https://twitter.com/seeyouatthebar/status/1301918918047662080?s=20
This question got me thinking about my rather meandering career in the law. If one looked at me aged 26, 33, 41, or 50 one could say I had a rather unremarkable, and somewhat haphazard career but which all coalesced in my 50s. A thread

Ive worked in private practice (not becoming partner, local authority, and various local/ national charities. I started in commercial litigation and found that I hated it. Then local government (which aside from rights of way public inquiry advocacy) I came to hate (mostly for

the work culture). Drifted into social security benefits tribunals and charity management. I gave up welfare benefits advocacy because I (like others) kept winning appeals over and over. It became obvious we were just doing DWP's work for them without them ever changing their

approach. Went to work for Mind, giving second tier advice to mental health advocates by email and telephone. I loved that job and the organisation. However I got pregnant and they refused a request by me to do it remotely from home. This was a year before flexible working

regulations brought in. My manager was insistent you had to do a computer based job from an office in London. The irony! So with small baby started an interesting stint as a 1 day a week non-executive director of a NHS Primary Care Trust, and trustee of a mental health charity.

Drifted back into social security tribunal advocacy again. In 2006, a friend @Smball1 said that a good charity called @ISCRE_Official, had a job going as Race Equality Officer challenging race discrimination. She thought I might have the transferable skills to do it. I rang

the new CEO @Jane_Basham for a chat and asked if I could work school hours, which she could accommodate. I swotted up on the Equality Act (having only done I ET in my training contract and a little disability discrimination at various disability charities), interviewed and sat

their test. Got the job and new career started. I was plunged immediately into a tricky situation, extricating a man from an unwinnable ET case, and realising that, to date, the case work was more enthusiastic than professional. So developed policies, brought in case management

system. Then we achieved funding from the @EHRC to expand to cover all types of discrimination. Developed a niche legal practice. Started being concerned that my county had other gaps in many areas of legal advice provision. And the legal aid cuts brought in by LASPO would

accelerate the process of gaps. Suffolk was becoming a legal advice desert. So I organised a conference in about 2012 called Life After LegalAid with speakers including Julie Bishop of @LawCentres, and @FightBach . This is the first time in public I said we need a law centre

in Suffolk. Whilst it took 6 years to start to get noticed, gather together a team, supporters, funders, a realistic business plan and a load of courage, we did it. The point of my thread is that it took aspects of every job in law, charity management, volunteer and NED role

to bring it together, and to make people believe this is a credible prospect. And I still have imposter syndrome most of the time. Throughout my life, I have had bouts of depression so serious I could not work. I also started losing my hearing in my late 40s. But I still did it

and continue to do so. The brilliant @oliverburkeman wrote this week "But the lesson to be drawn isn’t that we’re doomed to chaos. It’s that you – unconfident, self-conscious, all-too-aware-of-your-flaws – potentially have as much to contribute to your field, or the world, as

anyone else." Not sure if my career could ever be a model for anyone else other than to show that not knowing what you want to do when you grow up is fine. End

PS There is a major typo in this thread which shames me. When I joined ISCRE it was four years before the Equality Act, so Race Relations Act, Sex Discrimination Act in force etc. I am mortified!