by Jeremy Orbell

Created on: February 25, 2008

My career to date seems to be gearing me towards self-employment. When I started out on the ladder in the mid-80s I worked for a world renowned Insurance company with 4000 others and with it being my first job I was little more than a stickleback in the Pacific.

Perhaps unsurprisingly I began with very menial tasks such as fielding calls from customers wanting claim forms, filing and hurling boxes at other temporary staff in the basement.

This position was very much a stop-gap at the time as I'd left college with no clear idea where I was headed. I had looked into work in art & design and technical drawing but this scuppered once my mother insisted on me wearing a suit to Lincoln College of Art. Being better dressed than an art lecturer is pretty easy but I looked like a very young bank manager and as that is part of the establishment, I was escorted from the premises without further ado.

So it was my brother that came to my rescue. He was already fast-tracked to success in the afore mentioned insurance company so he was easily able to arrange for a position for the summer months. When this stint was over I wasn't any closer to a new career so with the lack of anything else better, I stuck around. This clearly bothered my brother as he kicked me out and I had to find lodgings of my own.

This was all very well for a couple of years but insurance wasn't really my thing. I needed get back home so I got a job at another large company, this time in travel. Again it was temporary but it was a position that required excellent numerical skills - I counted travelers' cheques.

Unlikely as it seems I enjoyed this job but it was never going to be a long term move so I was as surprise as anyone when I allowed myself to be persuaded to join the company full-time. For the next 12 months I was happy enough before I began to get itchy feet again.

By now it had been a good couple of years since I opening up my art box but one evening I started doodling while watching TV. I took a Biro and began copying pictures from a magazine of Susanna Hoffs from the Bangles and British singer Neneh Cherry. I looked at them and thought that they were actually rather good. I immediately felt that I may have given up on my dream too soon.

Then an odd thing happened - a position in the in-house design studio came available the very next week.

To cut a long story short I got the job despite being the least qualified of the 13 candidates and there I remained, in a department of less than 10 in a company

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