As I put together a LinkedIn profile to do research for the Portfolio module, I found myself weirdly… addicted?? to LinkedIn. It is a never-ending stream of amazing opportunities that were there waiting for me, at places I would die to work at like WGSN and BOF, where a job listing was right there with my name on it. I scrambled to polish up my CV, put together a website, and a portfolio as I can’t wait to get my foot in the door and hit the ground running straight out of university. It made me think of this quote by Sylvia Plath:
“I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn’t quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn’t make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet.”
I am seeing opportunities for multiple things I would love to do – photography, editing, merchandising, styling – you name it – it’s on there. Not only that but all across the world – just a click away. I spent an embarrassing amount of time on there sifting through jobs, search filters, looking up my favourite brands and companies – where can I end up?? And what will open up the most doors in my life?
Eventually, after a few weeks, I finally heard back from Hugo Boss at House of Fraser – Junior Visual Merchandiser interview for this coming Wednesday. A dream opportunity for me. I called all the people close to me to share the big news and immediately started researching the brand to prepare myself for this interview and arranged a practice interview with Jules to iron out any gaps. I am very much looking forward to this and cannot wait to see the outcome.