Finding The Job You Love (With Vorwerk)

Hey Owlets,

Today I wanted to talk to you about something a little different. In case you didn’t know, I’ve just graduated uni. If I’m honest I’m stuck in a bit of a rut and apparently it’s not just me as only 13% of us actually enjoy our jobs and I’m determined to be one of those. The Vorwerk team asked me to take part in their #NoMore9to5 campaign which is designed to raise awareness of how people really feel about their career.

According to research nearly half of us want to switch jobs and that career crisis hits a peak towards the end of your twenties - obviously I was early to this because I feel like I’m already there at 21. I’ve always been a creative person - I love filming, photography, writing - anything where I get to use my imagination, but it’s finding how to use my imagination that’s been the struggle.

In school I loved photography and working with people so events photography was the dream job - I even went to uni for three years to study photojournalism. But for me, after six years of long days and hours of slogging through images on Photoshop I realised that being a freelance photographer just wasn’t for me. I started my blog in uni which became my outlet - the place that I found relaxation and happiness. I’d stopped taking photos for fun but my blog made me do that again - that’s when I realised I needed to change job.

Thinking about changing jobs can be so stressful - I know it took me ages to take the plunge into marketing, so I have a few tips that might help you decide what to do.

Look at What’s Stopping You

What barriers are you facing? 30% of people worry that it’s too risky, but by looking at what’s stopping you, you know what to work on. Look at when you’ve overcome the same barriers before, it will give you the confidence to do it again. I worried that it was too risky trying to get a marketing job without a qualification but I had experience so focused on this.

What Do You Enjoy?

Pick apart what you enjoy doing at work so you know what to look for when you want to make the switch. I love being creative and getting to chat to people, so for me marketing was perfect.

Plan Ahead

Make a note of your strengths, skills, knowledge and experience so you have a tick list to look at when applying for jobs to see if it’s something you’d be comfortable doing - for me it made going through job descriptions a lot easier.

Look at Other Ways

Maybe it’s sitting in an office that’s made you feel fed up. Look at things like going self- employed to follow your passion. 11% of people want more flexible working hours and that’s something I really enjoy with being freelance so I know that an office job wouldn’t be for me.

Research it for Someone Else

This is my favourite tip. 20% of us don’t know where to start so try doing research like you’re going to present it to someone else. You know your own level of knowledge, but if you research for someone else you don’t assume anything so you’ll be less likely to miss out any information.

I hope these tips have helped you if you’re struggling with what to do job-wise. If you’re looking for something a bit different, check out Vorwerk’s recruitment page.

What would your dream job be?

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin & Snapchat.

N.B. This blog post is a sponsored advertorial, created in collaboration with the Vorwerk team.

August in Pictures

Hello!!

Bloody hell - where's the time gone? I feel like it's been so long since I last sat down to chat to you, either on the blog or on YouTube. Every month I promise I'm going to start writing this post as the month goes on, but it never happens. It's now half way through September, the nights are rapidly closing in and I'm just waiting for the leaves to start falling. Before we get to that though, let's sit down for the monthly "In Pictures" recap - the last month of Summer!!

I started the month by meeting one of you!! I've been chatting to one of my readers called Victoria for just under a year and we decided to finally meet up in person for a coffee. You'll have to excuse my shameless stock photo - I chatted so much I didn't take any photos and poor Vicky ended up with a parking ticket because we spent so long in the shopping centre. Since then we've been pretty much joined at the hip!

On 2nd August one of my photographer friends held a fun day to celebrate ten years of being in business by raising money for a local charity, so I wanted to go along to support them - although of course I was further encouraged by the owl being there too! It was absolutely packed which was amazing, although the only issue with a pair of photographers is that you often find photographs of you taking a photo.... oops. 

On 3rd August (phew, it's only the third day?!) I had an extra special event to attend as I was invited to the Kiehls roadshow when they stopped in Bristol last month. The entire evening was about teaching us some information about the products and getting to try them out for ourselves. Since the event I've actually had to go and buy the Multi Corrective Eye Opening Serum - seriously, that stuff is magic! Kiehls isn't a brand I've tried a lot from so it was really nice to have a chat over drinks and get to try everything for ourselves.

