I certainly never expected to go on this meandering career journey back when I was at school.
I was always told that if you were one of those unusual people who was good at both maths and art you should go into architecture. So right from year 10 I started doing work experience in architecture firms and found myself studying at university where five years later I got a master's degree in architecture.
This led me to work in an architecture firm for a few years, and I thought I was on track to becoming a registered architect when Covid hit. I lost my job. This turned my world upside down and I found myself locked up at home, having to fill in my days and panicking that all of a sudden my career path was not going the way I expected.
By nature a busy and organised person I had to really think about what I was going to do with my time while we were in lockdown and until I could find another job. I created a new routine and decided to volunteer at the Foodbank to give myself a sense of purpose. I would go for runs on the beach most days, work on my portfolio and then I started helping a woman with her social media page for a French group called My French Life.
It turned out that I had quite a knack for social media and creating content. I found myself delving into photography and art a lot more and loving it. By the time the lockdown ended, and I had sent my portfolio to various companies, a design construct firm contacted me and offered me a job in the construction sector where it was a little bit design based so I thought I would be able to put my creative skills into practice in this unexpected way.
Three years later, my position grew into a project management role in the construction industry, mainly working on commercial projects. I had learned many great management skills, however I found after three years that I was mainly working on project management and I had no creative outlet and I very much craved this. I started up my own chili oil business called Drizzle Chilli Oil; fully branded the product, created a website, and contacted a few cafes that would stock my product, and only a year later, I am now stocked in 15 shops, cafes and also at five Tony and Marks stores.
Not only that, but I was eventually able to work four days a week and use my spare day in other creative ventures. I started a painting group called Open Air Painting, where I took small groups of lovely people out in the open inspiring them to paint some beautiful locations around Adelaide. I also started doing some painting commission work and live wedding painting.
I was loving this creative work and realised that although I loved project management I missed the design aspect of my original role. I felt that I wanted to pursue my creative side on a more full-time basis, and I decided to quit my project management job in construction. Straight away I was lucky enough to meet the right people at the right time, and my stars aligned so that I connected with someone I had met through someone else (good old Adelaide!) and discovered brand strategy and web design. This was something I've always been curious about but felt that as I hadn't the formal qualifications in this field I therefore couldn't seriously consider it as a career.
The incredible thing is that the person I met worked for a firm who was actually looking for a project manager. This was a perfect opportunity for me to use my experience and organisational skills as well as tap into my creativity by learning all about this incredible new industry that I had just discovered.
One if the things I love most about my side hustles is the story behind them. Drizzle Chilli Oil came from my love of food and developing the way it should look. My artwork is inspired by my childhood growing up in rural France and all this is exactly what brand strategy is all about. This combination of skills and experience in a creative field was a perfect fit for me.
Quitting my 9-to-5 secure job was the scariest thing for me to do. I don't want to sound like all these other stories you might have heard on Instagram and TikTok about quitting 9-to-5 jobs to follow your dreams. But honestly, taking that scary step and finding myself faced with new possibilities and actually following up a job based on what I love doing and not based on what degree I have opened my mind to connect with the right people at the right time. Call it a miracle or just being lucky, but for me, it was all hard work and courage, and it's a success story that I'm so proud to share.
