2016 in review: April - June

APRIL

I was TRES excited to start my new job - after a month and a half of intense job hunting and international travel I was totally ready for some routines. I'd landed my dream job at a boutique agency in Shoreditch, manning the accounts of a portfolio of clients dominated by startups, and I went in full on, with everything I had. Things outside work were pretty rocky on several fronts so work, and working out, kept me afloat. We hosted the hen do for one of my best friends, who also announced she was pregnant(!). Tears all around. At the end of the month Embo and I flew off for a lavish weekend in Vienna. We also took the train out to the Alps, where we climbed the highest mountain of the lowest Alp (or something?!).


MAY

Things kept on being pretty rocky as May entered, but at least the sun came out to play. I spent many late evenings in the office as the work weeks started hovering somewhere around 60 hours, and my poor PT had to take the brunt of everything that was going on as I only ever had the time to release all kinds of emotions (and tears) when I saw her. Nevertheless, life went on. We hosted a big party for Eurovision Song Contest at our house, and I was interviewed by BBC (on Snapchat, very millennial) on the importance of it for Swedes. At the end of the month we flew off to a chateau in France to celebrate one of my best friends' wedding, where we - wedding aside - did nothing but drinking loads of vino, taking baths in the bedroom(!) and playing tennis all day long.


JUNE

June was dominated by trips to Sweden. I flew from France to Stockholm, with a 17 hour short pit stop in Brussels to see Ingrid. Once in Stockholm I worked from a client's office and got to see my Stockholm bmfls before we roadtripped down to Gothenburg. I managed to get a ticket to Håkan Hellström's Ullevi gig after a considerable amount of hustling, and the entire trip made me wonder what life in Sweden might look like. It was also the month of Britain's EU referendum, which I wrote about here. I was contacted by Swedish media and told them what continues to be true to this day - "no one really knows what's gonna happen". I wept for my country when I woke up to Nigel Farage declaring "UK independence" on June 24th, but luckily I was in the Swedish archipelagos with my Swedish best friends. We had a glorious weekend celebrating midsummer together, and for the first time in over eight years I seriously considered moving to Sweden.

2016 in review: January - March

Although I've been meaning to pick up blogging over the past few years, the only thing that's been consistent blogging wise has been my years in review posts. See here for 2014, the year of Ugandan mischiefs and crying over my dissertation, and here for 2015, the year of finishing uni and discovering life as a young professional (aka my most SATC year to date). Every year I seem to say "this year has been mad" (lol), although that seems to be truer for 2016 than before. Lets have a look.

JANUARY

We rung in 2016 at a house party in Hollywood Hills, which was about as bizarre as it sounds. I felt like I'd been teleported into an episode of the OC where champagne and cocaine flowed freely and skinny girls in tiny dresses were tiptoeing around trying not to fall into the pool. Pretty OC-y if you ask me. On New Years Day we took the Pacific Coast Highway trough Big Sur, and stopped for a quick skinny dip along the way. We did 36 questions in the car and there were both tears and laughter. My trip ended in San Fransisco before I flew back to London, where I felt increasingly uneasy about overturned budgets and uncertain projects. To cope I turned to yoga, and booked a ticket to Sweden where we spent an entire weekend doing nothing but laughing and going for long walks in the woods.

 

FEBRUARY

First day back at work after my little retreat to Sweden I was made redundant. I really should have seen it coming, but I didn't. The boy picked up a takeaway steak tartare from my favourite resto and fed me red wine as I spent the first evening compiling lists of recruiters and agencies I wanted to meet with. Over the coming weeks I worked 16 hour days as I reached out to people, prepared for meetings and interviews and negotiated the terms of my redundancy. I was taken out for a little spin in a tiny two-man plane over Hertfordshire, and I went out for cocktails with my mentor who promised me things would be fine. And after a lot of back and forth, my old job still let me got to NYC for the company trip that had bee planned for months. It was my first time there and although the trip was slightly overshadowed by my unemployment and general uncertainties, I still had a great time.
 

