Thirty years in marketing, one conversation that changed everything: Helen’s story
Helen Farrell had spent thirty years in marketing, communications, and PR. She was experienced, dedicated, and good at her craft, most recently as Senior Content Executive at a software company where she’d been for many years. She wasn’t desperate to leave. She just knew, somewhere quietly, that her skills could be directed at something that mattered more to her.
For a decade, as a committed vegan, she’d been volunteering with animal organisations on the side. It was meaningful, but it didn’t seem possible that it could be her actual job. Full-time roles in animal advocacy nonprofits felt like a different world that she cared about deeply, but hadn’t seriously considered entering professionally.
AAC’s online course challenged that mindset. Not dramatically at first, not overnight, but it began to open a door she hadn’t even realised was there. It helped Helen see that working full-time in animal advocacy was a feasible option for someone with her background and it gave her a framework for thinking critically about where she could make the most difference. First she started checking the AAC job board. Then, she started applying.
A few applications in, her confidence dipped (job searching has a way of doing that). A call with AAC’s career adviser came at exactly the right moment to steer her forward.
| “It just felt like someone was on my side,”she says.”Guidance, encouragement, practical pointers. It really shaped my job search and now I have the role I only ever dreamed of.” |
Helen is now the Marketing and Communications Manager at Compassion in World Farming. Thirty years of skills, finally in the full-time service of the farmed animals she cares so passionately about.
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Written by Dom Altomari
