Upskill Your Career: Time To Get Future-Proof

From skill-swapping workspaces to smart interview tactics, your new and improved work life starts here…

NETWORKING: THE LOW-DOWN

The rise of female-only co-working spaces taps into the trend for collaboration over competition. Small business owner and designer LOLA HOAD talks about the inspiration behind her own collective.

One Girl Band is a collective for female entrepreneurs and creatives. I noticed all these amazing women doing their own thing, but they were feeling isolated by working from home alone. Relying on social media for company can suck you into self-doubt and comparison – it’s human interaction you need.

The combined power of women is huge. I wanted a space where women could be 100 percent themselves, to collaborate and skill-swap with women from different fields. I hosted our first meetup in 2015 and we now have a community of women from all over the country. We run monthly meetups and workshops, mentoring schemes, and opened our first female-only co-working space in Brighton.

We are part of a global movement. Female-focused spaces have popped up in the US and Australia, too, as a response to contemporary feminism and as a reaction to the frustrations around male-dominated office cultures. With the powerful energy we saw after the Women’s March and more female entrepreneurs, there is a craving for connection, empowerment and support. That collective mentality helps boost individual self-confidence.

Everyone can be part of a skill-sharing economy. You could be a freelance copywriter finding yourself working alongside a clothes designer; or a marketing exec collaborating with someone who’s building their own app. Skill swapping taps into our sense of sisterhood. Women are better at uniting to give each other a helping hand.

JUMP-START YOUR CAREER