Today marks one year since my redundancy from Bletchley Park. ⅓ of the workforce was in the same boat (notably, ⅔ of the Learning Team, following the general narrative of education being hit particularly hard with redundancies across the cultural sector). I was lucky in being able to walk straight into two part-time teaching roles within days of leaving, but many struggled to find work in a highly competitive sector with drastically reduced funding.
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| This was taken a couple of days after my redundancy came into effect! |
Since then, aside from my teaching roles (one of which I still occupy) I have completed a number of projects as a freelancer. Looking back over the year I am astonished by the range of things I have done, both independently and with my ex-BP Learning dream-team colleagues (and friends) Catherine and Kate, who were made redundant alongside me.
I've completed projects with Potential Plus UK, the University of Northampton, the Open University, Museums Sheffield and the Sheffield Industrial Museums Trust, the Leicestershire County Council Museums Service, the University of Nottingham's Museum of Archaeology and Lakeside Arts Centre, and others. I'm currently working on a project with GEM, and about to get started on another with the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
Alongside all this I've presented at a conference, made new contacts and connections, and completed the first year of my Master's in Education with a Distinction grade in all assignments.
It's been a tough, busy, interesting and very satisfying year, and much of it would never happened had I not been made redundant. Choosing to go back to teaching part-time was terrifying, but it was a gamble I'm glad I committed to.
My intention, here, is not to show off (although I am proud of myself): it is primarily to record what I feel is a milestone in my own life. Secondarily, it's potentially a datapoint towards confirming the hypothesis that Things Can Change: I've broken somewhat free of the traditional nine-to-five; I am, at least for part of the week, my own boss. All it took, in the end, was the kick up the proverbial that my redundancy provided.
Thirdly, I'd really like to hear the stories of other people who were hit by the Great Cultural Sector Jobs Implosion of 2020 (especially other educators), either privately or in the comments:
- Are you freelancing too? Feel free to describe what you do and post a website link or contact details.
- Did you find another job? How? What and where?
- Are you still trying to figure things out? Do you have plans that have not yet come to fruition? What are they?
- What are the main lessons that you have learnt from the whole experience?
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Awesome! So glad to hear that things have worked out for you. I actually moved out of the museums sector prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, because I couldn't find a job within a commutable distance and I wasn't willing to relocate. And I wasn't made redundant, but I was furloughed (with a threat of redundancy at the end), which spurred me on to gain some training in proofreading and copyediting while doing some freelance work as a content writer, editor and proofreader, resulting in my first ever full time editing role in the online learning sector. One year on from that, I'm soon going to be moving into a new job in the publishing sector.
ReplyDeleteI've learned that careers don't have to be fixed, linear things and it doesn't matter what path you take, as long as it works for you and you keep working towards where you want to be.