Grab your reading specs and get ready for part four of the ‘Interview With…’ mini series! Hopefully you enjoyed parts one, two and three. Today we meet Sarah Ward, a Careers Advisor working in South Tyneside. Sarah is another beautiful soul that I’ve had the joy of sharing an office with in the past. She’s an absolute gem and guaranteed to make anyone smile. Read on for Sarah’s career journey…into careers! 1.What’s your name, age and what do you do? Sarah, 37 and I am careers advisor working within the South Tyneside area. I provide bespoke 121 and group session Careers Information Advice and Guidance (CIAG) to both employed and…

This is part three of my ‘Interview With…’ career mini series – I hope you’ve enjoyed the other two interviews with Olivia Tilley, a Quantity Surveyor and Sophie Richardson, a Small Business Owner. In today’s post we meet Stephen McClean, a Contracts Manager working in the Construction Industry. Our first Interviewee Olivia also works in Construction so for those not familiar with the industry, it’s great to gain a bit of an insight into roles like Stephen’s and Olivia’s. Thanks for sharing your journey Stephen! 1.What’s your name, age and what do you do? Stephen McClean, I’m 48 years old and I’m Contracts Manager for Esh Civils, a regional civil…

Welcome to part two of my mini-series on careers! I really hope you enjoyed the first one – if you haven’t read it, check it out here – where I interviewed Olivia Tilley, a Quantity Surveyor working in the construction industry. Our next interviewee is a small business owner and practically my family – say hello to Sophie Richardson. Sophie owns Charlton’s Florist in Crook, County Durham (give her a follow on Facebook) and here is her story. 1. What’s your name, age and what do you do? My name is Sophie-Jean Richardson, I’m 23 years old and I own a Florist in Crook, Co.Durham. I currently arrange and sell…

This is the first of a small series of blogs exploring the real life career journeys of some of my friends and colleagues (past and present). As an adult, I’ve found there to be very little information on changing careers and the choices available to me. I can’t speak for everyone but I feel that some careers are out of reach because I don’t know enough about them and the different routes that would get me into them. I love Google more than anything but it doesn’t have ALL of the answers. I hope that you, my lovely reader, find this useful and interesting even if you don’t wish to…

If I asked you ‘how do you measure success?’ or ‘what makes someone successful to you?’, I wonder how you would answer. Would it be the amount of money someone makes, their job role, the size of their house or the make of their car? Or maybe something like how many kids they have? For me, it’s a difficult one to answer with success and the notion of ‘doing well’ being something that I have struggled with and that has impacted my mental health for years. I think because I never really knew what I wanted to do after school, I didn’t have a specific goal in mind for my…