By my reckoning, my career to date is about 36 years so far; I’ve always worked in this time without a gap between any jobs and it’s now time for some career reflections.
The first few years of my career were spent finding my way having completed a college course in a profession I simply didn’t want anymore. I travelled and earned some money through taking photographs for people followed by a very short term job in a bike shop. The thing about short term jobs is that they often become long term jobs, so the bike shop ended up being about five years, including setting one up from scratch.
While I was in the world of bicycles, a chance meeting with a social worker took me in a completely different direction. From social work, quickly into the Probation Service, all part of the jolly old Ministry of Justice where I stayed for many years in becoming engrossed in the business and inter-agency aspects of the work. Latterly in January 2016 I stepped sideways into my local authority from where I have just retired. Although I have had to believe it was a good move, I now question that.
It has not been very well planned
Although I have had a rough idea of the path I wanted to follow, I have never had a golden plan or been too slavish towards an identifiable career path. That’s not to say there has ever been a lack of commitment to any of my jobs, far from it. I have done each one because there was a real purpose to the job (especially the public sector jobs).
The best jobs have been the ones where I have had quite a lot of freedom; but freedom had to be earned and I always respected the freedom. Jobs which we too rigid turned out to be stressful and work-based stress does not lead to high performance. Arguably I used the freedom as a means of shedding the things I disliked (or not very good at) in favour of something new which needed developing which is where my strengths were. The golden years of freedom within my career has seen my involvement in a range of projects, shaping policy, travelling abroad on a prison education project, being consulted on a new prison concept, meeting senior civil servants, politicians, the Judiciary, cabinet members and even Royalty.
At my peak I was responsible for a fairly chunky and varied budget in the public sector. I had a variety of projects on the go at any one time. I liked the variety and working with other organisations with like-minded staff. Hopefully I’m not being too boastful when I say I was moderately successful. I also got a lot of job satisfaction from playing my part in making a difference in people’s lives and making our communities a little safer to live in.
My career isn’t over!
Although I have retired and indeed achieved some kind of FIRE status (that’s Financially Independent Retired Early), I don’t like to think of myself as being too retired.
Therefore I am in a position to choose what to do. I like the opportunity of getting my teeth stuck into something worthwhile and ideally in my local community. In the past I’ve been a school governor and also a director of a small charity in Hertfordshire. Now I have more time on my hands, I hope I can be of some use to some other organisations where I will be able to serve more diligently. Elsewhere on this blog I have talked about being more servant-hearted and the desire to be a better friend. I mean that, I really do and there has to be a purpose to my early retirement.
I’m also open to the odd spot of paid work, guest writing, ghost writing, seminars and so on. We’ll just have to see which doors open over the coming months and years; often one thing can lead to another.
You might have gathered I prefer not to over-plan things. While to some that may sound a bit wooly and un-business like, yes I suppose it could seem that way. Instead I prefer to think of it allowing for spontaneity, unexpected opportunities as all this makes life interesting and rewarding.
A while ago I posted an article on asking God why this was happening to me (here) and I keep coming back to this question. This is such a compelling time in my life – and perhaps my whole career. Although my salaried career is over, my career as a whole could be starting off in a whole new direction.
Any words of encouragement? Please leave a comment below.