As the only one at her all-girls school, in 1979 New Zealand, who wanted to do code, Melissa Clark-Reynolds, was bussed to a boys’ school to learn, because of course it was only a class for boys.

Back then there were no computers in schools and each week the class would write their code and send it Wellington, and a week later a note would arrive back to say if the code worked or not.

Fast forward to 2020 and Melissa is now an accomplished futurist – in other words, she looks for patterns that other people can’t see to help predict what may happen in the future.

Things like:

• Amazon buying Whole Foods,
• The economic impact of the pandemic,
• Changing demand on production systems for farmers (e.g. no GMO, Grass fed, carbon positive meat).

“That’s my super power. It’s more about culture anthropology with maths behind it, so a focus on people with an added focus on data.”

Author:  Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis
Reviewer: Tiffany Hardy

I love this book! I have found it so inspiring, thought provoking and motivational. It has even led me to get out of the lockdown rut and start my own company.

I really think the old adage, ‘you only get out what you put in’ is so true for The Squiggly Career. I have never read a career development, or business book before, (I’m usually into thrillers or biographies on 90s grunge musicians!) but I really dived deep into this one. I was like a student studying for my final exam.

I had 12 days to read it before the book club meeting and I really wanted to have it finished so I could get the most out of the session and know what everyone was talking about. Plus I was just finding it so good. I had a two-highlighter system, (Yellow, for lines/quotes I liked and that I thought would be good to go back to and pink for any references to read, watch, go to, like TED talks etc). I also had little post-it tabs on important pages, made post-its of quotes and ideas I liked to stick on the walls and used a pencil to do the exercises, so I could come back and do them again, or at least rub out any mistakes.

Like so many of us, work changed a lot for Jessie Scoullar in 2020. After losing a few projects at the beginning of lockdown, she turned her talents towards helping others and got involved with Help Musicians UK, a charity that provides support for artists.

In a time when work is dwindling, she’s been flat out for the past few months. “I think I’ve worked with about 50 artists, helping them build a foundation to grow engagement with their fans,” Jessie said.

In her role as a mentor, Jessie helps newer artists and those less established online to find ways of expanding and creating special products and experiences for their fans. This is especially important now that touring and appearances have all been put on hold. As she says “Bands gotta make money.”

Starting out as an artist management assistant, Jessie worked with some of the biggest names in the New Zealand music scene. “My first experience with artists in NZ was with Bic Runga when she was recording her album, Birds,” she said. “I was just driving them around and getting them lunch,” she shrugs, but with names like Neil Finn, Anika Moa and Shayne Cartner it was a stellar start.

Jessie moved to London in 2007, following her two older sisters and a lot of friends all embarking on their OE. Once she arrived in London, Jessie began working for PRS for music where she stayed for two years before accepting voluntary redundancy.