Victor Edmunds

Age at time of shift

37

Gender

Male

Education level

College

Universities attended

N/A

Shifted from

Senior Manager, Structured Finance, City

Location

?

Salary

£75,000-£100,000

Years in old career

4

Shifted to

Founder & CEO Charity start up

Location

?

Salary

£30,000-£40,000

Years in new career

?

Year of shift

2002

What was your role in your old job?

Project managing large corporate financings.

What is/are your new role(s)?

Developing and putting into place a vision and charitable project which is my own for social change in the health sector.

Why did you change?

Motivated by issues in the family, but also by an increasing desire to make a difference.

Are you happy with the change?

Yes.

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

I miss

1. the social time I had during a 8-6 Monday to Friday regime - I have much less time now due to pressures of my project
2. whilst money is not a motivator, I do miss the larger salary.

I don't miss

1. Being constantly disturbed in the office
2. A few irritating team members at my old firm!
3. Corporate politics, attitudes and greed.

How did you go about making the change?

1. I wrote a detailed vision and strategic plan for the project and did some significant feasibility to test this before resigining from my previous job;
2. saved up enough money to sustain myself without salary for three years;
3. asked my girlfriend if the change would be acceptable to her;
4. went to a well respected career specialist for aptitude testing for my planned change of career.

What was the most difficult thing about changing?

Making the decision to give up such a secure and well paid job. Despite planning the whole move with my girlfriend, to be fair the impact was hard for her to imagine, with the reality of the long hours and relentless pressure taking its toll on our relationship.

What help did you get?

My previous employer did pay me for nearly 12 months when I resigned as a type of sponsorship or secondment which was amazing. Once I got going, I also secured the support and help of some key players in the charitable world. In recent times I have been assisted by the UnLtd Millennium Awards Scheme.

What have you learnt in the process?

I was given some wise words early in my campaign by an experienced business leader which turned out to be 100% accurate - "No-one will make this happen for you. You have to create it yourself".

What do you wish you'd done differently?

Mistakes are made, but in a way this is part of the project, and the learning process - there is no road map for projects such as mine. The one thing that I would have done better is to plan for things to take maybe two to three times longer. This is particularly true I feel in the charity sector.

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

If you decide that it is your life purpose to do something, research, plan, save up, ask loved ones for their support and commitment, and then go for it, but get ready for some incredibly hard, and at many times lonely, work.
No project of any size can be delivered without times of worry, and indeed long periods when you think that it may fail. Be tenacious and couragous, and keep checking that the project is still feasible and that it is also still your current life purpose to do it.