Trying to figure out our future job can lead to some big, scary questions. If you don’t have the answers yet, don’t worry! We’ve pulled together some top advice to navigate this tricky territory from those in-the-know.
Comedian Russell Kane sat down with Marvel movies visual effects designer David Sheldon-Hicks, New York Times best-selling author Malorie Blackman OBE and former accountant turned fashion entrepreneur Fisayo Longe to discuss following their passions, dealing with rejection and not quite knowing what they wanted to do for a National Careers Week livestream. Here are their top tips.
Follow your passion
Having a passion and following it can be key to finding a job you love. VFX (visual effects) designer David Sheldon-Hicks always loved drawing. When he was younger, he was obsessed with cartoons and the idea of making images come to life. For him, it was like magic.
After university, he found a career that brought his passions together and became a VFX designer. The job involves designing the CGI special effects and seamlessly blending them with the rest of the film. David grew up in Essex, which he said felt "as far from Hollywood as you can possibly imagine" but he went on to work on films like Ant-Man and Blade Runner 2049. It all started with "drawing cartoons on Saturday mornings" as a child.
Point your nose towards the things that you love the most.
Malorie Blackman, author of children and young adults books including Noughts and Crosses, found her passion in writing. She worked in computer programming after finishing school but decided, in her mid-twenties, that she wanted to do something more creative. She tried drama first, but her acting teacher suggested she tried writing down some of the improvisations she came up with in class.
She had written stories for her own pleasure since she was nine years old. She told Russell, “It never occurred to me that I could be an author. I’d never seen a writer that looked like me. It was one of those careers where I thought you had to be rich and live in the country.”
More than seventy books later, it’s fair to say that Malorie has found her calling.
Keep learning
Learning new things and exploring new experiences can be the secret to finding the job you really love. When Malorie decided to become a writer, she had no clue about publishing and didn’t know anybody in the industry. She started attending classes and workshops, and read a lot of books on the subject. She read books on writing crime, romance and thrillers. She knew books were the way into what she wanted to do.
Never feel that you've finished learning. When you've finished learning, you have nothing to contribute.
Sometimes it’s the areas where we think we’re not as strong that we find the most important lessons. Fashion designer Fisayo Longe considers herself an introverted person and always found networking intimidating. She thought that she needed to be putting herself out there and speaking to important CEOs and business leaders but she learnt that the most rewarding experiences were with her peers.
She said, “Now I’m more interested in networking horizontally than vertically. Do fun projects with your friends instead of trying to do it with super successful people.”
Don't give up
Even if you know exactly what you want to do, and what you need to do to get there, things won’t always go your way. You may face rejection and knockbacks but being resilient can help.
“It’s not easy all the time,” David told Russell, “I must have mailed hundreds of people when I first entered the industry and most of the answers were ‘no’. But there were a few people that saw something in me.” He kept banging on doors and didn’t let the rejection put him off his goals.
Malorie Blackman also knows a thing or two about resilience. After starting her writing journey, she spent two years sending stories out to different publishers. After her fiftieth rejection, she came close to giving up. She made a deal with herself that she would rethink everything when her rejection pile reached a thousand.
If you were going to be told "no" anyway, you might as well send that second email.
It never got to that. After her eighty-second rejection, she found a publisher and has been working in the field ever since.
Malorie found that even the rejections were encouraging. She noticed that at the beginning they were standard letters but then, as she improved, she started receiving specific replies that could tell her how to make her work better.
Don’t give up. You’re bound to get knocked back. All people do. Don’t take no for an answer.
Enjoy the journey
Before taking the creative plunge and starting her own fashion brand, Fisayo worked as an accountant with a fashion blog as a side hustle. She told Russell that because she wasn’t invested in her day job, she didn’t feel purposeful and didn't have anything to look forward to. When she would set goals, none of them were to do with her day job. She said, "I started to feel quite empty. That was when I decided to pursue fashion full steam".
Nobody’s journey is the same. It doesn't matter if you don't know what you want to do yet and it's ok to change paths. Fisayo and Malorie both harboured creative passions that their day jobs didn't satisfy. At age fifteen, Fisayo thought she wanted to be a criminal lawyer, but she kept an open mind and followed whatever gave her “the most happiness”. She still follows trials online though!
David started his animation journey at age nine, and feels incredibly lucky to be able to do his hobby for a job. Sometimes he’s even a little apologetic that he gets paid for it.
“There are so many wonderful careers that you don’t even know about yet," said David. "Enjoy the exploration. Go out there and discover".
Everyone’s journey is different and don’t compete with anyone except yourself.
However, not everyone decides their chosen career at such an early age. Russell first picked up a microphone at age 28 – "I tried it for a dare, like someone would try a bungee jump. I'd never watched live stand up. I was sucked into it by accident". A few years later he appeared on television. None of the experts followed a straight path to find their ideal job but they all credit the time they took to explore with helping them know what they really wanted.
"You might not start out in your dream job. Most people don’t. But never count yourself out," said Fisayo Longe. "It’s your life. It’s not your parents. It’s not your friends. Embrace your life and your journey with excitement".
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