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literature<br />
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preying upon the young, which can be great if<br />
you’re that person who has got hunger and confidence,<br />
but not everyone has.”<br />
After her first degree, Gem took a joyless job just<br />
because she was offered it. “I don’t want other<br />
people to feel they need to do those things,” she<br />
says. Also difficult was entering work during the<br />
recession, which forced her to ‘go with the flow’.<br />
Gem felt this was against everything she had been<br />
taught, but “after a while, it kind of worked.” It’s<br />
important to remember, says Gem, that “success<br />
and happiness is something that you determine, and<br />
quite an open thing. It’s not about getting a wellpaid<br />
job; it’s about doing something you want to do.”<br />
Don’t Get a Job, Make a Job is full of case studies<br />
exploring how people from a variety of creative<br />
industries made their dream job. “It’s not a how-to<br />
guide,” says Gem, “because everyone will do it<br />
differently, but there’s plenty of inspiration…<br />
people who have got that extra bit of happiness<br />
career-wise.”<br />
I ask Gem whether she has a number one tip.<br />
“Have belief that anything’s possible,” she says,<br />
“because as soon as you restrict those possibilities<br />
for yourself or anyone else, it becomes so<br />
limiting… And don’t let anyone take the piss. All<br />
graduates leave university with skills which I in<br />
my mid-thirties and others in their forties and<br />
fifties don’t have… You might need ‘employers’,<br />
but they need you too.” Interview by Chloë King<br />
gembarton.com<br />
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