A girl that needs to have a plan

Back when I was a kid, I first wanted to be a journalist. This idea stayed in my mind for a long time, and I remember all my family saying that since I always have things to say – I’m French, I excel at complaining – I would be good at this job.

But then, while growing up, another field became interesting in my opinion: communication. Yes, I know it is not far away. Not like if I suddenly decided to become a geologist or a computer engineer. But communication means quite a lot, and during my three years of bachelor, I was still unable to say which precise job I wanted to reach. People were asking “what exactly does it means?”. I would answer like if I knew, even with a bit of disdain to hide the fact that I don’t even know what I will do as a profession.

Even though I didn’t know the name of job, I still had ideas in my mind: something creative, something that takes into consideration the trends, whether they are societal, political, or more generally about design, fashion. I have always felt that working in communications forced me to keep abreast of the world around us. To try to understand it, without judging it, but also with a critical eye.

This year is my final year of bachelor, so I needed to elaborate a more precise project since I was applying to masters for next year. That’s also this year that I decided to choose to change my professional project around 10 times. Perfect timing. From political communication to cultural mediation without forgetting about marketing or PR. I felt like a needed to find a meaningful job, something that sticks to my values and thought mostly about sustainability and ecological features. That’s why for a certain period I kept marketing and advertising away of my potential jobs. During my Eramsus I had to struggle with this big and huge and vast and enormous question: WHAT TO DO NEXT?

I decided to take a real time to think about it. I even called some professionals thanks to a website that connects students and worker, that way they can explain their job and give advice to people who are lost; ✨like me✨ as you understood reading this text. I also watched a lot of videos of people talking about their job.

I know that I don’t necessarily need to put a precise word on the career I want to have and that I’m still young, it might change, I will have more experiences that would probably changes my views and so one and so forth. But in fact I still needed to do it otherwise I would continue to be in this blur that does not fulfill me, I would even say that it anguishes me.

And I am happy to now announce that I think I finally found the precise job that I want to reach is strategic planner. Now you may ask what that is but be sure that I am able to explain it to you know, without disdain… Within the advertising agency, the strategic planner is the one between the advertiser and the creative team. To find the idea that will seduce and convince consumers, the planner puts himself in their shoes and immerses himself in current trends, exploits the ambient imagination (cinema, literature, design). He then carries out a real societal survey, tries to identify needs and innovations. The strategic planner examines behaviors and attitudes to anticipate the formulas that will work.

I think that this job will fit me very well: it’s something where you need to use your brain, and other resource such as books, sociological writing, you need to follow the cultural stage and stay aware of how the world behave.

To come to an end, I know that I won’t only have one job in my life. This became impossible those days. But at least for the next few years I have a little bit of plan which is reassuring me and leads me in my decisions for master or internship 🙂