Do Something Different with your Career

“If you want something in your life to change, you need to #DoSomethingDifferent”

At Futures, we believe that your future is in your hands. That means that it is up to you to make positive changes towards achieving your dreams – and that probably means that you need to do something different – whether it’s a small change, or something bigger.

Doing something different might be as simple as uploading your CV for a free review, before making any bigger decisions. But you might be looking to develop new skills through adult training courses, or maybe an apprenticeship to change the direction of your career.

Change can be scary, and we know from experience that career journeys don’t always go to plan. In fact, many of our own people are now in vastly different roles or circumstances than they were in at the start of their career. We think that having that experience means that our advisers are better placed to support you when giving careers advice.

We believe that our own experiences help to shape our service and add value when giving you advice on your skills, career and education. To demonstrate this, we will be sharing stories from our staff members who have been through career changes or dealt with situations which have affected their career paths in some way.

To demonstrate this, we asked our colleagues to share their stories.

Mustak Ahmed, Careers Adviser

Mustak's working life began in Goa, India, where he supplied bread at 6AM from the age of 13. He completed the Indian equivalent of GCSE's but could not afford to continue his education, so he began working as a fisherman. This meant that he could save up and complete the equivalent of A-Levels. After a further three years in this job, Mustak paid for his sisters' weddings and had saved enough money to fund his degree.

After graduating, he worked weekends on ships, loading and unloading barrels of oil, until becoming Depot Area Manager. Alongside this, Mustak joined a newspaper as a Freelance Reporter, a passion he continued to work on as he completed his Law degree and left the shipping industry five years later.

Mustak held many jobs during life in Goa, including Liason Officer, Consultant at a publicity firm, and Junior at a Solicitors, all while continuing his passion of reporting on the crime beat.

At the age of 40, Mustak and his wife moved to the UK, where he found work as a door-to-door salesman for Npower. Following this, Mustak joined ANC Express at Meridian Business as a Warehouse Operative and began studying a Level 4 Certificate in Advice at Leicester University, in which he achieved a Distinction.

he then moved to PB Logistics, where he worked as an Administrator, while volunteering at Next Step (now the National Careers Service) at the Leicester Office one day per week as an Information Adviser.

This led to Mustak joining Next Step as part of a job share, a paid role, for three days per week and allowing him to leave the Administrator role at PB Logistics. At this point, Mustak was offered a case loading project at the Bangladesh Youth and Cultural Shomiti, an organisation which worked with Next Step to deliver the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund contract, which meant that Mustak could work with both organisations effectively.

Since 2006, Mustak has worked his way up to be a Guidance Advisor, he continues to work part time at Futures (four days a week) while still dedicating one day a week to his community and voluntary work. Currently, Mustak works at the Somali Service on his day off.

Paul Price-Hazlehurst

Growing up, Paul Price-Hazlehurst had dreams of joining the police force. He was accepted into the Police Academy, before an injury sustained while playing rugby meant that he would need to pursue an alternative career route.

At age 16, Paul began working for Vesuvius, in Worksop, as a Quality Technician in the steel industry. He remained with this company for 14 years, eventually becoming Technical Manager.

Paul’s ‘do something different’ moment came whilst studying towards a qualification in IT, when presented with the opportunity to step in and deliver some of the training to the rest of his class. Paul found that he enjoyed the role and decided to change his career path to explore it further.

In 2003, Paul left to pursue a career at North Notts College where he completed his Teaching Qualification while working as a Basic skills Tutor, and eventually becoming Programme Manager. While working at North Notts College, Paul began delivering Family Learning courses – a service that is now delivered within the Futures Group.

In 2006, Paul began working for training provider TBG as a Regional Manager, progressing to Operations Director, Employability and Apprenticeships, a position he held until being hired by JHP Training, prior to merging with LearnDirect as Operations Director in 2011.

Over the past eight years, Paul has continued to work in the training and employability sector, holding positions at companies such as Geason Training, Workpays and HIT Training.

Paul joined Futures as Director of Programmes in February, where he oversees the Futures for You division, ensuring that our people are in the best position to support individuals into the most suitable work and training for them.

When reflecting on his career and the advice he would give to those thinking about making a change or taking their career in a new direction, Paul says

“Choose a job that you love and that you know you can be good at, where you can develop your skills, where people have similar visions and one that makes you smile every day.”