The AdNews NGen blog: Plankton, not quite a drop in the ocean...

The media industry is one big beast.

Being in this industry I find myself thinking about work a lot. I feel like everything I do needs to be filed away in case there is some relevant experience there that I can use later.

The thing with working in this industry is that you can sometimes feel like a small fish. There are so many big personalities and ideas! The dream is always to be big though; to work your way up from the bottom. It’s a pattern I think we’re all really familiar with.

You finish primary school, you can go to the mall by yourself, and your age has hit two digits ... hell, you’re nearly 12! You are one big fish, and then they go and throw you out of the bowl and into a pond. Turns out you can play without a hat, and the things that made you feel cool like that Furby you keep in your backpack, aren’t that hot anymore.

So you move on, adjust. Your ideas get bigger. Eventually you’re back at the top of the food chain; you’re eating proverbial lobster. Then uni starts and you realize your pond is a stream, and that stream leads to the ocean. Your well-manicured, Catholic school girl appearance disappears as you fight against changing currents, so you start throwing your hair up in a top knot as you struggle to get out of bed and to find your ugg-boots through a haze of booze and dodgy kebabs.

You start dreaming of an office and glamorous clothes, then finally you finish university! You give your mum your degree to put in a fancy frame (only to discover a year later that she threw it in a box somewhere), and you head off to join the real world.

When I finished uni I came out of the process with a well-rounded degree, a great internship under my belt and a ton of knowledge. I’d travelled, drunk, read, experienced, and picked up some mad retail skills along the way. I also planned to refuse to fall into the stereotype of our generation. I was, and am happy to get coffees, bind and photocopy. I keep a draw full of stationery to be helpful just in case someone runs out of paperclips, staples, or disinfectant desk wipes.

So here I am, floating in the ocean – having finally found my way, and yet I tend to consider my role a ‘plankton’ position; small, and not quite able to make a drop in the ocean. Feeling like a tiny plankton isn’t too bad though, I get some satisfaction from knowing I’m one of many that feed an organisation and help it to grow but, as I sit here thinking about work and dreaming of being awesome, I‘ve decided that one day I’m going to wiggle my little plankton-self into the brains of one of the big beasts in this ocean!

Emma Beasley
Adshel