Girls in Work - Live

Photos provided by @soph.rosie

In an effort to understand how I can put my stamp on my new job and to meet like-minded women, I attended the Girls in Work - Live event yesterday. Girls in Work was launched by Sophie Rosie in March 2018 and is an online resource for career women with an aim to empower, inspire and motivate (as taken from their site). Sophie organised the event along with her friend Emma and they most definitely pulled it off. I was so happy I got a ticket and felt it was worthwhile attending - if only to give me that kick up the arse I needed to go out there, work hard and be the best version of me I can.

I'd not been to an event like this before and was a little anxious initially, however I had two of my good friends with me to chat and drink tea out of cups and saucers (with the obligatory pinky finger) and we got to know some of the other attendees. The location for the event was beautiful, with cakes and gift bags laid out on the table. The room had been decorated with candles and fairy lights that provided the perfect ambience for the upcoming insightful panel discussions that were going to slap me hard in the face with inspiration and intrigue! Who doesn't love alliteration, am I right?

The panel consisted of four women, all in different roles and stages of their careers. The first panelist was Julia Day, the Founder of Easy as VAT and The Independent Girls Collective.

Instagram: @independentgirlscollective

It was interesting to hear about her "lightbulb" moment when she decided to leave her full-time job to start her own business online. Julia also talked about not comparing yourself to others, like looking at how successful you feel your friends are compared to you and to stay in your lane. I loved this quote as I'm definitely guilty of seeing how well other people are doing and feeling a bit of a failure. It's really not a productive way to think and it's much better to use that time spent worrying what others think, to focus on working as hard as you can and how Julia put it, make yourself irreplaceable.

The second panelist was Jo Baldwin who is a Managing Director for Bauer Media. Jo had worked in the same industry for many years so it was interesting to hear about the different experiences she had as she worked her way through the ranks. With her humour and funny anecdotes, Jo made a lot of interesting points, one being that she doesn't believe in feminine and masculine traits when it comes to women in the workplace. Jo described herself as straight-talking and direct, but that's just who she is and has nothing to do with her gender. She also mentioned a quote someone once told her which I loved so much it got it's own graphic:

The third panelist was the eloquent Kayla Anderson who is a Senior Assistant Editor for ITV, specifically Coronation Street. Kayla talked about the risks she took to get in the role that she is in now, such as originally taking on a 3-month fixed-term contract. When asked what she felt was the biggest challenge facing women who are climbing the career ladder, she expressed one of her main concerns being how going on maternity leave may potentially affect her career growth when she did decide to have children. This was an interesting point for me, not that I plan to have kids any time soon! Just being out of work for up to 12 months is a scary thought for me and I would worry that this would impact my progression. Women are having children when they are older now in order to focus on their careers and I definitely know people who feel like they have had to choose between having children or having their career. Some women manage to do both which is amazing. I'd love to hear other people's thoughts about this hotly debated topic and their experiences on the impact having children has had on their career (if any). 

Photo taken from: @girlsinwork_// Kayla: @kaylaanderson1990

The final panelist was the lovely Sian Sullivan (who had travelled up all the way from London might I add!) who is a Social Media & Community Executive for Liberty Living. Sian spoke about her experience of being the first person in a role that had just been created within Liberty Living. She was honest about the pros and cons of being in this situation, but how she also made herself irreplaceable by getting herself involved in projects she was particularly interested in. She pushed herself outside of her comfort zone when she had to deliver a presentation to hundreds of people, but described this as a great way to develop yourself and to become more confident. 

Finally, Sophie and Emma touched on their experiences which I related too so much. Sophie was studying Accountancy and then changed her mind of what career path she wanted to take towards the end of her exams and now works in radio. You could tell she really loved her present job by how she talked about it. With my own drastic change in degree from studying Bioveterinary Science, then moving to Psychology, which I'm soon to graduate from (sorry to bring it up again), it reminded me of how there is so much pressure on young people to make decisions about their careers  early on in life. Following a question I asked to the panel regarding their experiences of feeling unsupported in the workplace by other women, Emma gave an example of an experience she had with a poor manager. It was interesting to hear how she dealt with this and was food for thought for me. She described how she took positives from her experience and from this it has enabled her to become an even better manager herself. The message was also reiterated around focusing on yourself and not others and that feeling a little bit of competitiveness can sometimes be a good thing if it helps you to challenge and better yourself. Described as one of her favourite quotes, Emma pointed out that a challenge is not a threat, but an opportunity. <-- take note!

Instagram: @soph.rosie

I'm amazed at what Sophie and Emma were able to pull out the bag in such a short space of time, but they have really pulled off their first event. It was a great opportunity to network not only with other women, but women with completely different backgrounds and careers. The event ended with a 10-minute meditation session from Barre Balance who also kindly gifted all attendees a pass for a free class - I wouldn't say I was born with the most graceful of bodies, but I'll give it a go.  I'm excited to hear about future events and highly recommend any women reading this to register for their next one - give their Instagram a follow here so you can stay up to date! I left the event with more confidence in my ability to do my job (recently started a new role and I'm the epitome of imposter syndrome) and was inspired to go into work next week and find out what projects I can get involved in, to focus on myself and make myself truly irreplaceable - small steps can lead to big things. 

If you got this far, thanks for reading and I hope you get to check out some of Girls In Work's future events!

Lucy x