How to use Escape the City

by Team Esc on November 24, 2011

Hello and thanks for clicking through to this post. If you’re reading this you’ve probably just joined Escape the City and registered a basic account.

A basic account gives you access to our Opportunities section and (if you subscribed) will also mean that you receive our weekly ‘Top 10 Opportunities’ email newsletter.

You are currently on our blog (where we share ‘our story and some things we’re learning’). Don’t be confused however, the main site looks rather different and is over here: http://escapethecity.org/feed_items

The objective of this post is to introduce you to Escape the City – our concept and our website – in order for you to get as much benefit as possible.

The top few paragraphs provide you with some background and some reasons why we’re doing this. If you want to move straight to the specifics just scroll down to “An introduction to our main stuff”.

And a final introductory word – if you don’t live in the UK you might not be familiar with the term ‘The City’. This is London’s financial centre and where a lot of our UK members work. So our name represents ‘escaping unfulfilling corporate jobs’ (as opposed to ‘escape the physical city itself and fleeing to the countryside’!).

Our concept and our mission

We believe that life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you. We started Escape the City when we were looking to transition away from our corporate management consulting jobs. We wanted to do something different but didn’t know where to start. We also knew we wanted to do something entrepreneurial but we didn’t have a good business idea.

And then, eureka!, we realised that the frustrations and challenges we were experiencing were shared by absolutely masses of our friends, colleagues and peers. Most of these people had done the sensible thing after university and got a safe corporate job (promising ‘I’ll do this for a few years and then go and do something else’) – however the principle is true for all working people: we all want to do work that matters to us.

http://gapingvoid.com/

If you’re anything like these people you’re ambitious, qualified, and hard-working. You don’t want to drop-out. You just want to spend your working hours doing something exciting, something that fulfils you more than your current corporate job. But it’s hard, the eternal challenge…

If not this then what?

We know what this feels like… and we’re building Escape the City to help you.

How do we want to help you?

Well if you’re anything like us we reckon you might be looking for:

Tangible opportunities, like-minded people, and genuinely useful information. As well as support and inspiration. Some people know exactly what they’re looking for and are just using us to hunt for it. But other people don’t have a clue and are really at the beginning of their ‘escape my corporate job’ journey. Fortunately we’re building stuff to help both types (and hopefully everyone in between).

What could you do instead of your corporate job? Well we reckon you could find an exciting new job, you could start your own business or you could go on a big adventure. You could take a course, retrain in your spare time, volunteer, build up new skills, network, attend events, read relevant books, expose yourself to new ideas and environments. You could discover organisations, websites, and resources you never knew existed.

And we want you to use the combination of all of this information (that we’re seeking to provide) to make good your corporate escape…

An introduction to our main stuff

Opportunities: For professionals, for graduates and for volunteers. Globally. Browse here: http://escapethecity.org/opportunities

Escape Heroes: Inspirational stories shared by people who have escaped to new jobs, start-ups and adventures: http://escapethecity.org/heroes

Events: Talks, gatherings and events to help you explore new avenues and learn new things: http://escapethecity.org/events

Resources: We’re building up a database of the most relevant and useful information we’ve found: http://escapethecity.org/resources

Connections: This is a kind of classifieds for our community. Offer support and ask for help: http://escapethecity.org/connections

Coaching: For people looking for hands-on support with their escape. One-on-one coaching: http://escapethecity.org/coaching/index

Esc Wednesdays: These are monthly talks in London and New York. Keep an eye on Events for 2012′s schedule: http://escapethecity.org/events

Meetups: We have bases in London and New York but the concept is truly global. We are introducing new countries soon. To meet like-minded Escapees near you please join your nearest Esc Meetup: http://www.meetup.com/EscapetheCity/ (An invitation to start a meetup: http://bit.ly/pvGGWX).

You can also use Escape the City to:

Post exciting and challenging job opportunities: http://escapethecity.org/pages/employer_zone
Ask the community for help / offer your support: http://escapethecity.org/connections/new
Recommend an inspirational escapee story: http://www.escapethecity.org/heroes/new

If you’re an organisation looking to hire great people or promote your brand, products, services, events or events please just ping us an email – we’d be happy to help: team@escapethecity.org

Coming soon

Currently the site requires you to do a lot of the searching yourself. We’re working on ways of asking you the right questions in order that you can set your preferences and not have to keep returning in order to be exposed to the opportunities, people and information that you’re looking for.

This is a work in progress but we’ve got some really exciting plans so please stick around!

Oh and if you happen to be an awesome Ruby developer drop us a line – team@escapethecity.org

Need a helping hand?

If you have any questions just drop us an email at team@escapethecity.org and you can return to the main site by clicking here: www.escapethecity.org.