A day in the life of the Lowdown
After asking so many of you about your work life, we thought it was about time we shared what it was like launching and running the Lowdown! First up, co-founder Karmjit Kaur.
Karmjit’s career background is in political communcations, campaigning and lobbying. She’s a trained career coach and is on the Board of Directors for Women in Film and TV.
I wanted to set up the Lowdown because…
Too many women and those from marginalised groups still face challenges such as sexism, racism and unequal pay in the workplace. I know for me, and others, this has questioned our confidence, our decisions, and made us feel isolated.
I’ve found that having a strong network of women and mentors to listen, advise and support has been invaluable. So, with Megan, I wanted to launch the Lowdown to make women particularly early on in their careers, from diverse backgrounds to see themselves in any career they wanted and to be able to see the routes women have taken to get to this point, what’s held them back and how they’ve overcome challenges.
I want the Lowdown to be a space where women feel inspired, empowered, and supported by other women when it comes to their careers and ambitions.
Mentoring is at the heart of the Lowdown because…
We have both had our own experiences with mentoring and seen how a great mentor can increase your confidence, help you set and reach your goals and open up new opportunities. There have been times, however, when we’ve persevered with mentor relationships that may not have been the best fit for us, whether that’s because they could not really commit the time to the relationship, did have the most relevant experience, or there just wasn’t that chemistry. That’s why we wanted the Lowdown to focus on good-quality mentor matches. We take time to match our mentees and mentors, and, that means that sometimes we feel like we let people down because we can’t match them with anyone, but we’re committed to going for quality over quantity.
A typical Lowdown day for me …
Will often be a mix of talking through priorities with Megan, writing one of our Insights articles, social media posts on our LinkedIn and Instagram accounts and holding coaching and mentoring sessions. We’re always keen to find new champions and make time to speak to women who are interested in supporting what we do, so I’ll try to fit in a mix of in-person and online meetings. I’ll also be researching and contacting amazing women we want to profile on our website.
When we’re in one of our mentoring cycles, I might be looking through applications and see who we could match with a mentor, and getting in touch with candidates on the next steps.
The biggest challenge is …
Fitting everything in! Sadly, passion for something doesn’t give you more hours in the day and I probably need to be better at turning things down sometimes so that I don’t burn out. When coaching and mentoring, given we focus on women and marginalised groups, it can be hard to hear what people have gone through and how it’s affected their confidence at work.
It can also be challenging working with a friend on a professional project and we need to be clear on our boundaries which includes protected friendship time where we ban talking about the Lowdown!
But the biggest reward is …
Bringing together an amazing community that can support and empower each other to get the most out of their careers. We’re always so blown away and honoured when someone tells us not that we’ve personally helped them necessarily, but that they’ve discovered and empowered themselves through the Lowdown - and that they feel seen by us and the work we’re doing.
As I get older, my relationships with my friends have evolved and inevitably changed with friends moving away, relationships, and children - the Lowdown means I can work with my best friend on something that is so important to us and is at the heart of our friendship.
My Board role helps my work at the Lowdown …
Because it also focuses on supporting and empowering women, particularly in the film and TV industry, with a mentoring programme to help women in the industry have a voice and make the most of their career opportunities. Being on the Board of Directors gives me a voice and opportunity to see the bigger picture of the organisation, understand and contribute to how it should be run, and what it should prioritise. It’s a lot of responsibility, which I take seriously. It’s also opened me up to an amazing network of talented women.
The best career advice I’ve received was…
It’s okay to fail or not be the best at something. It’s often not a big deal, and, even when it is, you always learn from it and don’t necessarily regret it.
The advice I’d give to women who feel they’re struggling with their career …
Got to stay on brand … find a mentor or coach! Take some time to really think about what you want and where someone could best support you and use networks such as the Lowdown or industry-specific programmes, or a paid coach to help you get there.
What I do to switch off …
If I need to get something out of my head, I’ll write it down at the end of the day. Then, cook, bake, and read a novel if I’m staying in. A fancy dinner if I’m going out.
