I love the feeling of freedom that comes at the end of your last day at a job you've resigned from; as you walk out the door. My fondest memory of this is leaving my job at the small company in East Yorkshire, in July 2002. It hadn't been a bad two years there, but it offered no further career prospects I was interested in, and I'd made my mind up to head to London. And what made it all the more exciting was the fact that I had nothing lined up in London. I was going to try my luck as a freelancer.
5pm came (Yorkshire working hours - something I do miss) and I walked out the door, got in my car and (rather childishly) wheel-spun it out of the gravel car park, never to return. Freedom!
Freelancing didn't actually work out too well (I had no contacts) and I ended up back in full-time work the following March, which continued until August of last year.
My exits from the two digital agencies I worked at in the interim period were less exciting (and certainly less gravelly), though they felt good nonetheless. It's not that I'm work-shy or anything, but once you've made your mind up to leave, nothing feels better than to finally do that.
Now I get to have last days all the time. I don't normally like to take on in-house contracts that go on for more than a couple of weeks - better to not get bogged down in the meetings and politics.
At five weeks, the contract I'm currently in is my longest to date. It's been good, but it's time to go. In about five minutes in fact. And after that I'm my own boss again for a whole month. Shame I have to effect my getaway via a packed Friday night tube train.
I’m really looking forward to freelancing in X years time. Thanks for the insight. x