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All change - Clare Calder dumped her stressful job in HR for her own business

FOUR-and-a-half years ago I realised that if I carried on in the job I was doing, I would end up having a breakdown, or telling someone what I really thought of them, or morphing further into some cold, hard-hearted women who didn't know how to enjoy herself.

I remember reaching these conclusions on the same day I got caught on the train with an out of date season ticket. Out of date because my head was so full of work, I couldn't sleep properly and everyday tasks had become a messy blur.

I worked as a Senior HR Manager in a role that had become increasingly stressful due to a progression of take-overs, redeployment programmes and large scale redundancies. My role meant being on the front line of delivering bad news and then dealing with hundreds of unhappy and very disgruntled employees.

Handing in my notice was (and still is) one of the best decisions of my whole life. It wasn't until I left my job that I realised how very run down, tired and miserable I felt. I knew that I needed a complete break from work, so 10 days after handing in my notice I was sunning myself on Manley Beach in Sydney, having flown to Australia for six weeks on my own. Six weeks of travelling around and only doing exactly what I wanted to do.

On the flight home, I made a list of all the jobs I would really want to do. It was a pretty short list!

For some unfathomable reason, I decided that I was going to make and sell jewellery. I've always been a bit arty, which I put down to a childhood of watching Blue Peter and making everything they made!

So, I bought a book about beads and jewellery design and a few pots of beads and started putting a few pieces of jewellery together. Now, four years down the line, I am still in business designing and making gorgeous jewellery both for everyday wear and bespoke wedding jewellery, exhibiting regularly at craft shows and wedding fayres throughout the south east.

Have I ever regretted my decision to leave a well-paid, secure job? Never. Passing someone in the street who is wearing a piece of my jewellery, or receiving a thank you note from a bride, well, no money can replace the feeling of satisfaction and fulfilment my job now gives me.

*Tell us about a day that changed your life. It can be happy, sad, funny, inspirational. It just needs to be focused on one day that means a lot to you. If we use your story we will send you a prize worth £50 from Debenhams, Basildon.

Send details of your story to us at echowoman@nqe.com by post to Echo Woman, Features, The Echo, Newspaper House, Chester Hall Lane, Basildon, Essex, SS14 3BL or call 01268 469380.

3:19pm Monday 21st April 2008

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