It’s hard to believe that this time a year ago I was squeezed onto a crowded train headed to London to try my luck interviewing for TVE. A blatant novice in the city, I remember emerging from the tube station with Google Maps clutched in one hand and a few pages of notes in the other. If I didn’t look like the graduate version of a deer in the headlights, I definitely felt like one.
However, as soon as I was swept through Soho and into the TVE office I knew I’d landed on my feet and that this was where I wanted to be. I enjoyed everything about my interview as well as the assessment day which followed. Not only was I struck by the energy of the office and the integrity and intelligence of the people I met, but for the first time since deciding to leave academia behind I felt my career goals come into sharp focus.
After finishing my Master’s in English I had spent some time soul searching but hadn’t found anything that really made me excited. I knew that I enjoyed research, thinking creatively, and working closely with other people and in the end, it was my academic interests in narrative and storytelling that led me to brand consultancy and TVE. At the time it seemed the perfect match for me and now, a month on from my first day as a Marketing Analyst, I know that my instinct was right.
Every day I feel challenged, excited, and inspired by the work I get to do which ranges across areas such as quantitative and qualitative insights, strategy, and innovation. After a year of living under the restrictions of the pandemic, it’s been exhilarating jumping into something new, particularly within an industry so engaged with cultural and commercial momentum.
Naturally at the moment, in the grips of the UK’s third national lockdown, my daily journey to ‘the office’ (now a desk in my bedroom) looks very different to how it did last year when I first interviewed. However, thanks to the extraordinary support and spirit of the TVE team, when I log on each morning I still experience that unique buzz and energy that I felt all the way back then.