The First Steps of My Career in London

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When I started looking for a job after the MA, I must have sent my CV to dozens of places, in less than a month. I didn’t get any feedback apart from those automatic replies and didn’t even get an invitation for an interview. I also contacted many recruiters, some of them replied, a few called me back and that was it. Of course I was frustrated since I believed that with the MA degree and some work experience here, it wasn’t going to be hard to find a position.

At this point I realised that my frustration was not caused by the lack of feedback, but for applying for a bunch of roles that deep down, I wasn’t remotely interested. Sometimes, I barely read the job descriptions and just sent it to have the (false) impression that I was doing my part. However, as most things in life, if you don’t mean it, nothing will happen. And that’s when something clicked.

My goal when I moved to London, besides doing the MA at London College of Fashion, a dream that came true, was finding opportunities that simply don’t exist in Brazil. This included the work with archetype branding, my dissertation subject, and a plan to have a consulting business in the future. But the future was right there, in my face.

By the traditional means, i.e., being an employee in a company, it would be extremely hard to have autonomy and freedom to develop that kind of project in brand identity. Speaking of freedom, it has always pierced my professional decisions and it is the greatest reason I have never worked in a 9 to 5 model. Nothing against it, but in my perception this is not the way to be more productive, quite the opposite, with the constant office distractions, the useless meetings and all that petty politics with bosses and co-workers, I feel that I’m much more dedicated and active working by myself, organizing a day by tasks, regardless of shifts.

Understanding that I didn’t need to adapt to certain standards just for being a foreigner or because it’s  financially “safer” was a crucial step, as well as realising that the MA provided me the entrepreneurial pathway and all I need to do was put into practice what I’ve learned (seems obvious but sometimes you need time to digest certain things). Finally, a reminder about the importance of being true to yourself and to have the vision of where you want to go – things that I reinforce watching this video of Garance Doré interviewing Diane von Furstenberg over and over again, are constant pushes to keep going.

Since I made the decision, about 2 months ago, I started to present myself as a freelancer brand strategist, created a Meetup to network and exchange ideas, and signed my first contract! Not bad at all, isn’t? Evidently, I still have a long way to go, nevertheless, I believe 100% that when we do what we love, the universe conspires and things happen (pure cliché, but it’s true!). Now it’s time to prepare the next steps!