Job Hustling: Back to Full-On Hustle

Back in July this year, I wrote about clinching an internship with a PR agency a couple of months after leaving my civil service job. I mentioned that if successful, I would be hired as a full-time staff and I was determined to make that happen.

Well. I was not successful.

It was not a question of competence (or lack thereof). I know that I have what it takes to work in PR, and have some concrete achievements from my internship to speak off. These include: mostly holding the fort for one account while my supervisor gave more attention to other more "important" accounts, getting widespread press coverage for said account and exceeding the target PR value, getting a full-page interview for a client in one of the key national newspapers, cranking out about 10 detailed business proposals despite never having met any of the prospects before etc. Sure, given the major career change, I faced some challenges but definitely nothing serious and I always made sure to adapt fast as well as keep up with industry trends. Yet, to cut a long story short, my achievements were downplayed while my shortcomings were exaggerated. The last straw was when my ex-boss made the stupid mistake of arguing with one of the key service providers, severing ties with them and then dumped the difficult task of cleaning up his mess on my shoulders. I realized that I was under-valued and my hard work was taken for granted (for so cheaply too, as my intern pay was measly). There was no choice but to tender my resignation.

While all that happened was unfortunate, I really do not wish to dwell on the unpleasantness and focus on forging my career. Success, after all, is the best revenge ;) Also, for all the crap I endured, I have to acknowledge that I did learn a great deal of very useful transferable skills from my highly experienced ex-colleagues and that I received lots of exposure to many facets of the business. I'll just take the knowledge and learning experiences with me somewhere else. In the end, I actually left the agency on a good note. I focused on the positive aspects of my whole agency experience and thanked my ex-boss and ex-colleagues for teaching me so much. They in turn thanked me and even organized a small farewell lunch. I guess one key lesson to be learnt from all this is the importance of leaving on a good note, or at the very least, a neutral one. I am glad I managed to keep it as graceful as possible and not burn any bridges.

That's all in the past for me. At present, it is nearly the end of 2015, and I find myself unemployed once again. I'm done with the wrenching self-doubt phase of dealing with my situation, although feelings of frustration and fear still crop up every now and then. I want to move on, get a new job that plays to my strengths and forge a career in the PR (or PR-related) field. Interestingly, I am not as worried about my current situation as compared to when I was job-searching after I left the civil service. The main differences are that I am now wiser and more skilled, and more importantly, I never stopped growing and nurturing a network of contacts in the PR field even when I was working in my old agency.

So it's back to full-on hustle and I am raring to go. There will be updates on how the hustle goes and I will definitely be resuming my series on effective hustling. Stay tuned, dear reader, and stay strong :)