After months of frustrating job-hunting dead-ends, Marquelle Turner-Gilchrist has taken matters into her own hands and become an accidental entrepreneur.
In the spring of 2022, the 35-year-old was looking for a job as a luxury fashion strategist and had some promising interviews with a social commerce firm. But days after receiving a job offer email in his inbox, he got a call from the CEO, who rescinded the job offer — explaining that the company was largely funded by crypto investors, whose numbers Assets are depreciating every day.
“I’ve heard offers get pulled,” Turner-Gilchrist told CNBC Make It in June, noting that background checks or professional references sometimes fail. “But it never happened to me [before]”
CNBC Make It interviews Turner-Gilchrist about what he’s learned through a challenging job search and unexpectedly becoming his own boss.
Avoid job burnout
Making his canceled offer public on social media resulted in a ton of encouragement and even a few job offers. Turner-Gilchrist hired someone to revamp his resume and LinkedIn page, and set a goal of applying to 10 jobs a day. But after countless interviews and every recruiting mishap imaginable — recruiters playing tricks on him, leads snubbed, going to the final stretch only to be told the position he was interviewing for was deprioritized — nothing really happened. accomplish.
“I’ve never been through anything like this, so it’s been a year of tackling challenges and finding creative ways to stay positive,” Turner-Gilchrist said.
After a grueling few months, Turner-Gilchrist decided to stop applying for jobs altogether.
The break came just in time. In August, clear-headed, he reconnected with an old friend who owns a PR firm in Los Angeles. This friend has a fashion client and needs some help with marketing and strategy. Turner-Gilchrist’s experience was exactly what they were looking for.
embrace the strange
It wasn’t the full-time job Turner-Gilchrist wanted, but he thought, “Why not use this as an opportunity to continue to generate income, keep my skills fresh and try new things?”
He had never done consulting work before, but learned that he really enjoyed it, especially being his own boss and controlling his time. A one-month contract is enough for him to gamble on himself and start his own consulting company.
If or September. Atelier Lenora was founded on January 1 by Turner-Gilchrist, who leverages his global experience in the luxury, lifestyle and fashion spaces to help clients with merchandising and product strategy support, trends Forecasting, creative direction, and more.
Starting his own company was never on his career vision board. “I never wanted to be an entrepreneur,” Turner-Gilchrist said. “There’s a lot of fear and uncertainty in starting a business, but I’ve been in an uncertain phase of my life for the past few months.”
By building her client network, Turner-Gilchrist is in more control of her career than ever before. “I always bet on other companies to determine my career trajectory,” he said. Now, he has complete control over everything.
think about what is really important to you
A year ago, Turner-Gilchrist said his thoughts on luxury were closely related to his work, such as sporting designer merchandise and international travel. Now that his consulting income is in flux, he cuts these things from his budget. But, as his own boss, Turner-Gilchrist says, “freedom is the new luxury.”
The luxury of choice and autonomy means being able to work 4 days a week, or take a health and wellness break in the afternoon. It also means finding a way to support himself whether or not he has a full time job (which he’s totally willing to take, by the way) and being free to expand the business by taking on more clients and hiring staff (a certain possibility) .
“The true meaning of luxury is choice, freedom and time,” he said. “Last year, my definition of living a luxury life was different than it is today. Now it has agency.”
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