I finished college at a time when there were just no jobs in my industry. I didn’t even get interviews. I then moved to Australia where I got a traineeship through my brother and the publishing company he worked for. Then when he left the company to create his own graphic design/website business I joined him a while later. 

So you could say I’d never been through an interview process.

After working for him for a while I realised he didn’t really have enough business coming in to sustain us both. I knew he wouldn’t tell me or sack me he’d just keep trying to get more work. But I knew it wasn't making him happy to be chasing work rather than designing. One day I was sitting at my computer behind him in our studio. I thought it was really time I found a job and helped him out. I put graphic design jobs in the browser search field on my computer and one came up. It was exactly the job I’d had before but even better. I had been one of the marketing designers for a children’s publishing company and this was marketing design manager for Harper Collins Book publishers. I flicked off an email and two minutes later I got an email asking me to come in to the recruiting agency two days later for a test. 

I was blown away. Perfect job in 5 mins with one email. Really?

Later that week I went in to the recruiting centre and did tests to prove I could do what I said I could do. It all went well and then I left to go home. Before I’d even left the foyer of the building they had called to see if I could go to Harper Collins the next week to interview for the position. 

I went to the interview the following week. The job was setting up the marketing design section for the marketing department. I would get to create the role myself and how I worked. I would be my own boss within the department. I would have my own office and be the only designer working for the managers. The salary was double what I had been getting before and I’d be working on all types of books instead of just children’s. It really was the perfect job and the two people interviewing were lovely. It all went well. At the end we shook hands, as you do and they said they would be in touch.

I got on the train and headed the hour back up the coast to wait. When I got home my phone rang and it was the recruiters saying “They want you and can you start next week?” I laughed! Getting anything you want really can be that easy. 

So within two weeks I had a random thought to leave my brothers company, tested, interviewed and moved into a new, even better job than my previous publishing job had been. 

It’s that easy!