i recently left

i recently left my dream corporate job at L'Oreal after 1 year post grad, and let me tell you why... (slightly controversial??) The reason I left really falls into two parts. Part 1: entry level job issues in beauty. Part 2: corporate structures + skill growth. My advice for fellow post grads. (FYI I WORK IN CREATIVE MARKETING - CONTENT STRATEGY + PRODUCTION). The first one being how contractors like myself were treated. And the second part being how this role contributed to my career progression or lack thereof. Here's a little tea that people aren't talking about. The beauty industry and economic times like right now, like a recession, are always struggling. Which means that other than the rotational program, a lot of entry level jobs are being hired as contractors. What this means is that we work on a W2, which is great for taxes. However, we work kind of like freelancers, we're billed on an hourly rate with no benefits like PTO, sick pay, and healthcare. As a previous freelancer, this wasn't a big deal to me. I was working in the same sort of environment. The difference being that as a freelancer, I got to build my hours whenever I wanted, and I wasn't bound to a certain 9 to 5 structure per company. That meant that in the last year, I worked through almost every holiday and federal holiday. Because if I didn't work one day or one hour, that was money out of my paycheck. That created a very unhealthy mindset and relationship between work and money. I had never had before as a freelancer, and didn't want to continue working. And the cherry on top of all that, despite all the talk about helping contractors get converted to full-time roles, none of that actually happened. Part 2: corporate structures + skill growth. Corporate America was never built for me to thrive in. And I knew this going into it. I knew the structure in which corporate America hires, its hierarchy exists, is not conducive to my creative growth. Especially coming from a startup background where I got to work directly with CEOs to create our own rules and be experimental. I didn't gain any new creative skills in this job as I thought I would. At the end of the day, I have a very strong belief that whatever doesn't serve you and you have the privilege to change, you should be changing. And this is something that I really want to share to other post grads because it was incredibly validating. That more than half of my friends in New York City, all one year post grad, have either already changed jobs or are in the process of changing jobs. And this is across all industries, including finance, tech, consulting, and marketing. So if people are telling you it's impossible to get a new job post grad because you don't have enough experience or it's not the norm, or it's not okay to do that, let me tell you, it's incredibly okay to do that. Especially in today's world where we increasingly feel like we have little control over our lives. If you have the privilege and the opportunity to go out and explore new things, you should absolutely be taking advantage of that. You owe it to yourself to look for people and places that help you thrive and find the best version of yourself. So here I am, one year post grad, telling you, sometimes the dream job is just a dream. And in reality, your dream job is changing and growing as you do. And we all owe it to ourselves to keep chasing the things that make us happier.