I’ve quit my day job.

Well I quit it 3 weeks ago…

I’ve been toying with the idea of becoming a writer full time for a while now, and the coronavirus lockdowns have given me that push to do so.

For the last 10 years, I’ve taken calls and sounded off the classic IT Crowd soundbite;

“Have you tried turning it off and on again?”
_{(it works 9/10 times)}

I progressed rapidly to ‘Systems Engineer’, which is not to be sniffed at in the tech world, especially when you don’t have a degree. My job description included corporate policy writing and interviewing candidates for roles within my department. I started appearing on cyber security panels, penning articles for LinkedIn and training our staff, all while writing documentation to accompany everything.

Until September 2020.

The world was pulling it’s shutters down after a brief period of false hope that the pandemic might be over. I had managed to slide through the metaphorical gap in the door in an Indiana Jones style escape (though sadly without the hat) to Iceland, and had been zooming around the ring road in a van for a few weeks.

I’d not stopped that day for much, just trying to get to the next location while the freezing rain cascaded down the outside of the van. I was listening to an audio book, I was quite tired, only getting out of the warm van occasionally to look at some cool roadside views of waterfalls, egged on by the rain.

In a moment of crystal clear, if not slightly chilly clarity, I realised I wasn’t enjoying my job anymore. I need a career change. I’ve written as a hobby for years as I love it. Writing things in a creative way, especially if I can sneak a pun into the sentence, fills my heart with joy.

As soon as I got back from Iceland, I enrolled in a course with the London School of Journalism, and gave myself a target of 1st March. If I still want to quit, I will quit and try and make it as a writer.

So here I am. Still learning and ready to put 100% into it.

As I’ve started on this journey, getting to know how to find jobs, pitch places for articles and find stories, I’ve found some hurdles I wasn’t expecting, so in this series, I will be sharing my challenges and triumphs.

It’s a scary prospect to change careers when you’re so established in one. Let’s see what happens.