To round off the year, we speak to James Lewindon, Head of Client Development UK at Pinsent Masons Vario, the global law firm and alternative legal services provider. Although he started out as a history teacher, James has built a strikingly varied, ‘squiggly’ career: from working for a newspaper and entrepreneurship skills programmes in schools, to leading a science centre team building exhibits, moving into management consulting within a global law firm, launching and scaling a legal resourcing business, serving as a CEO in a legal employment and training business, to now joining Pinsent Masons Vario in 2025.

James’ story shows us that a long-term career plan isn’t always essential for a fulfilling career. Driven by a fear of “Groundhog Day,” James moves on when the sense of challenge fades, shaping a path that plays to his strengths and preferred environments. Rather than pursuing a fixed-end career goal, he prefers to seek roles that offer stability, but also the space to grow, learn, experiment, and create. In this episode, we also explore imposter syndrome, the experience of redundancy, and the power of asking your network for feedback and support along the way.

It was a real pleasure to speak to previous client and career changer, Rajiv Chande, this month. Rajiv spent over 13 years working in Counterparty and Credit Risk at Barclays and Bank of America. He’s now the co-founder of The Chande Project, a wellbeing and connection-focused events business, and currently sits on the Board Risk Committee for the Dharma Endowment Fund. While building his purpose-led venture, Rajiv is also exploring how to apply his previous risk management experience to the growing field of sustainability and ESG risk.Rajiv talks authentically about why he got into banking, and how disconnection, and burnout prompted him to hand his notice in 13 years later - with no job to go to. A period of travelling, self-reflection, career coaching, and vulnerable conversations with his cousin eventually led him to a new career path more aligned with his values and life purpose. We hear how challenging it can be to balance the needs of the practical ‘head' with the gut instincts of the ‘heart’ - especially when it comes to starting your own business, having been trained to assess risk your whole career!

At the crux of it, career change boils down to a difficult decision-making challenge. With so many job options these days, deciding what we want to do next can feel confusing and overwhelming. This month, we explore the decision-making process with decision expert, Michelle Florendo. Michelle is a Stanford-trained Decision Engineer and Executive Coach who is on a mission to teach people how to make decisions with less stress and more clarity. She has spoken to audiences around the world about how to use principles from decision science to grow their impact.In this episode, we hear about the three essential parts of effective decision making, and, therefore, how to approach a career change choice. Common mistakes and barriers to making a good decision are discussed, as well as ways to overcome these. If you’re facing a tough career decision in your life, this is the episode for you.

This month, we hear from career changer Joe Mercy-Marshall. Joe was an aspiring professional musician, who worked all manner of jobs, including hospitality, banking, care work, clinical research, and university lecturing, before finally finding his vocation as an Advertising Strategist.Joe discusses how hard it can be to let go of a career you’ve spent many years working towards. He tried several jobs before figuring out what he wanted to do. Even then, it took an Advertising insider (now his wife!) to inform him that the skillset he loved so much was known as 'strategy’ within the industry. Joe highlights how beneficial making connections and applying to companies speculatively can be in getting that first role in a new field. Joe also shares his passion for the creative advertising process, and where he sees his career going next

In this episode, we speak to Amanda, who has been a Teacher for 18 years. Amanda is currently a part-time Assistant Head and Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) at a Primary School in London. Through coaching, she identified a new career she wanted to work towards. As a result, Amanda is now one year in to a three year Acupuncture course, which she is thoroughly enjoying.Amanda discusses how useful it was for her decision making to speak to professionals doing the jobs she was interested in, and how pivotal the support has been from her employer, and friends and family. Whilst changing career can be hard work and relentless (especially when working and raising a young family at the same time), Amanda highlights the benefits of it. She also clarifies the essential shifts in perspective that meant her limiting beliefs and fears didn’t hold her back from contemplating a career change. With coaching playing a clear role, we hear what else helped Amanda along the way - the ability to focus on the present being one of the key factors.

This month we chat to Shelby Fields, whose varied career has seen her move between different sectors, work models, and continents. She’s led teams, managed projects, and built operations in everything from humanitarian charities and Big Four consulting, to creative start-ups and small wellness businesses. She now heads the Data and Tech function at a research and development funding agency. At the start of her career shift journey, Shelby thought she needed a big career change. However, through coaching, it became apparent that what she really wanted to do was to take her current skillset into more fulfilling environments related to her interests. In order to do this, Shelby needed to get more comfortable with uncertainty to allow her to experiment with freelance work and moving to the US. We hear about the importance of connections in making things happen, and how it’s OK not to know your next move.

It’s a great pleasure to hear from Hannah Gregory this month. Hannah began her career working at a fashion magazine publisher in their advertising sales team. She then moved to a business and finance newspaper to work in their brand partnerships team. 3 years ago, Hannah made the jump out of the corporate publishing world, joining a start-up (dedicated to empowering women, businesses, and female entrepreneurs) as their Strategic Partnerships Director. She kindly speaks to us 8 months into her maternity leave.Hannah discusses how coaching helped her understand what the key priorities were for her when considering a change in career. It became apparent that her goal to start her own fashion business might need to wait - sometimes it’s just a matter of timing. In the meantime, Hannah found a way to have purpose, autonomy, and creativity in her career by working for a company she really believes in, in a role where she can see the real difference it makes for female founders. Hannah’s story is a great example of how a shift in career doesn’t always have to be huge to feel meaningful. Sometimes it’s simply a change of industry or skill set that’s needed.

This month’s episode is with Nick Armstrong, career changer and founder of Avint-Garde Fine Wine — an online wine merchant harnessing technology to deliver value on world-class wines. Nick’s journey to the wine industry is a remarkable one. After graduating from university, he served as a captain in the U.S. Army before earning his MBA. He then embarked on a career in finance, joining a global investment bank. Most recently, Nick spearheaded business development across the Americas for the world’s foremost wine trading platform — an experience that positioned him perfectly to launch his own wine venture earlier this year.From Nick, we learn the power and importance of networking when it comes to learning about a new industry and creating new opportunities. He advocates for having a plan before quitting a job, even if it’s just a short term one detailing those first few steps. With family life an important priority, Nick is now at a point in his career where mornings with his two children are far less stressful, thanks to running his own business. Although, as most founders can relate to, it can be hard to switch off when it’s your own thing.