Back into full time employment

It's been almost a year since I wrote my last blog about my career shift journey. I had set out to find a place or a mentor where I could learn the art of business and start to make some serious money. Here's how it's been going...

I started the summer by jumping aboard the Chocstar festival tour, joining Petra and her renegade crew. We sold icecreams, brownies and milkshakes to festival goers all over the southern fields of England from Womad to the Big Chill. I love life in a field, living out of a tent, surrounded by music and messy revellers - I'm in my element and knew that this might be the last time I'd be able to do it so savoured the experience. They were happy, hazy days - a blur of chocolate, mud and merriment.

As the summer came to an end I moved back to London and continued a patchwork of jobs - running Spanish workshops, spurts of work in an events office, I made ceramic jewelry that I sold at Christmas, joined my mate Simon in his Mexican van selling burritos at Whitecross market. And all the while hammering away at Careershifters to find the business in it with the rest of the team.

I loved it all, but was still living on a shoestring and the romance of poverty was beginning to wear thin. Finally I had to face facts - for all the fun and fulfilment I was enjoying, something had to change - this wasn't a sustainable lifestyle.

My new year's resolution was that by May I would be in a full time job with a healthy salary. I had a goal, but despite having spent 18 months of trying out all sorts of ways to make money I didn't feel any closer to knowing what I wanted to do.

By January, my financial situation was getting critical and I started to panic. Big time. Lots of tears and sleepless nights.

But I have good friends around me that helped me through it. Simon made space for me on the Mexi van so that I could work while job searching. Other friends helped calm me down when I went into a spin, helped me edit my CV and there were plenty of eyes and ears out there flagging up interesting jobs for me. I wasn't alone and that was an important thing to remember.

I started to research work environments and companies that had a spirit and personality that attracted me - Innocent Smoothies, Whatif!, UnLtd - and I went and checked out their jobs boards. I browsed job sites like ethical jobs, charity jobs and sent off my CV.

A few interviews and job offers came and went and in the process I learnt more about what I wanted and didn't want. The ball was rolling. I was developing an ever stronger sense of what I wanted from a job:

I wanted to be able to use my best strengths and skills, become an expert in a field that inspired me. I wanted to join an established company where there was opportunity to grow, learn and move up in roles of responsibility and salary. I wanted to find a company whose values reflected my own. I wanted to work in an environment that was supportive and nurturing and where I could really bring my personality to a role. And as always I remained open to what that role would be and where I'd find it.

Finally a recruitment company was recommended to me by Sonia - one of our Careershifters coaches. It was called the SG Group. I loved the site, I loved the fresh approach and spirit of the company and I became a regular visitor. The company intrigued me more and more. It reminded me so much of the spirit and character of Careershifters - there seemed to be real passion behind the business and its ethos. One day I wandered into the 'careers with us' section. It was all there - a job as a career consultant for SG group ticked every box on my wish list.

If I was going to go back into full time employment then this was the job I wanted.

So the next step was to get it...