I got the job! I am officially an office and production assistant at VideoJug. Meaning I’ll be leaving Lincoln and Halifax and moving to London in approximately 2 weeks time to start work on the 18th of August.

Thankfully it was my extensive CV that appealed to them and they were impressed with the amount of work I’d done alongside my degree (thank God it was worth it). I’m extremely excited to join the company, they’re getting around 50 million views on their website per month and this is constantly increasing, as is their list of clients. It seems like a really exciting place to work and I can’t wait to actually use the skills I’ve learnt whilst at university to contribute to such an established company.

The past 2/3 months have been an absolute nightmare. I have become the flakiest, most irritating person there ever was, trying to decide whether to go into employment or self-employment.

Worst of all, I’ve not really had a chance to figure out what’s best for myself because I’ve been pulled in multiple directions from friends and family (quite understandably). I really wasn’t prepared for the confusion and indecisiveness and when you’re in that position it seems that everyone else knows what they want to do.

I’ve dabbled in freelancing for around 2 years and enjoyed it but then began to work alongside others because I knew it would increase the standard of my work. Doing this really made me want to set up my own production company, but unfortunately (or fortunately) I managed to get an interview with a company in Manchester. The job sounded right up my street and I was so excited by it that I dropped the idea of starting my own company. I tend to lack confidence when it comes to my production skills so I decided it would be best for me to get a job that allowed me to improve my existing skills, whilst also allowing me to move away from Lincoln and earn some money.

The interview process for the job was better than expected. The interviews themselves were extremely long but I was completely comfortable answering a majority of the questions and felt fairly confident I’d get the job. I felt so confident that I turned down an offer to start up a production company with 2 very talented people and stopped applying for other jobs… Definitely shouldn’t have done either of those. Unfortunately I was unsuccessful for the job.

I then began considering starting up a company once again, but found my lack of confidence got in the way, meaning I wasn’t able to convince people that was what I wanted to do.  So I applied for more jobs.  Every single job I applied for was completely different. I spent a lot of time on each application to make sure my CV and cover letters were tailored to each job role but to no avail.

After visiting a friend in London, I fell instantly in love with the place. This threw another option into my huge employment dilemma as I now wanted to find work in London. I expanded my job search and was applying for jobs in London, Manchester and Lincoln whilst also preparing the ground work for starting a company (just in case). I went through the Prince’s Trust to explore my options and get some advice on employment vs. self-employment which was extremely helpful. (Highly recommend the Prince’s Trust, not just for funding but mainly their support.)

During the Prince’s Trust workshops, I got myself 2 interviews, a marketing internship at the Lincoln Performing Arts Centre and an Online Publishing Assistant at VideoJug in London. The marketing interview was awful, I had no clue about marketing but wanted to consider it as a new career path because I had an interest in it. Bad idea. The interview was really quite embarrassing because I didn’t have a clue what I was saying for 90% of it. Needless to say, I was unsuccessful for that job. The London interview was much more promising although, admittedly, I’d applied for the publishing assistant role in hope that it would lead to a production based role after the 3 month contract ended. The interview went well and I loved the office and the company, but I knew I wouldn’t get the job because I had no editorial experience… I was correct.

I was fed up after that, I moodily decided I wasn’t going to apply for any more jobs. I wanted a couple of weeks of doing nothing to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I decided to finish off my business plan, order some new business cards, start networking and creating a client base so I could get on with some freelancing. The day after I ordered my business cards, I got a call from VideoJug asking me to come in for an interview for a role they think I’d be suitable for. Turns out the man who interviewed me for the other position recommended me which was a nice little confidence boost. My interview was at 3pm, Thursday 31st July. At 9:30am the next day I had a call saying I got the job! I am now an office and production assistant at VideoJug and I’m moving to London in 2 weeks!

Well done! Thanks for all the posts as a student blogger here.  Like us you can keep posted on Rachel with her blog and follow @Rachel_Hagreen