MARCH

March kicked off with more interviews and compiling endless media strategies, press releases, and campaign ideas for prospective employers. Thankfully, it all paid off. Perhaps somewhat unbelievably, five weeks after I was made redundant - one week during which I was in New York - I had five solid job offers on the table. It felt great. Amazing, even. In the end it was an easy decision, and I signed the papers to join a boutique agency that sat in the same building where I did my first PR internship all those years ago. The boy took me out for celebratory bubbly and a three-course meal, and I was so relieved I think I at some point cried. In March I also did a short stint working on a campaign for National Apprenticeship Week, which included me manning all the regional press activity and desperately trying to understand all the various British accents over the phone (not an easy feat). Once again I hopped on a plane to go over the Atlantic, this time with the boy. We visited NYC, Connecticut, Baltimore and Washington DC. It was marvellous. We celebrated our six month anniversary at The Roger Sherman Inn in New Canaan, something I think I'll remember forever.

A non-runner's guide - from sofa to Palestine in 14 weeks

So yeah, I decided to do a half marathon. It's not particularly far and it feels like most of my mates have done it (starting ages ago as well). A former colleague of mine even ran 100km. In one stretch. So yeah, a half marathon is a baby step in comparison but somehow, to me, it feels HUGE and like an impossible feat to conquer. Probably because I never did any exercise as a kid and I always hated running in PE. Remember when you had to do the 3k run or whatever it was as a 12-.year-old? Worst day of my life. Essentially thought I was going to die.

Things have improved since, but only marginally. A few years back when I had little money but heaps of time I ran 6k every morning, and combined with cardio classes at the gym every afternoon I suddenly got abs I never knew I had. I still never really liked running, though.

And I still don't think I do. The reason why I've gotten on the wagon (that I'm pretty determined to jump right back off after the half marathon) is because I feel a need to structure my excercising, and the Palestine marathon is brilliant in its concept. It's attempting to shed some light on the fact that it's impossible to run a full marathon on the West Bank because of the Israeli checkpoints, so the marathon is run in two laps along the exact same stretch - through two refugee settlements and along the wall separating Palestinians from their land and each other. If I was ever gonna do a half marathon, it'd be this.

Me and my cinnamon bun baby, week 1 of training

Me and my cinnamon bun baby, week 1 of training

Last week (Christmas week, that is) was my first week of training. I've signed up using the Nike+ running app which customises training plans according to your current fitness levels. So far it's working surprisingly well, but it did tell me I was going to think that in the first week - apparently there's some sort of "fuck all this crap"-wall in week 4 - I'll make sure to keep you all up to date ;-)

The plan so far is not to finish the race at a certain speed, or even to raise the full £350 for The Said Foundation. It's basically to get through the race and to motivate myself to read more about Palestine and plan a trip to OPT and Israel for the race. The plan is also to document the training in the blog (see right for a photo from week 1). Finally, the plan is to show my 12-year-old self that it's possible to run and have fun. I mean, I hope. I take it I'll find that one out over the next 13 weeks.

I was made redundant twice in six months. Here's what I learnt.

I take it I'm not the only one who at this point in the year starts to look both back and forth. 2016 was a pretty intense year, but then again that seems to be something I say every year. 2016 was intense for different reasons though, two of them being that I was made redundant, not once but twice. Yep. First time it happened there was no end to the betrayal I felt (lol, so cute) and the second time it happened I almost burst out laughing because it was so comical. Who gets made redundant twice in six months?! Someone who works in PR, that's who.

Nevertheless, I learnt a lot along the way. Here's the biggest lessons:

1. There's no better way to be unemployed
Think about it. For whatever reason, your boss is forced to pay you to leave. Depending on the terms of your contract, you're paid to look for another job for X months. And when people and potential employers ask you why you want to leave your current job you don't have to come up with some lame excuse, you can actually just tell the truth - they couldn't afford to keep you. And the person that had to make you redundant will, in my experience, do everything in their power to help you find another great job. For instance, the second founder to make me redundant spent two hours with me to help me brainstorm ideas for an interview I had coming up. I can't imagine any other situation where that would happen.

