Chasing Fulfilment
I had now worked in corporate finance for almost a decade. It was no longer giving me the same enjoyment and sense of purpose that it had done. I have to be honest, my heart was no longer in it and it was impacting my ability to be great at my job. I needed a change. Not just to another financial institution — a career shake up.
So I moved to work in the Not-For-Profit industry. I ended up with an amazing job, the best I had ever had. I lead a world class team, I travelled internationally to give presentations in digital best practice and, most importantly, I felt like I was really making a difference.
How did I make this change: I did some soul-searching. I knew I wanted something different, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on what that was. So I decided to not focus on it too much, and see if the answer found me — let the universe guide me so to speak. One day I was in a bookstore and just happened to start browsing through the book Goodvertising by Thomas Kolster. Advertising that Cares — the idea just made so much sense to me. That day I started considering the NFP sector. That was all I needed to be on the next right path.
Chasing Lifestyle
I imagined that I would have children one day. My boyfriend (the software developer) was now my husband. I just couldn’t see myself working in a corporate job with young children. So I worked again on reinventing my career. This time it was with a significant change.
I began teaching night classes at university part time. I did this for 5 years before I had my first child. 5 years of working a full time corporate job and teaching night classes. It was hard. It was a lot of work. 5 years before I was able to leave corporate marketing and work just on teaching (and move to day classes). One of the best moves I have ever made; it gave me the option to focus on raising my small children while still keeping my hand in. 13 years since I first started and I still work at the same university.
How did I make this change: The hardest part about this one was finding this path — working out what was going to be the right course, how I could leverage my skills and find a job with flexibility. I didn’t know anyone else who had done this. So what moved me into this direction? Firstly, I had just completed a Masters so university was still top of mind. Secondly, my mother had been a teacher (high school) so the idea of teaching wasn’t completely foreign to me. I did a lot of thinking and it took a lot of courage to make this change. It has been the biggest change in my career so far. Once I had made the decision, I approached my alma mater and transitioned into this space.
Chasing Freedom
Fast forward 7 years since I took a sabbatical from my corporate career, and I have built a successful career teaching classes, lecturing and developing subjects at university. Then the time came for me to start building something new. Something that gave me the flexibility I needed with a young family as well as the ability to be financially successful. Again time for another big change. Time to start my own business. The scariest change of them all.
How did I make this change: I started small. I thought about what I really wanted out of life — I wanted time and financial freedom. I wanted to travel, work from anywhere, reach people all around the globe and most importantly I wanted to be there for my family. The only way I could see this happening was working for myself. I have watched my Dad and my husband run their own successful businesses — so I knew the work that goes into it as well as what the outcome could be if it worked.
I also knew it was the only way in my current stage to truly find what all these career shifts have been about: happiness.
