So here I am, beaming smile, Melissa Owusu the Law Graduate “top 20 university in the UK”. I can get ANY job I want WITH a base salary of at least £30k – because I have a degree. A degree means you’re employable, it means you’re desireable and the business world therefore owes you.  This is the “University Dream”; a common myth fed to all graduates.

At this point, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do. All I knew was, it wasn’t Law.  Working out what you want to do is quite possibly one of the hardest things you will ever have to do. It takes a lot of soul-searching and, actually, doing things that you don’t like. When you know what you don’t like, it makes it easier to find out what you do like. It’s almost like crossing something off a very long list.  It’s about assessing three things; your skill set, what makes you smile, and your passions. When all three match up you find your calling. But I digress…

After 6 months of endless job applications, my first job offer came along; from a renowned international rental car company offering a ‘Business Management Trainee’ scheme. ‘Perfect’, I thought. I knew I wanted to go into ‘business’ but I didn’t really know what business actually was, or what the job role actually entailed… just business right. It sounds cool?

It wasn’t quite the £30k I imagined, (in fact it was more like £18K…) but it was my first real job. You know, salary, taxes, national insurance et al. Plus, I could finally wear ‘the classic pencil dress’ and the ‘higher than life heels’.

But it was short-lived. I absolutely hated it. I was a glorified driver. Here I am, Melissa Owusu, the Law Graduate with a false sense of self-entitlement, fuelled by the “University Dream…” and I was driving people around.

I wasn’t using my brain and I certainly wasn’t learning about business; What does it take to run a business? What were the challenges associated with running a successful business? How did behaviours in areas such as Finance and Accounting differ to Sales and Marketing. Revenue, Profits and Margins were still alien terms to me.

The hours were long; 7:45am – 7:30pm, and I was on an industrial estate a long way from the bright lights of the city. I also had to buy flat shoes as driving in heels wasn’t really an option and not one of my wisest decisions.

After 87 days I quit. I didn’t have a new job to go to. In fact, I was quite sure I would have to claim Job Seekers Allowance, but at 21 that didn’t scare me as much as going into a place of work every day and hating it. I felt liberated, yet scared and anxious. I still didn’t know what I wanted to do, I just knew I didn’t want to do this.  I came home one-day, I cried to my mum, and said I couldn’t do it anymore. It was that horrible cry, where you look really ugly, your mascara runs, as does your nose, and you become breathless (only mothers can see you in that state).

I was working 12 hour days and learning nothing, not being challenged mentally and definitely not growing. I still had no commercial awareness, still had no concept of the ‘business world’ and still no closer to my dreams. And there we have it; my first lesson.

You spend most of your time at work; you’re there more than you see your family, friends and loved ones. If you’re not growing or learning AND it makes you unhappy, leave. Nothing deserves to make you unhappy. Absolutely nothing.

I will never work in a job I hate again, and this experience taught me the importance of loving what you do and doing what you love. And if you don’t love it, change it.

And that’s my first piece of advice to you.

If you don’t love it, change it. Life is too short to do something you don’t enjoy.

Love Mel x

“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: if today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today? And whenever the answer has been no for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something”

~ Steve Jobs