Your future is a blank… canvas

1985, 5th year Seniors, pre-‘O’ levels (that’s year 11, pre-GCSEs in new money).

Happy, carefree, and blissfully directionless, I attended the obligatory careers advice session to help inspire and guide me towards my future career.

The youngest of five, all my siblings had either settled into, or were studying for, their chosen careers – scientist, chartered accountant, trainee nurse and aspiring teacher.

I, on the other hand, was utterly clueless.

I filled in the cascade questionnaire… from memory it went something like this:

Do you enjoy structure and routine? No

Are you interested in caring for others? No

Would you enjoy an office-based job? No

Do you have attention to detail? Hell no!

And so, it went on.

Finally completed, it was processed through the big white computer. Watching with anticipation, the computer began to clunk out its results at an excruciatingly snail-like pace. Finally, at a stop, the career advisor ceremoniously ripped the computer paper off the machine. I was ready for the great reveal.

“Oh”, she said, “That’s never happened before”.

“It’s blank! You have no career matches”

So that was the end of that!

This feeling of being adrift stuck with me for a long time. My hopes and dreams for a career I really loved didn’t match the world I lived or worked in.

Yet the blank slowly became the blank canvas. It might not have been instant, painless or predictable, but this girl with the zero matches started marking her blank canvas, and created her own perfect match.

Curious Alice, a match made by me, for me and my clients.

#blankcanvas #perfectmatch #thisgirlcan #careers #findyourway