Corinne talks changing careers on BBC 5 Live

Corinne talks with Tony Livesey and Clare McDonnell on BBC 5 Live. Listen to their interesting debate on changing careers.

If you’d prefer to read the conversation, then we’ve included the transcript below too:

The debate starts discussing a listener who has taken the brave move to try something new in their career.

Presenter (Clare): He bit the bullet, he went off but it didn’t quite work out, what would you say to Walter?

Guest Expert (Corinne): Well done for having a go, I think sometimes people catastrophise a little bit. Oh you know if I give everything up, I try and start something else you know everything will fall around my ears. Well, actually your proof that you tried it and it didn’t quite work out as you hoped and you’ve gone back, but actually, you’ve not lost. You’ve gained new skills, you’ve gained new insight, and those experiences may well come into play later on in your career. So don’t think that’s a lost experience or a waste of time, it wasn’t.

Listener (Walter): Well thank you very much, I understand that. The idea of ‘if I didn’t give it a go’ would have been something that would have gnawed at me for years to come. The fact is that I did give it a go, and it didn’t quite work out as well as I wanted it to, but still I know that I gave it a go. I know that I haven’t got that nagging doubt in the back of my mind that I could be doing something else, if you know what I mean.

Presenter (Tony): A lot of people are texting the programme. One did 14 years in the army and then 4 years with the Prudential. I had enough of all the stress involved, so I set up my own business, a children’s indoor play area. 24 years on still going, great job satisfaction. Thanks for that text, no name on that. Now, let’s speak to Matt, who’s also got in touch with us.

Presenter (Tony): So you were a teacher for 20 years and then what did you do Matt?

Listener (Matt): I have been a teacher, I taught for 20 years. One Christmas party, a family Christmas party, my brother in law sent me a gadget he’d invented, which was a device to rock a baby’s pram or pushchair and he knew that I was a product design teacher, he wanted some help to develop this product. Literally the following week I gave up my teaching job and set up a business, and we designed a product called ‘Rock it’, which is a rocket-shaped baby rocker that fits any pram or pushchair and it gently rocks it so it’s mum or dad doesn’t have to.

Presenter (Tony): So, from what you’ve told us, it now sells in 40 countries around the world.

Listener (Matt): Yeah, yep that was just over 2 years ago, and we launched it last year, and we’ve sold over 35,000.

Presenter (Tony): We’ve got a minute left Matt, so the thing I take from that is the quick decision you took, you gave up your career pretty early, a lot of us would have maybe soldiered on and do a bit of both whilst thinking, i’ll try and keep all my plates spinning but you knew straight away, you made that decision.

Listener (Matt): Yeah, I was ready to make that change, and I just thought if I don’t do it now, I’ll never do it! So I took the plunge and haven’t looked back really. As much as I loved the teaching, I love this job even more.

Presenter (Tony): Well, Matt good luck for the future. Matt Dyson there the man behind ‘Rock It’. And, Corinne Mills, thank you too.

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