Given my current circumstances and mindset this Guardian article about mid-life career changes is timely. I’m not convinced that a career change (or tweak) is the silver bullet for all that ails me but it is something I want to explore over the next few months.
Loosely I think my thoughts on the topic break into four broad areas – two reasonably unrealistic and two more like tweaking than anything radical.
- Write professionally. About where technology and the public sector meet I’d guess. I was once accused of being a ‘digital government commentator’ and while I doubt there is a living in that maybe something related.
- Build a business around my jobs newsletter and ‘hacking hiring’ stuff somehow (maybe with a sprinkling of working in the open in there). Jobs board, consultancy, training?
- Hang out my shingle as an adviser/coach for organisations struggling with digital – but focusing on charities, NGOs, education etc (not Government). The kind of thing CAST do.
- Get a mid-seniority product job somewhere I respect and just keep my head down and stop chasing seniority and influence.
What else? Well if the world ever reopens I’d still like to work somewhere else (Canada or NZ in particular) but I suspect that isn’t really an option anymore.
I don’t ever want to be based in London again – and if I’m in the UK I don’t really want to leave Bristol. Actually it is stronger than that. I’m not leaving Bristol (I mean I’ll visit places but if offices reopen I’m not going back to hotel living or AirBnB life 4 days a week.)
I don’t want to be a ‘contractor’. Related to the above.
If anybody feels like they have any insights they could share with me into those ideas (well 1-3 really – pretty sure I can handle 4 if need be) good or bad I’d love to chat – coffees, cuppas, cocktails on me 🙂 Just drop me a line.
Digital by Default 
2 responses to “What do I want to be when I grow up?”
Hi Jukesie 👋🏻
On 2 – starting a business around the jobs board. I’ve long thought that you could do it fairly easily, and it feels like a perfect side-hustle. The need for jobs isn’t going anywhere, so you’re not going to miss the boat – which means you can grow it small and steady, totally bootstrapped, at a pace that works for you. It also means you don’t have to chuck it all in – you can still find some work elsewhere to keep everything ticking over.
Congrats on the career break 🙂
You’d love the world of co-ops and I think you’d be a real asset to the CoTech network – either as a co-op founder or joining an existing one!