Push is 30! What do we wish we knew at school...

​As its Push’s 30th Birthday this year, we are doing a series of blogs from each of the Push team. We have a representative from each decade of age, which will nicely supply you with a historical progression of the educational / work landscape.

So, sit back relax and enjoy our reflections. I’m first, and I’m in my 40’s… which means I was at school in the 90’s, Uni in early 2000’s and working in 2003.
 
Ah... what I wish I knew before I left school… how sometimes you just need to be in the right place at the right time.  I was very lucky – and I mean lucky, not talented, clever or connected – lucky because I never in a million years imagined I would end up working for two of the biggest newspaper publishers in the UK, and never in a million years thought how much I would love it.
 
I left school with middling grades, and by the skin of my teeth, 2 A levels. I had to re-take my Maths GCSE (thank God for Excel!) but left University with a 2:1 (BA) Hons in Communication, Culture and Media. My Mum, proud as she was, thought I’d have been better off going to secretarial school, which in 1999 seemed just as archaic as it does today. But ultimately, I didn’t want to be a secretary – I didn’t want to be my mum - I wanted to be my own 'independent woman'.
 
Again, I’m super lucky to live 30 minutes train journey from London, and I knew that’s where I wanted to go. I had originally wanted to work in PR. Tried it. Hated it. Left pretty promptly. So, I signed up to lots of London 'temp' recruitment agencies, all the while working weekends to make sure I was never without my own earnings.
 
I landed a role at The Financial Times purely by accident. One of the temping agencies I’d joined just happened to be approached by the FT, and as I just happened to have joined that agents’ books I was fresh in their minds - I was in.
 
I was given one week – and during that week I worked my you-know-what off. I didn’t say I couldn’t do anything. It was more ‘Oh, I don’t know how to do that, let me find out’.  ‘You want coffee? Sure, where do you like it from, and how do you take it?’ followed swiftly by ‘anyone else want one?’
 
They asked me back. I did the same again, and again for 6 months. I was about to quit as I couldn’t keep living week to week and making coffee while all the journalists were on deadline.  But in-between making all the coffee I honed my PA and organisational skills. The irony. So, maybe my mum was right after all. 
 
So, I went back to The FT one last week and low and behold, there was the job advert I’d been waiting for... Editorial Assistant, How to Spend It magazine. I applied and got the job – because, and I’m sure of it, the impact I’d made while working at the other sections of the newspaper.
 
It was hands down the best job ever! Devil Wears Prada, eat your heart out.
 
But as you will do in your mid-to-late 20’s I outgrew it, and wanted more. I was determined to have more responsibility. I applied for job after job – banking, insurance, art, consultancies. It was exhausting. It took a year of re-writing my CV to each job, being turned down and starting again.  
 
My confidence was at an all-time low when finally, I was approached to apply for an Office Manager role at The Times. News International. At the time, and after all my media training, it was the holy grail of publishing – and as an office manager I got to use my media knowledge, and PA skills. But if I hadn’t had my degree I wouldn’t have been offered the role, so ultimately going to Uni was the best decision for me.
And my patience had finally paid off, and as they say, ‘all good things come to those who wait.’
 
Sometimes, you do have to be patient, the world will point you in the right direction. You may get turned down a 100 times, ignored - fired even - but that’s the worlds way of telling you that wasn’t the job for you. 
 
Just dust yourself down, get up and start over… 
 
 
What happened this month in 1994:
-Nelson Mandela becomes President of South Africa
-Tom Daly is born
-Wet Wet Wet release ‘Love is all around’ – which ends up being the biggest selling single of 1994 (for the film 4 Weddings and a Funeral – best opening to a film – if you haven’t seen it, check it out!)

Author

I'm Alex, one of the Editorial, Marketing and Administration Managers at Push. I was the first in my family to go to Uni, where I studied BA (Hons) Communication, Culture and Media. 
I've had a number of jobs, some I've loved and some I've really not... you can't get every decision right.
Now having a young family of my own, I realise how important the right advice is - and this is why I love working for Push!