The first part of
the conference we had speakers Jim and Gareth from Hat-Trick and Neil from
Howdy, and the second part we had Jen McAleer from Start JudgeGill and Kerry Roper
and Rob Siemerink from DARE. As much as I was already aware of their work for
such big brans, it was really interesting to hear them speak about it as well
as hear how they had each won each of their jobs and all the ideas and research
behind the work too. It was also great to hear their experiences and how as graduates
they had started off.
There have been a
few things I have been questioning about my career, one of them was going into
business, and another was being a woman in the industry and the possible chance
of wanting to start a family in the future, which had been a regular question that
had popped up during interviews. This was covered in the conference by Jen and
we had spoken to her also at the end, where she offered us lots of advice
around this.
I have also been considering going into business, and after hearing the speakers it certainly encouraged me to think about my options. I would like to work within a company first however and learn much more beforehand as at the moment I do not feel completely ready to start-up. The best bit of advice I took away from the conference though was to explore the industry and use every opportunity and bit of experience as a positive one. Working in an agency beforehand is a great way to learn the fundamentals of running a business, and also whether starting up your own business is actually the correct decision.
I was also one of
the lucky few to get a card at the end from Kerry Roper!