Dear JP Morgan - I Didn't Want You Anyway

How being rejected from my dream career was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

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My final year at university was defined by relentless applications (and rejections) to big city finance firms. Like every other highly driven, ambitious and terrified graduate embarking on their career, I was seduced by the promise of money, reputation and most importantly, security.

However, after months of rejection and my mother's unyielding lectures about how ill-suited I was to the realm of the finance-bro, I began to doubt my career aspirations. In the quiet moments between pulling all nighters to finish my dissertation (on investment banking of course), and crying about my latest JP Morgan rejection letter, a feeling of profound unease was blossoming. Beneath my desire for certainty, I knew that to pursue a career in finance was to suppress the most important component of my identity - my creativity.

Plowing over this subconscious knowing felt tempting, but unfortunately I've been cursed with an insufferable level of self-awareness which means denying my intuition makes me physically sick.

Slowly this realization dragged me (kicking and screaming) away from the magnetism of a cushy job in Lloyds of London, and after a semi-major existential crisis that lasted roughly (exactly) five months, I finally accepted that a creative career was my best shot at fulfillment.

And so I now find myself working in branding. Although it is far from what I imagined, I get to innovate, and problem-solve, and collaborate, and dream every day - long story short, thank the Lord I didn't end up in a finance grad scheme.

I feel like I have stumbled into this reality, but as I reflect I realize there were a couple key steps I took to get here:

1. Understanding rejection as redirection... if something is repeatedly not working it is a sign that your skills aren't suited to this pursuit. Redirect your energy.

2. You already know. Listen to yourself.

3. Uncertainty in life is a given. But being certain of who you are means you can navigate it with confidence.

I hope that my honesty can encourage even just one person. Rejection can sting (a lot) but there is not a person alive who hasn't failed at something. The only true failure is not adapting.