About Forked Road
Forked Road is a new venture that was set up by Chris Haynes and me (Emma Ogden) in late 2011. The idea for Forked Road came from a friend, Diane, who had given a lecture on her own career at a UK university. The feedback she had from one student was that her talk had been ‘the most enlightening 45 minutes of his entire 3 years at university’ or words to that effect. When Diane told me about that feedback it really got me thinking. When I was at uni I felt just as this student did; I had no idea about how to go about getting into the career that I wanted and there was no one to ask. I was metaphorically at a ‘fork in the road’ where I needed to make decisions about my future career and life in general but I had few contacts to ask in the working world. If I had felt like this and so did a student 10 years later, many other people must be in the same boat too.
So, Chris and I decided to start Forked Road, with the idea of getting as many people as possible to write about their own careers to give a real insight into their jobs and how exactly to go about getting them. We also wanted to include a living and working abroad section as so many people now want to go abroad and work for a period of time, but it can be daunting to do the first time. Finally, more and more young (and older) people are wanting to start their own businesses instead of following a traditional career, so we wanted to cover this too.
What makes Forked Road different to other careers sites is that the reader can contact the writer of any article easily by using the comments section below the article. The reader gets their questions answered by someone working in the job that the reader is interested in. When you’re at uni or school you often don’t have these contacts to ask. Forked Road is designed to bridge this gap between student and workforce as well as for older people looking to change career paths.
Introducing Emma
Emma
Hi, I’m Emma, a 31 year old mother to toddler, Ben. I graduated from University in 2001 and wanted to pursue a career in Nature Conservation but I had no idea how to get into this competitive sector. While I was figuring this out I went off on a three month scientific research trip to the Amazon rainforest. On return, I spent a year as a trainee Ecologist at Somerset Environmental Records Centre before getting my first paid job as an Ecologist in 2003. I worked in this profession until November 2006 and returned to it again from 2009- 2011.
Introducing Chris
Chris
Hi I’m Chris, 32 and Dad to 2 year old Ben. I graduated in 2002 with a BSC in Computer Science. After a year or so working on an IT Help desk I decided to try my hand at Project Management. I worked in various contracting jobs around the country as a Project Analyst/Coordinator until November 2006. Later I became a Project Manager in Australia and continued in this profession for a large government department in the UK.
Moving on Together
In November 2006 we sold off our possessions and set off for Australia on a one year working holiday visa. We arrived with nothing but a backpack each and a place to stay for a couple of weeks. Within a month we had both found ‘proper’ jobs, an apartment of our own and we had settled in well to our life in Brisbane. We worked hard in our respective careers for two years, taking training courses to develop our skills and making some great contacts, but we felt they hadn’t seen as much of Australia as we had wanted. So in 2009 we spent three months touring around Australia before returning to the UK to live. Our son Ben arrived in September 2009 and I juggled being a mum with doing part time freelance work as an agricultural surveyor while Chris worked for a government department.
While we loved being parents, life in the UK wasn’t what we hoped it would be and we were getting itchy feet again. After several months of indecision we decided it was time to upsticks and go in search of ‘a better life’. We had both known for a long time that we would be happiest working on our own projects and calling the shots, even if it meant financial insecurity for some time. So we put all our possessions in storage, packed up our car and headed off to Spain.With a bit of time finally on our hands we could start work on our websites, Forked Road being one of these and Jackit-in (a venture by Chris).
And that’s where we are today! We’re still at the very early stages of developing Forked Road, but we hope it will become a great success, providing a really useful resource for anyone looking for guidance with their future careers, businesses and ideas for working abroad.