As a child I had a set of pants (the English definition, not the American one) with a career theme. There was a nurse pair, a teacher pair and, I forget the rest, but basically as a small child my pants pretty much defined my career ambitions. I didn’t know what other jobs were out there (and to be fair many of the jobs that you can do now hadn’t even been invented yet). Then I discovered magazines, becoming an avid reader of Jackie, Patches, Blue Jeans and Just 17. That was it, I wanted to be a magazine editor. I did a degree in media studies, then stints of work experience at Cosmopolitan, 19 and more! magazines before finally snagging a staff job on a new magazine edited by the now-editor of Glamour magazine, Jo Elvin.
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Several staff jobs followed before I eventually became the editor of Cosmopolitan Bride magazine, a job I adored. As an editor, our shared first name is the only thing I had in common with the fictional (ahem) character of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada (at least I hope so!). Then, for various reasons, I finally took the gap year I’d always wanted and this year I’ve made the move to online publishing and a freelance life. I couldn’t be happier. But there are still lots of other things I’d like to do too (hey having just the one job is so last century, it’s all about having a portfolio career these days, yeah?!). And, blame it on my nosey journalist side if you like, but I LOVE reading about other people’s jobs.
And that’s where this is going. In the interest of planning future careers content, we want to know what you’d like to see more of careers-wise on Rock My Style. Are you most interested in reading about women working in creative jobs, or maybe those who are changing the world in the charity arena interest you most? Would you like to hear about women working in food or fitness, travel or teaching? Do you want to know how female business owners made it happen? Is practical careers advice something you’d like to see? Or do you just like having a nosey at other people’s offices? We get it, us too! And did anyone else have those career-themed pants? What were the other jobs?! Leave a comment and we’ll get busy making sure our careers content ticks all your boxes.
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{My Dream Portfolio Career}
Online mag editor
Yoga teacher
Juice bar owner
Boutique hotel manager
Food truck entrepreneur
Photographer
App inventor
Stationery designer
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Hi Miranda!
What a great idea for a feature. As someone who decided upon a career change post 30 (from IT consultancy to sport journalism – a bit of a change!) I am now embarking on something new again and that’s trying to launch my own craft website and small business. While I will be doing this in my spare time (to start with anyway – we’ll see how it goes!), I would love to hear from people who have done the same sort of thing; how they built up a following and their brand, any mistakes that should be avoided and what they would or wouldn’t do if they had to do it all over again please. That would be so brilliant, thank you!
Hi Kate, thank you so much for commenting – think a post on how people have launched a brand is a great idea. One I’d love to write and/or read! We’ll put it into the schedule. And lots of luck with your new/additional career, how exciting!
Well I work as an Archivist for one of London’s National Museum’s and I do really love my job. I love that I get to care for some of the papers and records of the men and women who have shaped how we live today, it’s very inspiring!
As I write, I am nearly 32 weeks pregnant and to some people I’ve come across, this means the end of my career. Now I’m not totally naive, I know my priorities will change and life will never be the same again…and I totally can’t wait! But I would also like to return work and carry on doing something that I enjoy, whilst being the best Mummy I can be. I don’t know right now how possible all this is and I might very well change my mind once she’s here, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has any advice / experience of this.
Xxx
Your job sounds incredibly interesting Tabitha, I imagine going to work at a museum every day would be very inspiring. Great idea for a post, I’m sure it’s a subject that lots of RMS readers would be interested to read about. Thank you! x
I would love to hear about that too, being a mom and trying hard to change job to better adjust to new priorities while still remaining active. Thanks!
We’ll get on it!
Oh Tabs, I love the sound of your job! Sounds amazing! 🙂 xx
How funny, I’ve blogged about careers too today! Must be something in the April waters. I’m about to turn 30 and had spent the majority of my life trying to do one thing (acting) before craving a greater sense of reward and achievement and entering the wedding world a couple of years ago. As a creative type I’d be more interested in entrepreneurs and career leaps, but everyone has an interesting story to tell… as long as there aren’t too many long words or technical jargon 😉
I love hearing about entrepreneurs and careers leaps too – so inspiring. No technical jargon – got it!
Would love to hear from other women in the charity sector… Also love the idea of hearing more from people carrying on in exciting work once they become mums. I’m about to have my 3rd child (annoyed and overdue by a week now!) but actually set up a charity 9 years ago after I’d had my first because I was in a place I had dropped my income enough to take a big risk and start something I cared about. 9 years on its still going really strong and I’m able to take maternity leave for the first time because we’ve got such a great team of people to be able to leave working with our amazing young people (we do self esteem work with teenagers and a project working with young people at risk of sexual exploitation) so being off for a few months is very strange – but would love to hear from others as we really guessed our way though the last 9 years with no clue really what we should be doing (as good youth workers but no experience in the businessy side of things) and just plenty of enthusiasm! Would really love to hear about people in creative charity leadership. Tabitha I remember those conversations well – peoples assumptions can really make you doubt what you’ll be able to achieve once you’re a mum… but time will tell! (and I’m a firm believer that being the best mum includes your children seeing you doing things in life that are inspiring and don’t just revolve around them… all those inspiring stories you’ll bring home with you will do wonders for her growing little mind!)
Wow, it sounds like you do wonderful work Amanda. Thank you so much for your thoughts. Hope the baby arrives very soon and enjoy your maternity leave!
As soon as I started writing I pretty much decided that was what I wanted as a career, in whatever shape or form.. magazines, writing novels, advertising, television.. I considered everything at some point! But there had always been a niggle at the back of my mind that I wanted to try interior design – but that was so out of where my education had lead me (down the path of an English with Creative Writing degree) that I felt completely lost.
