Fate has had a large part to play, but my shift is happening

Well, things are moving on at quite a pace for me. I’m doing it. I am actually shifting careers. For real.

I feel I have lots of gaps to fill since my last shiftlog but to save you all from a long rambling post, I will summarise with a few landmarks …

- In a strange twist of fate, a redundancy consultation was opened at work. Somehow, out of this dismal opportunity I saw an opportunity.

- After some consideration, I decided to be brave and do what made sense; I put my hand up and took voluntary redundancy.

- Since 1 August I have officially been self-employed, combining offering flexible freelance marketing support to businesses (www.laurajanejohnson.co.uk) with having more time and flexibility to find freelance journalism work too (www.laurajanewrites.co.uk).

- I spent a fantastic week on a residential feature writing course run by the Arvon Foundation, learning lots from two great journalists (Leo Hickman of The Guardian and Anthony Clavane of The Sunday Mirror).

- An article I wrote following an interview with the owner of my local ice-cream parlour (www.sweet-creams.co.uk) was printed in my local newspaper last week.

- Best of all, today I submitted to an editor my first proper, commissioned article. And I’m going to get paid for it!

It’s all very exciting. I’ve still got a long way to go but I’m feeling positive.

I know next week could be tough and full of rejections but I’ve decided to take the rough with the smooth, and whole-heartedly celebrate and enjoy any career shift success while it lasts.

Laura