My career started literally the Monday after I finished doing my O Levels at High School, I took my last exam on the Friday and started work on the Monday morning.... as a very young, and naive teenager, going out to work for the very first time. The start of my career adventure. 

I decided that College and University weren’t for me (I didn’t actually know much about them at High School). 

My first job was as a Junior Invoice Clerk with a small family run business in Lytham St. Annes, I can remember being sat in an office which was very similar to being in a school classroom, with the Head of the Department at the top table, like a teacher (and she really was – she used to ‘shush’ anyone who spoke). I lived in a bit of fear in those days! 

I progressed in the same company a year later to a Junior Typist and studied Pitman Shorthand at Night School and gained my qualification, and then I thought about progressing with a bigger, more local company, as a Secretary, so I saw an opportunity, had an interview and was successful. I stayed with that same company for 25 years, progressing to Secretary / . supporting a Commercial Director. I was fortunate enough to have maternity leave and also a career break, which took me to Texas, . with my husband’s career (another story!). That was an amazing experience which I look back on very fondly, and feel very privileged to have had.

On returning to the UK, my company had held a job vacancy open for me, which was based within another area but it was a part-time Secretarial role which suited me to the ground, and I started working within another much smaller team, soon getting to know everyone. Unfortunately, the Department’s role within the business came to an end, and I was then offered another Secretarial role in the IT Department ,so I joined this much bigger team, and learnt new skills alongside my general secretarial tasks. 

I realised how much I enjoyed using my organisational skills and it was something I can say I was good at! I liked the interaction with other people, and also working as part of a wider team…. There was a buzz about working in a large office, where everyone knew everyone else, although sometimes that’s not a good thing lol! 

In 2015, after 25 years with the same company, I realised that the culture of the business had changed so much and so had I! I had started to feel like I wasn’t valued the same way, and wasn’t enjoying what I was doing any more, it felt more like a chore than something I enjoyed doing. At this time, my brother had chatted with me about a new venture and I decided to take the amazing opportunity he gave me, to join him, and help to start up and run a Job Board literally from scratch (his baby). Initially I didn’t know much about job boards as I had been sheltered in a large organisation for so many years, but I can say I have loved every day, being creative and still using the same organisation skills from my previous roles, but I have learnt so much more and I’m still learning!