I wanted to wait a while before writing this post, but I was just too excited I couldn’t help it. Two weeks ago I quit my job and today I’ll be switching careers and starting a new job that is the job. What I mean by the job is that I’ve been searching for something like this for exactly one year.  And I say exactly one year because I got the job offer on the same date that I had my last day at my job in Vancouver. I knew when I moved to Toronto that it could possibly take a year for me to find my dream job, but the fact that it took one year to the day is pretty crazy to me. Meant to be? I kind of think so.

Before I moved to Toronto, all I knew is that I wanted a job in marketing in either the media, entertainment, or arts industries. Pretty broad I know, but throughout the year I came to realize specifically what I want. First, I don’t actually want to work in any of those industries.

I’ve been working in media for almost 4 years and I definitely needed a change. Media is not the best industry to be working in right now (especially newspapers where I’ve been), and although I do love the excitement that comes with working for a media outlet, I’m looking towards the future which means wanting to work in an industry that’s more stable with better growth potential.

Secondly, I don’t just want to work in marketing, I want to work in digital marketing. For the past 2 1/2 years that I’ve had this blog, I’ve been teaching myself digital marketing without ever really knowing that’s what I was doing. All I was just trying to do was to get more traffic to my site. I had no idea that everything I was doing was called content marketing, search engine optimization, and social media management.

Also, after completing my first course at the University of Toronto’s Digital Marketing Management program, I just knew that this is what I should be doing for my career. I loved studying film for my undergrad, but honestly I’ve never been so excited to go to class, do all of my readings, and study for exams before!

So to any of you thinking about switching careers and starting fresh, take it from me, it is absolutely possible. It may take a year, it may even take longer than that, but as long as you don’t give up it can happen. It also takes a lot of vigilance. I applied to 135 jobs (yes, I kept track of every single application) and only got 16 interviews. That’s a success rate of 8.44%.

It wasn’t easy to be rejected over and over again for a year straight, but it was all worth it in the end when I got my dream job in digital marketing in an industry that’s one of the most stable around. There’s nothing worse than working a job you dread going to every day, and although doing something different than you’re used to is scary and risky, I believe that if there is a will there is a way. I knew I’d never regret taking this chance and possibly failing, but I would regret playing it safe and always wondering “What if?”

Have you ever considered switching careers before? Or if anyone has switched careers before, I’d love to know your story!