The 4th August was much more chilled out. In the morning I went with Dad for his hospital appointment. By the time we came out it was nearly lunch and we were both hungry so we went for a wander followed by Tapas at Tinto Lounge on Gloucester Road. One of the things I love about being in Bristol is that wherever you go you'll always find something new. The food was so amazing (we actually went to Bolero Lounge a few weeks later and it was mega disappointing, so if you're in Bristol I'd say go to Tinto).  Even though hospital visits aren't nice, we always make a bit of a dad/daughter day out and find somewhere nice to go on the way home.

On 5th August we decided to go to Clarks Village in Street for the day to get Mum some new shoes. In hindsight this was a seriously bad decision as the traffic was awful and it took us almost three hours to get there, but we made a bit of a day trip of it. I know that's not a particularly exciting day to include, but in all honestly I was just really excited to see Glastonbury Tor for the first time and wanted to show you the photo! Sorry, not sorry.

9th August was mine and Adam's two year anniversary!! I honestly don't know where the time has gone - it feels like we've been together forever but at the same time it doesn't feel like five minutes. To celebrate we decided to go to Cheltenham for the day after our amazing trip with Kate And Tom's (read about that here). We spent the day wandering round enjoying the scenery, then went for a lunch date as the lovely girls from Wagamama had given us a voucher to try out the new store. The food was great, although I wish I'd said no chilli because Adam ended up finishing mine. These noodles were super tasty, veggie and not full of chilli so I finished those instead!

On the week of 10th-14th August I was at Ashton Court every day for the Bristol Balloon Fiesta. This is one of the events I look forward to most every year, and I'm really lucky to be given a media pass so that I can walk among the balloons during the night glow - that's my favourite part of the fiesta! I was there with BSR so it was really manic but I had an amazing time as ever. Check out my vlog to see what I got up to!

On 16th August I had an incredible day spent in a field full of sunflowers with a couple of lovely bloggers. My friend Steph from Stephanie Dreams Photography wanted someone to take photos of at Somerset Lavender Farm and that sounded perfect, so I packed up my vintage dresses and headed to Radstock for a morning full of sunshine and sunflowers. I know I've filled social media with these photos since, but it was such a fun day that I had to include it!! Check out my main Instagram for more pictures.

On the weekend of the 18th I visited Milton Keynes to see my family for my aunt's birthday. I've never actually been up there before so it was nice to have a little adventure, even though we didn't get to see a lot. I didn't go anywhere near the city centre so you'll have to let me know if I'm missing out, but we did find the concrete cows near our hotel (head to The Owlet Off Duty Instagram to see what actually happened while trying to take this photo....). We also had to drive through Bicester on the way home and what kind of blogger would I be if I didn't visit Bicester Village? It was kind of disappointing to be honest, but you can read more about that here.

One thing that's been on my bucket list to do around Bristol is visit Westonbirt Arboretum, so on 21st August I met up with Vicky again and we went for a wander. I'd been saying I wanted to go walking again for ages, so we went exploring. We somehow managed 12.7 miles in one day (according to my phone), but we did stop for a lunch break at the cafe in between. Over the summer holidays they had a Gruffalo trail in the woods - we never found the trail but we did find the Gruffalo, and to be honest we was quite friendly.

The next week was a bit of a mad rush running errands and doing last minute prep, but 26th August was Bradley Stoke Carnival time! It's something my family have organised for the last few years and it's one of my highlights of the Bradley Stoke summer calendar. We started with a parade of local community groups, stilt walkers and a marching band as we walked down to the field where we spent the day basking in the sunshine watching bands perform live. We do a lot of nice community things in our town, but that was one of my favourites so far.

30th August marks the last trip of the month - this time to Birmingham. I was there for a few meetings, but mainly to go to the opening of the new Las Iguanas store on Temple Street (read more here). It's not normally a place I would visit but the food was tasty, the cocktails were great and the decor was amazing. I ended up having to run for my train, but it was absolutely worth it!

