International Women’s Day at Karmarama

If you’d asked me what I wanted to be when I was a young girl, I would’ve said a doctor. That dream never changed until I had to face the reality that it just wouldn’t happen to me, standing there staring at a sheet full of grades on the fateful day of results.

Suddenly, I couldn’t see a clear path anymore. My mind had been so set on it that I had ignored all the other doors that were open right in front of me. Finally deciding to listen to those around me, I played to my strengths and picked creative subjects to study further as I had always taken a shine to them.

Now I’m studying a subject at university that I adore. Yet, I still hadn’t the foggiest clue what I wanted to do once I had graduated. That’s how I felt until I walked through the doors of Karmarama. As cliched as it sounds - It’s very much true.

The event that I went to was for International Women’s Day, where I watched a panel of female employees talk about how they stepped into the industry. Watching these women talk about how they broke their way in was so fascinating. Most of them had the most unconventional methods of getting in which gave me hope that one day I may follow in their footsteps and make my way in the advertising industry.

Already feeling convinced that this would be my dream company to work for, we were then taken on a tour of the office where we were able to talk to some employees about their experiences at the agency. I won’t lie, I was really sold now. The office was broad and full of creatives bringing adverts to life at their fingertips. This is exactly what I want to do, my mind screamed at me. I may have been starry-eyed when leaving their office, or it may have been their disco tunnel that you had to walk through to leave the building. Either way, I was in awe.

The experience I had there was incomparable to other agencies I had visited. There was just something about Karmarama that made me feel like I was at home. Having been surrounded by so many interesting women who worked there was brilliant a experience that reminded me just how far women have come in advertising and yet how much further we have yet to go.

It’s time we changed that three percent.

karmarama.com

Daniya Kayani
Advertising and PR student at the University of West London.