Leaving the corporate machine behind – a new job and a change of direction

Yes, I’ve been very lax on the blog front so far this year – note to self: must write more! But I do have an excuse. I’ve changed jobs and have spent the last three weeks moving from being a marketing executive at a massive professional service firm to becoming a writer in the marketing team of a much smaller (but immensely more exciting) tech business.

To say I was pleased to get away from the big corporate world would be something of an understatement. I’d increasingly felt like a very, very tiny cog in a rather badly managed, cumbersome machine. And I’d been looking to move somewhere smaller, less monolithic and more *fun* for quite so time.

So, finding a job vacancy for a writer in a marketing team at an up-and-coming software business was a real stroke of luck. Writing and communications are where my skills really lie, so moving away from being a marketing all-rounder and focusing on writing was too good an opportunity to pass up. Fortunately for me, the software business thought I was the man for the job (I didn’t have to bribe them or anything!) and I’m now part of a rapidly expanding marketing team, tasked with bringing this new brand to a wider UK audience.

Do I miss the corporate way of life? Hell no! If I’m honest, I’d always been a bit of a square peg in a round hole in the somewhat stifling atmosphere of professional services (that’s accounting, business advisory and consulting to anyone who’s thinking it’s an industry that Cynthia Payne might be involved in). Speaking your mind and having your own opinions, whilst theoretically tolerated, are not traits that get you ahead in a big corporate organisation. You’ll get much further by shutting your mouth, making the right noises and doing exactly what you’re told.

So moving to a business where they actively encourage you to offer ideas and get stuck in with creating solutions to problems has really been an intensely refreshing change. I knew I’d made the right move when I ended up joking with the MD about light sabres – I can’t imagine doing that with a Big 4 audit partner somehow.