How Covid Changed My Career Path

I think like most people after high school I attended college feeling excited to start my courses and meet new friends, I picked Photography, Graphic Design, and … Business which let’s just say was definitely not for me. During my first year, I fell in love with Photography and Graphics and very quickly decided I wanted to go to university to study one of these subjects further. I think part of the reason for this was the massive push from my Form Tutor who said, “University opens up amazing job opportunities you won’t get anywhere else” She was so passionate about us going I feel she basically wrote my personal statement for me. I guess it wasn’t just because of her though I also wasn’t educated on what other options were available after college, so University just seemed like my only choice. I studied hard during college with the goal of university in mind and then Covid hit.

Just like everyone else Covid came as a massive shock for me, my A-level exams were cancelled and my college experience just ended on a random Monday. I made the quick decision to defer my application to university for the following year due to being uncertain of the impact COVID was going to have. During my year in and out of lockdowns, I like a lot of people decided to start a hobby to keep myself occupied. I decided to explore videography and documented the journey of Covid, I enjoyed learning more about videography and I was still pursuing my love for photography and graphics. At the same time the rise of people on TikTok was increasing, I hoped on the trend and downloaded it. I found that I enjoyed creating videos and keeping up with the latest trends on there. It hit me that one day maybe content creation was the route I wanted to pursue rather than photography or graphic design. I started looking for degrees in content creation but all of it seemed very theoretical and I wanted a course where I could have hands-on experience which I couldn’t seem to find.

I found myself feeling sad and so lost as my life had seemed so structured up to that point and I always had an end goal to reach, now I had no idea where my life was headed. My friends were all going off to university, I was tempted to join them, but I decided against it as I knew my heart just wasn’t in it anymore. I felt so overwhelmed with trying to pick a career path and then I realized, who says I have to pick a career path now? There is no rush I’m still so young, so I decided to get a part-time job at Pets At Home, save money travel without thinking about the future, and just focus on the now.

A few years passed my friends were finishing up their degrees and a lot were looking for full-time jobs I felt like it was the right time for me to figure out my career as well. Someone I had worked with mentioned she was doing an apprenticeship which I had never even considered before. I decided to look into them and after a lot of research, I found a social media apprenticeship that seemed perfect for me at McCann, so I applied. I pretended to have a lot of confidence and did a lot of interviews and somehow, I managed to get it. I’ve only been here a month so far but I’m really enjoying it, it really feels like the job for me.

So overall if you take anything from this, know that it’s okay not to have a plan or to have a plan and not stick it to it. Life can’t be predicted and neither can our careers, I never would have imagined that I would end up in marketing, but I love it and wouldn’t change for the world. Your career will come to you, so just enjoy the journey and don’t stress about the destination.

Molly Brown, Cohort 45 Content Creator at McCann