different roles, but each one helped prepare me to take on London. I know the right role will come along soon. In every position, there has always been a writing element, but being in London has made me want to write regularly. That’s what this blog is about. Writing about my experience here, writing about things I love, and making sure my creative spark stays alive. I’ve loved writing ever since I was a child, and it took moving here for me to realise I need to keep writing if I want this to be my life. No more lulls. Of course, my job search will remain relentless, but the writing won’t stop.
Thinking back to being asked, “What do you want to be when you grow up?”, I remember feeling so much optimism about the possibilities based on what I found interesting and what I loved at the time. Somewhere along the way, you forget what that feels like. You start thinking about other things when choosing a job. It can get overwhelming when you focus on the how, but if you take a step back and think about what you love doing, why can’t you pursue that as a career?
Maybe that’s just me, but at least now I know where I want to be. And the pursuit of doing that here in London is going to be one hell of a story.
