PORTRAIT OF EMA JANACKOVA
'… my career has been and hopefully will still be ever-changing and full of challenges – I think that’s the beauty of being a project manager and your speciality being making things happen.'
Photo: Artspeak Studio
In the realm of career transitions and bold choices, few stories capture the essence of transformation and self-discovery as aptly as that of a young Czech project manager trained as a journalist – Ema Janackova.
With a background steeped in the vibrant world of fashion, Ema found herself compelled to embrace new challenges and venture into uncharted territories. Having built a career in her hometown, she decided to bid farewell to her familiar surroundings in Prague and moved to London. To highlight only a few of her career achievements, Ema led on digital content production and global projects at Monocle and Wallpaper magazines as well as heading up the project management office at the luxury e-comm Matchesfashion. She now works as a digital transformation and project manager at the British broadcaster and tech giant Sky.
To us, Ema stands as a testament to the belief that career paths should be imbued with challenges and that one is not to fear change.
We are sharing this interview with a great deal of delight and hope you will enjoy it. Thank you Ema for taking the time to answer our questions.
What other career would you pursue, if you'd quit your current job?
I wouldn’t want to change careers as such, my career has been and hopefully will still be ever-changing and full of challenges – I think that’s the beauty of being a project manager and your speciality being ‘making things happen’. That said, I do have a new side hustle in my 5-year plan which is to have a miniature goat farm and foster care for cats.
What is the best advice you can give?
Compartmentalise and try not to overthink – be it in your work or personal life. When you’re facing a challenge, just close your eyes, put it to one side, lock it in a box and take the jump blind. Especially earlier on, I never thought I could do so many things I ended up doing and actually being good at. You just have the switch off that part of the brain which tells you you can’t do it – because you can.
Online calendar or paper lover?
Online calendar for sure, especially over the past 3 years working virtually. It all syncs up with video calling and email and it's great. But I go through phases of paper notes and virtual notes and am currently in the paper phase.
Do you think that it’s harder to become successful in your field than the others? Why?
I’ve jumped between fashion, media and now tech, but my start was in fashion. Having built a career base in Prague over maybe three or four years, I decided to start all over and do it again in London in 2016, so yes it was really hard. I wouldn’t be where I am if I didn’t go through all that and I do believe that career starts should be challenging and push you a bit harder. But in the creative industries, there is that strange concept of free/minimum pay internships which I fundamentally disagree with – either you limit the opportunities to people who can afford it or people start their career off with a debt (having already taken up a student loan most likely). No one should have to ‘afford’ to have a job, no matter the industry or geographical location.