I recently went to an event called the Women Ambassadors Programme 2013. This was a networking event founded by Pinky Lilani and consisted of 100 sixth form girls from various schools to come together and talk to successful women from different sectors of the business world and essentially network.
The event was held at the Bloomberg Office, which made me feel like I should have been wearing a business suit or dressed to the nines. It was that elegant. And the ceiling…wow. I know most people will think me crazy but the conference room we were in had this ceiling of lights in different coloured bubbles. It was so pretty. Ok, I just read what I wrote and yes, I sound crazy. But the bright and seemingly never-ending ceiling has a point, bear with.
The event began with speeches and addresses, hosted by Kate Quilton, a presenter from Channel 4 who was followed with addresses from Kiss Radio presenter Neev Spencer, founder of the programme Pinky Lilani OBE and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. All the speeches were inspiring and these successful women (and man!) urged all us girls to go for what we want and reminded us how lucky we all are to be able to experience this networking event. And they were all right. We are lucky. And personally I was very lucky to be able to get myself invited to this event because in case you haven’t read the aims of his blog, I’m not exactly an eighteen year old sixth former. I grabbed my chance to come to this event when a colleague offered me to come with her as a staff member to take a couple of students. And yes, I networked. I networked as much as I could even if it wasn’t for my age group and do you know what all the people I talked to said about that? They said that’s what we have to do to get somewhere in the world. I saw an opportunity, everyone else was talking to people and I wasn’t taking the opportunity away from anyone, so why the hell not?
At the end of the day the world hasn’t been kind to recent graduates. You might be lucky and get a job, or like me you might get job even though it’s not the ideal career. But you could be with the majority and be unable to find something. But don’t give up. People don’t see it, I never saw it, but even in the most menial tasks there is something there that you are learning which will give you experience for whatever else you apply for. We all have to start from the bottom, but once you have that foot in the door, you’re in. It’s just up to you to motivate yourself enough to push all the way in until you reach that place you want to be or that will lead you to where you want to be.
So back to that shiny, pretty ceiling. Reach for it. Yes, I know, it’s cheesy. It’s a phase. But seriously, we’re always looking at the top. It doesn't have to be job related because with life in general we are always looking at the top. But what we forget is that to get to the top we need to start looking at the bottom, the very foundation that holds everything together. I won’t sugar coat it: it’s going to be difficult and like me, you’ll probably feel like giving up nearly every day. But at the end of it all, it’s worth it.
If this event has taught me anything, it has to be that networking is hard but I had to suck it up and do it and because of that I actually made a few contacts. Also, wearing biker boots at a posh event is not necessarily suitable dress code of such an event, even if it is paired with a really ‘smart’ blouse. Focus on what you want, see it and go for it. I did this with all the media people and I’m pretty sure they gave me their cards because I scared them. But who cares, I got their cards! And lastly, if you’re blind like me wear glasses or contacts. It helps to be able to see the face of the person you’re talking to (lesson learned when I accidently mistook a banker with someone from the BBC. And so began the awkward conversation of me telling her that I have an English degree and don’t understand the language maths).
So the moral of this somewhat unstructured and random post. Go for what you want, take whatever opportunity you can, build up on that opportunity and in the words of those big marketing brains at Nike, Just Do It. And be Amazing :)
The event was held at the Bloomberg Office, which made me feel like I should have been wearing a business suit or dressed to the nines. It was that elegant. And the ceiling…wow. I know most people will think me crazy but the conference room we were in had this ceiling of lights in different coloured bubbles. It was so pretty. Ok, I just read what I wrote and yes, I sound crazy. But the bright and seemingly never-ending ceiling has a point, bear with.
The event began with speeches and addresses, hosted by Kate Quilton, a presenter from Channel 4 who was followed with addresses from Kiss Radio presenter Neev Spencer, founder of the programme Pinky Lilani OBE and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg. All the speeches were inspiring and these successful women (and man!) urged all us girls to go for what we want and reminded us how lucky we all are to be able to experience this networking event. And they were all right. We are lucky. And personally I was very lucky to be able to get myself invited to this event because in case you haven’t read the aims of his blog, I’m not exactly an eighteen year old sixth former. I grabbed my chance to come to this event when a colleague offered me to come with her as a staff member to take a couple of students. And yes, I networked. I networked as much as I could even if it wasn’t for my age group and do you know what all the people I talked to said about that? They said that’s what we have to do to get somewhere in the world. I saw an opportunity, everyone else was talking to people and I wasn’t taking the opportunity away from anyone, so why the hell not?
At the end of the day the world hasn’t been kind to recent graduates. You might be lucky and get a job, or like me you might get job even though it’s not the ideal career. But you could be with the majority and be unable to find something. But don’t give up. People don’t see it, I never saw it, but even in the most menial tasks there is something there that you are learning which will give you experience for whatever else you apply for. We all have to start from the bottom, but once you have that foot in the door, you’re in. It’s just up to you to motivate yourself enough to push all the way in until you reach that place you want to be or that will lead you to where you want to be.
So back to that shiny, pretty ceiling. Reach for it. Yes, I know, it’s cheesy. It’s a phase. But seriously, we’re always looking at the top. It doesn't have to be job related because with life in general we are always looking at the top. But what we forget is that to get to the top we need to start looking at the bottom, the very foundation that holds everything together. I won’t sugar coat it: it’s going to be difficult and like me, you’ll probably feel like giving up nearly every day. But at the end of it all, it’s worth it.
If this event has taught me anything, it has to be that networking is hard but I had to suck it up and do it and because of that I actually made a few contacts. Also, wearing biker boots at a posh event is not necessarily suitable dress code of such an event, even if it is paired with a really ‘smart’ blouse. Focus on what you want, see it and go for it. I did this with all the media people and I’m pretty sure they gave me their cards because I scared them. But who cares, I got their cards! And lastly, if you’re blind like me wear glasses or contacts. It helps to be able to see the face of the person you’re talking to (lesson learned when I accidently mistook a banker with someone from the BBC. And so began the awkward conversation of me telling her that I have an English degree and don’t understand the language maths).
So the moral of this somewhat unstructured and random post. Go for what you want, take whatever opportunity you can, build up on that opportunity and in the words of those big marketing brains at Nike, Just Do It. And be Amazing :)