Jess Pendleton’s career has never been linear, but it’s always been fun.
“My career has taken a lot of really weird twists and turns and it’s given me the opportunity to understand my strengths and my weaknesses,” she said. “I didn’t think I would end up in Brooklyn, as a freelance writer, you know? I think it’s really cool to see how different people’s careers change and evolve as they grow as people and they figure out what they want.”
Pendleton graduated from Dublin High School in 2004 and went to the only school she applied for, The University of Texas at Austin. “I was really excited to move to Austin, and I started out in the fashion design program,” she said. “I wanted to be a fashion designer.”
After a few months of coursework, though, she found herself being drawn to communications. “I decided I wanted to go to journalism school,” she said. “I ended up getting my bachelors of journalism and a minor in sociology.”
Pendleton graduated in 2009, during the Recession, so it was hard to find jobs in just about any field. “My career kind of started in a really strange way,” she said. “I ended up doing design, actually.”
She worked as an art director for three different magazines, one on campus, called Burnt Orange, another for a real estate company, and a third for a weekly news magazine for UT students called U Weekly, run by the American Statesman.
“That one was really cool because I got to work with printers and everything at the Statesman,” she said.
After working at magazines for a few years, Pendleton found another job working as a product designer and manager for a sales consulting company and later for a private equity firm. She enjoyed working in the private sector, creating apps for companies like Dell and Twitter.
“We created software for them to use for their sales teams,” she said. “I started building those interfaces, managing a team of builders and working with developers.”
While she enjoyed the new field, Pendleton missed writing. She first transitioned within her company to work as the marketing operations manager for content experience, which let her work more with the content the company put out. Then, she started her own marketing company, Quartz Marketing.
“Since then, I’ve moved into actually writing again, doing digital content management and creation,” she said. “I’m working as a freelancer right now, and I do a lot of blog writing and email marketing and all of those things.”
In September, Pendleton moved from Austin to Brooklyn. She’s been focusing on growing her business and finding new clients. Currently she works with a diverse array of companies. One client, a company that makes makeup organizers, works with Pendleton on their marketing and sales emails. Another, a user experience recruiter, often requests blog posts.
“I get to look into and research a bunch of different things and learn a lot about subjects I’ve never even thought about,” she said. “[I work hard] at being a person who can do keyword research and write in a brand voice that’s very different across my different clients.”
Pendleton has enjoyed the challenges of freelance life. “It’s really interesting being your own boss,” she said. “You have to have a lot of discipline to get up and do the work every day and look for new business.”
When she’s not working, Pendleton enjoys trying new restaurants in her new home in New York City. “Brunch is my favorite thing in the whole world,” she said.
She is also working hard to build a network of friends in the city. “ Being able to build my own community here has been really fun,” she said. “I like organizing events, and I’m making sure that not only am I building a community for myself socially, but also becoming part of the community by giving back.”
Throughout her life, Pendleton has drawn inspiration from the groups she has formed around her. “I think just my community and the strong ties we have help everyone through hardship,” she said. “Having a good group of friends and getting to know each other and really being there for each other inspires me. It helps me make hard decisions by being able to bounce things off each other. That’s been my biggest source of inspiration; just being able to have people that I can count on and who can give me really good perspective.”
Pendleton’s parents, Jeff and Melissa Pendleton moved out of Dublin in 2009, and now live in Florida. “My dad stillhasreallydeepconnections in the community,” Pendleton said. “He was the art director at Dr. Pepper for a decade.”
Pendleton’s advice to Dublin graduates is shaped by her own life and career. “Try things and don’t be afraid to fail,” she said. “Don’t be afraid that the choices you’re making are the wrong choices, because it will give you an adventure. It gives you an experience, and maybe it’s not the right choice at the time, but you’re going to learn something.” Editor’s Note: This column chronicles what Dublin graduates have done since high school. If you have any suggestions for other grads, email publisher@dublincitizen. com.