30+ and Careerless: From Corporate to Carefree

It feels odd at 30 to respond with ‘I’m unemployed’ when people ask me what I do. They seem even more surprised when I tell them that it’s by choice. But after having a whole host of careers, I realised it was time to step back and really look at how I want to spend my life. My current situation has made me reflect a lot on the different jobs I’ve had over the years and what I’ve gained from them, but also the bit’s that I know I want to stay clear of in the future.

Headfirst into the Corporate World

Back in 2012 when I graduated from uni, I went straight onto a graduate scheme at a FTSE 100 company. I was very close to traveling around South America with school friends, but at the time, the pressure to find a ‘good’ job was too much and I felt like I couldn’t turn the opportunity down. It was the first year they’d ran a graduate scheme and there were definitely a few teething problems. I gained a huge amount of experience and qualifications in the two years I was there, but the best thing to come out of it was meeting my best friend. My final placement before I called it a day was working in site mobilisation, which meant travelling up and down the country and living out of hotels. At the time, me and my then boyfriend had just moved in together, so it wasn’t the most ideal situation. The constant travel and ambiguity of the role led me to look elsewhere and I ended up finding myself an administration job, supporting a graduate scheme at another big company.

To begin with, I was overwhelmed with the happy, bubbly culture and a new exciting job. I quickly worked my way up, and after a few promotions I was looking after employee engagement (mainly those annoying surveys HR send out asking how much you enjoy working where you work) for over 40k employees. Unfortunately, the culture wasn’t quite as shiney on the inside as it looked on the outside and I was surrounded by people who lived to work. Their whole lives revolved around their jobs and I quickly realised this wasn’t the environment for me. After months of sleepless nights, tears and stress, I handed in my notice and decided to take a step away from the corporate world.

Toddlers and Time

Whilst working through my notice period, I spent every evening trying to figure out what to do next. I wrote lists, researched and read until I stumbled upon an apprenticeship nursery nurse placement at a nursery down the road. It was something completely new and certainly would be a challenge, but I’d babysat a lot when I was younger and helped out at local kids clubs, so had plenty of hands-on experience. I thoroughly enjoyed being back in an educational environment and learning new skills and it was so nice to be able to switch off at the end of the day and not have to worry about meetings or planning for presentations.

The biggest downside to the nursery was the long hours. Whilst training, I worked four days and went to college every other wednesday, but we worked 8-6, which when you’re on your feet all day entertaining 2 year olds, is pretty exhausting. I decided to make another move to something that would give me more me time and went for a teaching assistant job at a local primary school. By this point, my pay was less than a third of what it was when I was working in corporate, but between me and my then husband, we had more than enough. However, shortly after taking on this new job, we seperated. I’d never considered having to entirely support myself, but I also knew I didn’t want to go back into the corporate world. Instead, I just made adjustments to how I lived my life (You can check out my posts on ‘living on less‘ and ‘adventuring on the cheap‘ for how I’ve done this).

Escaping to the Coast

Eventually we sold the house and I realised I didn’t really have any ties to where I was. I was looking around for inspiration on what to do next and came across a three month outdoor instructor course in Cornwall. I couldn’t sleep that night trying to decide whether I could really justify spending so much, if I was brave enough to up and move to the other end of the country, if I could push myself that far out of my comfort zone. The next day I booked it and it turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made (You can read my post ‘How the Sea Saves Me: My Year in Cornwall’ here).

Though I quickly knew instructing wasn’t for me, I loved the lifestyle and ended up staying down in Cornwall for a year. I worked part time in a local cafe and went out exploring as often as I could. I was able to go for a swim almost every morning and met some amazing people along the way. I absolutely loved this slower kind of living and now having lived off such a small income for so long and still managing to save, I feel no pressure to jump back to a corporate 9-5.

What Comes Next?

I knew it was time to head back up North, with a strong pull to the Lake’s. All my family are up North, along with a lot of my close friend,s and Cornwall is also so far away from everywhere! I’m currently back at my parents whilst trying to figure out what I want to do workwise. I am very grateful that I’m able to take this time to work out my next steps and not have to rush into something just to pay the bills.

I have realised that I only want to work part time and ideally something that relates to the outdoors. I have been applying for remote jobs, but also some ‘live-in’ opportunities in the Lake district. The majority of people spend such a high proportion of their time working, that I want to make sure I’m doing something I enjoy and has a wider benefit.

I’m really excited to be attending the Adventure Mind conference in November, which is focussed around the links between adventure and wellbeing. I’m really hoping that this will introduce me to some experts in the field and potentially give me some inspiration as to where to go next!

A Little Extra on the Side

In between applying for jobs, there are a few ways that I’ve been earning a little to cover the odd bits and pieces, without having to eat into my savings:

Survey sites: I’m a sucker for a survey site and have tried them all. My favourite, and the one I make the most from, is Prolific – however there is currently a waiting list to join the panel. The other site I am currently using is Branded Surveys. It can be a little frustrating as you get screened out a lot, but the payout threshold is low and you can quite quickly build up your bonuses.

Instagram: I get paid work through instagram now and then, including creating content for brands, or posting about specific products. It’s very sporadic, but usually pays well, so I try to put this money straight into savings when it comes in.

Affiliate links: Throughout my blog posts I often use affiliate links whenever I mentioned products (always highlighted in the post). From these I can get a small amount if someone makes a purchase. I also have a storefront on amazon that links to the products I use on a regular basis, this again works on affiliate links.

Savings: When I sold my house, all of my money went into savings. Personally, I’m very excited for interest rates to be rising as this also gives me a little extra income each month.

Selling: I have a LOT of stuff that I need to get rid of, so I’ve been sorting through and putting bits on facebook, ebay and vinted. Though they all seem like small amounts, it can quickly add up.

So far this month I’ve made over £800 from a mix of the above. This is not the average and usually I would make less, but I’ve had a a lot of time on my hands and often get survey alerts whilst writing blogs and applying for jobs.

I’m trying my best to just enjoy this time I have, get outside and spend time with the people I care about. Some day’s it’s hard to not feel guilty for not working, but I’m confident that things will work out and that the right thing will come along at the right time.

Happy Adventuring! x