Second redundancy in six months. Boss takes us out to the pub.

Second redundancy in six months. Boss takes us out to the pub.

2. Your network is bigger than you think - and it's about to grow even bigger
Everyone you know will have heard of someone being made redundant, and people love to help. I reached out to all kinds of people that were really quite far out in my network - simply put, I've never gone to more coffees in my life. I had about 3 meetings a day, with potential employers but also with people in my network who offered to share their experiences and their network with me. It was a brilliant way to network and meet new people and old - about a zillion times better than going to one of those "networking events" (barf).

3. Beggars can be choosers
Because you get a redundancy package and because you have no work to go to, you have all the time in the world to meet potential employers. Most importantly, you get given the opportunity to figure out what it is you really want. I was pretty lost in my first job and wasn't sure whether I wanted to specialise in PR or social, but once I was made redundant it became crystal clear that I wanted to do startup PR, preferably agency-side as I wanted exposure to a lot of different companies, and preferably with a boutique agency as I just can't face corporatism (soz). That said, I still met with corporate agencies and startups, and ended up with five offers from agencies and startups alike within four weeks after being made redundant.

4. As a creative, you'll never be more creative
So you have all this time and you meet with all these people. And most of them will ask for some sort of work sample before even considering hiring you. As a creative, I've never had a higher output of quantifiable creativity than in times of redundancy. And because of how recruitment processes work, you have to do it all at once. In one week, in-between interviews, I singlehandedly developed several different PR and social media strategies for everything from driving engagement to launching in new markets, while devising numerous press releases for products and clients I knew little about. If you're early on in your career, as I was, chances are you've never had to do this on your own before. Realising that you're capable of it is a massive confidence booster.

5. And finally, the only way is up
I took a big step up after both my redundancies, although in different ways. I felt excited and confident about both new beginnings and although it ultimately sucks being made redundant, it's pretty likely you wouldn't have wanted to stay at your former job anyway. When you're made to leave because of resourcing issues, it's likely budgets are tight so you can't do much, or you're overworked because they can't afford to take on more staff. You might want to hold on for dear life simply because of loyalty or commitment, but at the end of the day, you'll want to be at a place where you can thrive while being challenged and allowed to have a decent work/life balance. That's an equation that never works in the weeks or months ahed of facing a redundancy.

And finally, if I ever doubt my abilities, at least my brother was right when he offered this piece of poignant advice: "you're really good at getting paid for losing jobs".

Help someone else look ridiculous in their graduation photo

I cannot begin to describe how lucky I was, and how lucky I felt, to get into SOAS for my undergraduate degree. It changed me fundamentally and although I look like a dick in my graduation pic (see below) I really do think SOAS un-dickified me.

Me, graduating with a BA in Politics and Development Studies from SOAS, Uni of London

Me, graduating with a BA in Politics and Development Studies from SOAS, Uni of London

I've decided to head over to Palestine in March 2017 to go for a bit of a jog (half marathon that is) to raise cash for The Saïd Foundation, a foundation that helps young adults in the Middle East come to the UK for their post-graduate studies. SOAS is one of their partner unis, among the likes of Oxbridge, Durham, Birmingham etc.

2016 was a bit shit and as the world tries to shut doors, I reckon we should try and keep as many as possible open. Studying abroad is a brilliant way for both visiting and hosting cultures to meet. Cultural exchange through studies is also currently under attack in the UK, so I'd like to support the young adults in the Middle East that want to study in the UK. I'm hoping to raise £350, which feels pretty modest tbh - I hope you'll give a helping hand.

Also I've never run further than 10k in my life so this should be hilarious for everyone involved!

Open yer pockets for a worthy cause - details below - and I'll do my best to finish the Palestine half marathon. Obvs I'll also post weekly updates on the blog - I have a weekly training schedule which I'm planning on following pretty religiously so stay tuned for the blood, sweat and tears that are yet to come!

Sandy xx

Payment details:
Sweden: Swish to 0734349932
UK: Paypal to sandyerrestad@gmail.com

ps - I'll obviously post a receipt on this page once the donation to The Said Foundation has been made.