I didn’t choose contracting and consulting because I had my whole career figured out. Quite the opposite actually. It also wasn’t something I discovered only recently either. Contracting has been part of my working life since I left the legal field. My first NHS role was a contract and I spent most of my NHS career working that way.
I spent just over a decade in the NHS with the last three years in permanent employment. So when I talk about wanting flexibility and autonomy, I’m not imagining what a different way of working might feel like. I’ve experienced both, and those experiences have helped me understand what suits me.
A little about me…I thrive in new settings. I’m an ideas person and a connector. I enjoy meeting people, understanding a challenge and thinking: What could we do differently? Who needs to be involved? What could happen if we brought these things together?
I like having room to explore, contribute and grow. I’m multidimensional. I have multiple interests and I want space for them in my working life.
For me, contracting and consulting are about more than a type of employment. They’re part of how I choose to shape my career.
Contracting was part of my journey from the beginning
When I left the legal field, my first step into the NHS was as a contractor.
That matters to this story because my career wasn’t one straight path within one profession or one organisation. I had already changed direction and contracting was how I entered a new field. For most of my time in the NHS, it was my way of working.
Looking back, that fits with what I know about myself now. I enjoy entering a different environment, understanding what people are trying to achieve and finding where I can add value. I like learning through the work itself. New people, new challenges and different perspectives give me something to think about and build on.
The final three years of my NHS career were in permanent employment (as was my legal career before that). That gave me another experience to reflect on, not just in terms of the work, but in terms of how I felt within the structure around it. Neither experience was wasted. Both helped me become clearer about what I wanted next.
I’m not just one thing
I relate to the idea of having a polymath personality: curious about different subjects, drawn to different disciplines and interested in the connections between them.
For me, that isn’t about claiming to be an expert in everything. It’s about recognising that I have more than one interest, more than one strength and more than one way to contribute.
My legal background is part of my story. So are my experiences in the NHS, health tech, start ups and entrepreneurship. So are my interests in human experience, storytelling and community. I don’t want to pretend those different parts of me don’t exist just to make my career easier to explain. Some of my interests overlap. Others give me a different perspective. I enjoy being able to bring something from one setting into another, or notice a connection that sparks a new idea.
I can be committed to a piece of work without wanting it to become my entire professional identity. That distinction is important to me.
There was a personal reason, too
Previous employment made me ill. That is not something I say lightly and I don’t need to share every detail for it to matter.
I know what it feels like when work starts taking more from you than it gives. When office politics become something you have to navigate alongside the actual job. When a toxic manager or an unhealthy environment takes up space in your mind long after the working day has ended.
I want to do meaningful work, build good relationships and contribute. I don’t want to spend my energy managing egos or trying to stay well in an environment that isn’t healthy for me.
There came a point when I had to take that seriously. I wasn’t only asking, “What role should I do next?” I was asking, “What kind of working life am I willing to build and what am I no longer willing to accept?” My wellbeing had to be part of that decision, not something I dealt with after everything else.
Moving into health-tech startups made my priorities clearer
When I pursued opportunities in the health-tech startup space, I wanted to contract and consult! I wanted the option to take on multiple projects if I chose to. Not because I wanted to do everything at once, but because I didn’t want that possibility closed off from the beginning.
I was interested in bringing my experience into different settings, working with different teams and leaving room for other opportunities that mattered to me.
The idea of a permanent contract restricting my ability to work with others didn’t sit comfortably with me. It touched on something I had already become very clear about: I don’t like feeling controlled.
I can understand agreeing boundaries around a particular piece of work. I want to honour my commitments and be clear about what I can deliver. But I don’t want to feel that committing to one organisation means handing over the direction of my whole professional life. I want to choose what I take on, be honest about my capacity and take responsibility for those choices.
For me, having multiple interests doesn’t mean I’m less serious about my work. It means I want a working structure that makes room for the breadth of what I can contribute. Also I always wanted to travel so that also played a part!
Autonomy matters in the everyday things, too
My desire for flexibility isn’t only about big career decisions. It’s also about how I experience an ordinary working day. I don’t like someone else telling me when I can take a break or when I’m allowed to leave.
For me, that’s about trust and being treated as an adult. I want to manage my time, honour my commitments and deliver what I’ve agreed to do without feeling that I need permission for every part of my day.
I’m not looking to avoid accountability. I’m looking for a way of working where accountability and autonomy can exist together.
I value collaboration. I value feedback. I’m happy to agree expectations and work around what a project needs.
What I don’t want is control for the sake of control.
I want my contribution to matter more than whether I’ve followed someone else’s preferred routine.
I want to shape my career, not have it dictated to me
I don’t want every next step to depend on someone else deciding what I’m ready for, where I belong or what I should become.
That doesn’t mean I don’t want guidance or that I have nothing left to learn. Quite the opposite. I want to keep learning and I want to seek out people and experiences that stretch me.
But I want a say in the direction.
I want to develop a skill because I can see its value. Explore an interest because it means something to me. Take on a project because there is a good fit between what it needs and what I can offer.
I don’t see my career as one fixed ladder. I see it as something I’m building through experience, relationships, learning and deliberate choices. There can be continuity without every step looking the same.
This isn’t a story about everything becoming easy
I don’t want to present contracting and consulting as a perfect escape.
I’m building a working life, not a fantasy. There are still commitments to honour, decisions to make and boundaries to hold. Working independently doesn’t mean everything happens on my terms all the time, and I don’t want to take on multiple projects simply to recreate the pressure I was trying to move away from.
The point, for me, is choice. Having the option doesn’t mean I have to use it constantly.
I also don’t see permanent employment as the wrong choice for everyone. I’ve experienced it, and it is part of my story.
This isn’t about proving that one way of working is superior. It’s about being honest about the way I work best and the conditions in which I want to do that work.
Why I encourage others to consider it
When I encourage someone to think about contracting or consulting, I’m not saying, “Hand in your notice tomorrow.”
I’m saying: don’t dismiss the possibility just because your career has looked a certain way until now.
Perhaps you love your field but not the environment you’re working in. Perhaps you have ideas and strengths that stretch beyond your job description. Perhaps you want to contribute to more than one project, or you have several interests that you don’t want to keep putting aside. Perhaps you simply want more ownership of your time and your next step.
I recognise those feelings.
For me, exploring a different way of working wasn’t about becoming less committed. It was about being more deliberate about what I committed to. It was about recognising that I could care deeply about my work without giving one organisation the power to define my whole career.
You don’t have to make the same choice I did but you are allowed to take your preferences seriously. You’re allowed to want meaningful work and a healthier working life. You’re allowed to have more than one interest and you’re allowed to be ambitious without wanting someone else’s version of success.
My career is still taking shape
From leaving the legal field, to my first NHS contract, to just over a decade in the NHS and then pursuing the health-tech startup space in UK and UAE, I’ve learned more about both my work and myself.
Contracting has been a thread through much of that journey. Consulting is part of how I want to bring those experiences, ideas and connections together.
I’m not sharing this because I have everything solved. I’m sharing it because I’m clearer now about what matters to me: curiosity, variety, meaningful contribution, wellbeing and the ability to make my own choices.
I still want to do good work. I still want to collaborate, stretch myself and make a difference.
I just want to do that in a way that gives me room to be a whole person… not only a job title.
