Looking back to when I was starting out, if I could give my younger self any career advice, it wouldn't be anything to do with networking or improving my excel skills and it definitely wouldn't have been to do lots of free creative work for potential exposure. The first does help but not in proportion to how much it's touted, the second is still very much work in progress for me and the third only saw me poorer in time and hope. My advice would probably be three-fold. 1. Know yourself. Spend time noticing what excites you, what brings you joy and what ignites that spark in your tummy or gives you energy. Follow that. Go after that. See where it takes you. Nurture that side of you instead of focusing on areas with "room for improvement". There's plenty of time to learn a VLOOKUP or improve your presentation skills. You want to be doing something that's good - that you're good at and that's good for you. 2. Career paths aren't like the movies, despite what films like "What Women Want" will have you believe :). It's not all glamourous and straight forward. Your career path will likely include jobs that you hate, jobs where you're watching the clock like a hawk and jobs that you even forget you had! But I've lost count of the number of times I've thought, "huh, fancy that coming up here" and knowing the answer or what steps to take because of something I learnt trying to teach a 4-year-old how to hit a volley in tennis. Approach life with open ears and eyes, be a collector of thoughts, experiences and skills and remain curious! You'll be amazed at what you can sponge up to later put to use when you really need it. 3. and finally 3, if you want it, go for it. In spite of all the discomfort and worry and number of things on the job spec you don't think you're qualified for. It's hard and comes with a lot of mental hurdles to overcome but you won't regret it. It always seems to me to be more about the attitude you approach something with rather than your current level of experience. We've often found that people new to a subject come with a fresh perspective which can be worth its weight in gold! Good luck - you've got this.

I came from a heavy scientific background, making unnatural amino acids in the lab (which are all white crystals!) to a world of colour and possibility in food development, and felt really out of my depth. The change to industry was challenging, there were targets and KPIs and OKRs and all the other acronyms! And so many people to work with, challenge, influence... I then went to a retail environment where I felt out of my depth again initially, the pace was faster, there was less thinking time and quant evidence was king. I learned more about myself and decided after a few years to challenge myself again and go to the digital world. I've had a constant thread - understanding customers, employees, users - though the context and environment has shifted every time. And that's a good thing! Don't be afraid to jump at an opportunity, you will always learn something and it will benefit you.

My best advice would be to always ask plenty of questions, my opinion is there is no such thing as a stupid question, with gaining knowledge I would also recommend building a professional network, yes this can take some time but it's worth it in the long run. It will also help you to become a natural speaker with people engaging or starting conversations. Not everyone is as comfortable reaching out to people they don't know whether that's virtually or face to face, normally it's because they're not really sure where start or even how they start. Networking is certainly a learned skill and it take time and practice. Once you start connecting with people it will just happen naturally and as you start to grow your network, new roles and development opportunities will become more openly available to you. There are some great videos for tips on this on linked-in learning which I would recommend