I ended up doing a diploma in Professional Interior Design while finishing up my degree to test the water. I’m so glad I did, because I decided that the real practicalities of the job weren’t for me. But, I had started blogging about home decoration, inspired by my diploma.
I finally found the perfect mix.. writing about houses! Now, I’m finishing my masters in Online Journalism and the editorial intern at a successful homes magazine.
But, when my masters is finally finished, moving on from being an intern to a permanent position or setting up as freelance feels like a daunting prospect. Any advice you could share on how you got started in the early days and made the move from interning to a career would be fantastic 🙂
Loving Rock My Style as always!
KiKi x
Ps, I always love having a peek at other peoples workspaces. Interiors addict? I think so.
Thank you so much for your comment Kiki. I absolutely agree that it’s good to test the water if you have those niggling thoughts that just won’t go away. I got a yoga teacher training qualification last year because it was something I’d wanted to do for AGES and although I know now that being a full time yoga teacher is not for me I don’t regret doing the course for a second, it’s given me the knowledge to be able to write about yoga and helped me enjoy my yoga practice even more, something that I didn’t think was possible! We’ll start thinking about a feature on making the move from intern to staffer or freelancer. And so happy to hear you’re enjoying Rock My Style!
Miranda x
I sadly always knew I wanted to work in advertising, even picking out account handler as my chosen role at my high school careers interview. And that is what I did and I loved it. But I always harboured a dream of having a cake shop. 10 years and 2 babies later I am now part way to that dream baking cakes albeit from home rather than said shop. Id love to hear more about how to run small businesses from home even down to boring legal stuff you need to know. Also how to maximise your marketing/awareness. I should know after doing it for 10 years but I’m used to working with million pound budgets which I don’t quite have! Oh and lovely inspiring ideas on work space, gorgeous filing etc etc. Love a bit of interiors! X
You’re well on the way to making your cake shop dream a reality Charlotte! Inspired by Charlotte’s post What’s The Point Of A Spare Room I’m going to turn my spare room into an office space so I’m after inspiring work space ideas too. Watch this, er, space!
I love reading any career posts, the jobs that other people do absolutely fascinate me. But in particular I would love to hear about blogging as a career (perhaps one for the blog queen herself), freelance journalism and being an author. I would love to read some practical tips, but also stories about peoples’ journeys and definitely a sneak peak at where they work, how they organise themselves and what they like to do outside of work. These are all areas of work I sometimes think about (I love writing) but actually I just like to be nosey as well! xx
Thanks Emma. Haha, I’m nosey too. Love hearing about other people’s jobs, seeing other people’s work spaces and it would be great to hear about how they organise themselves – this is something I struggle with since I left a magazine staff job! x
This is so inspirational! I’m barely into my career and I’m not really sure what to call myself – my post uni jobs have all been completely different. I thought I was going down one path and had starting establishing a career in communications/social media but due to redundancy and having to find a job pretty sharpish am now in a completely different area. I’d love to do freelance consulting on marketing communications and publicity working with small businesses who don’t have the time or the budget to use an agency but I don’t know where to start. Especially as my English degree was pretty broad and only gave me the skill enhancement to become more knowledgeable in that area. Would potential clients trust experience and self gained expertise or would they only be looking for someone with formal qualifications. I’d love to study to get some but just don’t know how I’d do it with full time job commitments and the cost being quite prohibitive for the type of course I’d want to do. :-/
Maybe you could offer to do some marketing or publicity work for a friend’s company or a start-up, perhaps on a pay-by-results basis, that way you’ll be building your skills and experience in that area and they can write recommendations for you to show future potential clients?
I’m a freelance writer (about all sorts of things, but with a particular specialism in writing about design, illustration and advertising) and I am super nosy about people’s jobs and working lives. Personally I’d like to see people’s workplaces and work wardrobes, and would love to see a ‘day in the life’ type series about different jobs.
Hi Annie, yes, it would be so interesting to see not only where people work, but what they wear to work too, I love those kinds of features – great idea!
Hi Miranda,
I think we’re all nosy parkers at heart when it comes to these things. I have a whole bunch of other ideas actually and have been wondering if you’re interested in freelance pitches at all – I shall email you!
I would love to read more about those who are thinking of changing careers and also those that have started small businesses and how they got there, especially those with children. I love to hear about women’s determination.
I have just taken voluntary redundancy and i’am trying to discover what I would like to do next, but being a mum with 2 small boys, and also being indecisive and not very confident, I’m struggling slightly and would find this topic a great help and resource. Is going back to college an option? At the age of 36 it feels to late. I would have love to have been a graphic designer when I left school.
Thank you for your thoughts Gemma! I would say it’s never too late to change direction, take a course, even go back to college. Better to give it a try (if you can make the logistics work) than always wonder what might have been. Good luck!
I’m fairly new to Rock My Style and maybe you’ve already covered this in previous or subsequent posts, but I would really like to hear more about your (collective) story! Charlotte’s identity crisis post was a tantalizing glimpse into how you guys operate, but I want more 🙂 Running a blog as a business rather than a hobby, as they so often tend to start, how RMW started and then evolved into Rock My Ltd, where all your individual careers started and how you ended up here, plus how you operate as a team based in completely different parts of the country – all that day to day stuff that probably seems boring to you is actually fascinating to me. Like everybody else seems to be saying, I love to get an insight into what other people do every day. Maybe it’s because work takes up so much of our time and yet we hardly know how even our closest friends are spending the biggest chunk of their days. That minute detail of someone else’s routine can be surprisingly interesting!