I hope you enjoyed going for a wander through my month with me again - I feel like things have started to get a bit quieter but it won't be long until the festive events start cropping up. Let me know if you still like seeing these monthly round ups and I'll keep doing them - they're something I really enjoy writing! What have you been up to recently? 

Love and Feathers, 

 The Owlet 💜 

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Bloglovin & Snapchat.

Dear Network Marketers: Please Stop

If you use LinkedIn or Facebook then you’ll probably be just as frustrated by the number of spam/marketing messages you get every day, telling you about their wonderful product that you can’t possibly live without (which you’ve survived perfectly fine without until they crawled into your inbox). They’re irritating but on the whole they’re a mild annoyance that you just ignore as you get on with your day - apart from this week. 

Follow Me To: Birmingham & Las Iguanas

Morning Owlets,

Sorry I've been a bit quiet recently - things have been so busy that I've not had chance to sit down and chat to you on anything other than social media. I thought today we could have a bit of a catch up and do another "Follow Me To" post. I stopped doing these because I felt like it was getting boring when I was always going to Birmingham and doing the same things (I know, I'm a bit of a creature of habit) but I promise today I actually did something different.

Summer Outfit Favourites: My Top 3

Hey Owlets,

I can't believe it's nearly September! I feel like every year someone pipes up and says "This year has gone so fast" but this time it's me saying that. I honestly don't know where the time has gone - it still feels like we're in July but instead we've already had the balloon fiesta, my birthday is long gone, I've graduated uni and everyone is harping on about how excited they are for Autumn. To be honest I absolutely love summer so I intend to hold on for it as long as possible, and what better to way than to look at all of the outfits you're sick of seeing on my social media? I think it's pretty evident that I had a few favourite pieces this season, so I thought it might be nice to have a run through my summer style.

Bicester Village: Pretty Woman for the Modern Age

As plus size women in 2017 we’re pretty remarkable - curves are cool and we have role models to remind us daily that we can do anything, regardless of the number on the label. But one of the things that still strikes fear into the hearts of many a larger lady is going shopping in “normal people territory”. 

You know the scene in Pretty Woman where she walks into a shop and the assistants tell her that nothing in the shop will fit her? If you don’t know it, I’ll link it but that’s pretty much what happened to me when I visited Bicester Village at the weekend. 

Bicester Village is an outlet shopping centre that carries more high end brands than your normal outlet, like Dior, Celine and Gucci. It’s long been held as the holy land of fashion, where no blogger could take themselves seriously if they’ve not made the pilgrimage at least once. So, of course, I had to go on the way home from visiting family in Milton Keynes but perhaps I should’ve taken note of the fact that all these bloggers excitedly singing the centre’s praises were not my demographic.

July in Pictures

Hey Owlets,

I tried a new style of post last month with my June in Pictures post, and it had so much good feedback I thought I'd do my July in pictures too - even if it is a little later than anticipated.

We start off the month with a trip to Bristol Zoo after hours which was absolutely amazing! The lovely people at Bristol Zoo invited us for dinner and a private tour after the zoo had closed to celebrate their restaurant refurbishment and their twilight evenings at the zoo. The food was amazing and it was so cool to see all the animals in a more peaceful setting, check out the post for more details.

Why I Think Chloe Bags are Overrated

If you’ve been reading The Owlet for a while you’ll know that I might not have the bank balance for it, but I definitely have the taste for luxury. There’s a long running discussion in my house where Dad says he would always rather save for a luxury watch, which is when I point out that you can’t use a watch to carry your belongings, so I think it’s pretty clear to see where I get my designer penchant from.

If you don’t know who Chloe is, they’re a mid-range designer most well known for their luxury bags. They seem to have exploded onto the scene from nowhere over the last few years despite the fact that they were actually founded in 1952, with See by Chloe’s ready-to-wear (i.e. off the shelf purchases) line being added to the brand in 2001.