The Mentors Who Are Helping Others Through Redundancy

In the wake of creative industry redundancies, key voices are emerging to help those in career crisis navigate the messy middle and find a route through to the other side.

When the UK government announced last month that unemployment had reached 5.2%, it was only confirming what many people, especially those in the creative industries, already knew. LinkedIn has been awash with this information for months: as accomplished, experienced people – editors, creative directors, strategists with decades behind them – announced redundancies, while canvassing for work.

Advertising agencies lost more than 14% of their workforce last year, the biggest annual exodus on record. For young people trying to break in, the picture is even bleaker, with youth unemployment sitting at 14%.

For those navigating job loss alongside the mental health toll, identity crisis, and the grinding reality of a job search that can stretch for months, the classic hero’s story, ‘I was made redundant and look at me now’, can stick in the craw. What people are connecting with instead are voices who share the experience as it’s happening, helping others to navigate the messy middle of rejections, bad candidate experiences and financial pressures.

A Substack post, What I Did When I Got Made Redundant, by writer and creative director Emily Ash Powell became a lightning rod for those navigating career crises when it was published 2023, after she was made redundant from her copywriting role at Freddie’s Flowers.

Source: Creative Review