How I made the transition to a more rewarding role

Harriet Barclay has made the transition from corporate life in adland to a career for a cause - improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. She explains why she made the leap and draws an interesting comparison between commercial life and the not-for-profit world. Harriet took part in the On Purpose Leadership Programme as part of this transition. This one year programme combines paid work placements with weekly training and mentoring from business leaders. Placements are with organisations that create social or environmental benefit including Virgin Unite, Big Society Capital, National Citizens Service and JustGiving. On Purpose is now recruiting for its October 2015 cohort. You can find out more about it here.

I used to work in advertising. There was a moment, about six years in when I started to look for a career that combined a similar level of challenge with something more personally fulfilling and, in a broad sense, rewarding. After some time I have finally found it. I’m now External Relations Director at a medium sized national charity called Teaching Leaders and I really enjoy what I do. The charity focuses on improving the educational outcomes of pupils in challenging schools across England and closing the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their more fortunate peers. We do this by working with schools, developing their middle leaders (roles such as head of department or head of year) so that they become great leaders and ensure that outstanding teaching is taking place in every classroom in their schools. The External Relations team oversees marketing and communications, fundraising and Alumni relations. It’s a much, much broader remit than what I used to do - above the line advertising - which meant a steep learning curve. Luckily, I had support along the way in the form of a great social enterprise leadership programme called On Purpose.

What made me move? I remember a late night in Soho in October 2009. I was an Account Director at an advertising agency and we were busy with the post production of the Christmas advert for a major supermarket. We had a snow crisis and I was caught in the middle of it. The client wanted more snow in the advert because it was Christmas and she wanted people to feel good. The creatives wanted less snow because it compromised their vision of the advert. At the same time as being stuck between these competing 'visions', I was trying to reassure a scared courier who was refusing to drop off a critical DVD with the senior client for fear of being savaged by her dog.

There were more incidents like this, and I began to consider a career which would give me a better sense of purpose. I have much to thank my advertising agency for. They are one of the best (as a loyal Alumnus, I’d say the best). As well as running the accounts of some of the biggest corporate brands in the country, they have a fantastic track record with public sector behaviour change campaigns, paid-for charity work as well as a suite of pro bono clients. Their work is excellent and the culture is great. The graduate scheme taught me skills and rules of life I still thank them for today.

I also enjoyed working on corporate business. There were knotty sales challenges to unravel, brand new industries to get my head around, healthy budgets and great people. However, despite this, the nagging sense of wanting to do something where I saw a clearer positive impact on a particular area of society got the better of me; I needed a cause to pursue but didn't quite know what that cause would be.

It is here that On Purpose comes in. The programme, which I joined in 2010, consists of two six-month placements in the social enterprise field alongside training and great personal mentoring and coaching. Straight away it provided me with exactly what I needed back then: a shake-up, a challenge, confidence, high-quality training and above all a network of fantastic contacts (without whom I wouldn’t be working for Teaching Leaders today).

Via placements at Comic Relief and a CSR project for O2, I discovered my interest in education and working with schools and teachers, which led me to Teaching Leaders. Thanks to On Purpose, the transition from the corporate world felt quite gradual. There are also a number of similarities in the day-to-day challenges that both sectors present. Just like the private sector, social enterprises and charities operate in a competitive market, but here the rewards are the progression of a cause (and the positive impact that has on people) rather than purely financial gains. We still use the same marketing tools but I would argue that we have to be more creative with our smaller budgets; the use of ‘free’ media is invaluable – Shelter putting a brick on Tinder is a brilliant example of this.

The challenges I’ve noticed have also turned out to be interesting and fun to address. The big difference is lack of funds but this makes the job even more rewarding because:

1. The people who work there do so out of enthusiasm for the mission rather than enthusiasm for their bank balance and thus you retain enthusiastic, loyal and able staff who are without cynicism. As an organisation which focuses on developing leadership in schools, we also practise what we preach internally so leadership development also acts as an important retention tool.
2. You have less ability to retain third party agencies therefore you find yourself turning your hands to more aspects of the job. This means that the job has more variety but that there are also sometimes gaps in our expertise. I have come to appreciate the power of networks, both personal (On Purpose, my old agency etc.) and great organisations such as CharityComms and the Media Trust that can help plug those gaps, whilst building expertise in the team at the same time.

Another difference is that organisations with a social purpose need to constantly demonstrate impact on the cause they’re tackling. This was new to me when I moved sectors but it’s forced us to think about creative ways of getting this message across to a number of different audiences.  

I feel lucky to have experienced working in the marketing world in two sectors. Both have taught me so much and that On Purpose year was crucial to helping me understand how I could transfer my skills and apply them to something truly fulfilling.