Blake Ludwig

Age at time of shift

46

Gender

Male

Education level

Graduate

Universities attended

UCLA; CSU, Fullerton; UC, Boulder

Shifted from

IT Consultant

Location

London

Salary

£20,000-£30,000

Years in old career

7

Shifted to

Co-founder & Director of Alliance Against 4x4s

Location

London

Salary

£0-£20,000

Years in new career

1

Year of shift

2006

What was your role in your old job?

I was a purchasing analyst on the Accenture Enablement team, purchasing / organising software and hardware for over 9,000 internal employees.

What is/are your new role(s)?

As a co-founder and director for the Alliance Against Urban 4x4s, I am learning all about fundraising, as well as providing interviews fror the media and planning the next direction of our campaign. I am increasingly in touch with other groups around the UK and networking with potential partners in Europe.

Why did you change?

After 7 years my contract was not renewed. I had needed a change for a few years, as I was not being engaged as a thinking developing and caring individual.

Are you happy with the change?

Yes - I don't miss Accenture at all. I'm happy because I'm allowed to think about life again, and have the flexibility to do things out of the blue. The office environment at the Hub has been very supportive and colleagues there have helped me to incubate my ideas into action.

What do you miss and what don't you miss?

I miss the regular paycheck, and the team that I worked with. However I don't miss the sterility of the management structure or the overwhelming sluggishness of a large multinational company.

How did you go about making the change?

The change was forced on me on one level, but I had already made the move psychologically years before. When it came I trusted inherently that it was time to move on to something new.

What was the most difficult thing about changing?

Being without a regular pattern. Suddenly I had time on my hands to fill.

What help did you get?

Luckily I had a temp office space already in the Hub. This gave me a good creative space with people around to help me get started in a new direction.

What have you learnt in the process?

Life doesn't actually work in a linear or necessarily logical way. It's important to follow the things we're interested in and see where that leads. It's important to trust life much more than we do. And there are a lot of people out there who can help with advice, ideas, connections.

What do you wish you'd done differently?

I wish I had left Accenture years before.

What would you advise others to do in the same situation?

I'd suggest people really ask themselves what job it is that they would like to be doing, not from a career ladder approach, but from a 'what makes sense of my life' approach.