Edwin's Story

What do you do now, and what does your current work involve?

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Today my work sits across a few connected areas. I run a PR and communications consultancy, The Prominence Collective, where I work with leaders, founders, businesses and charities on positioning, publicity, media relations, thought leadership and strategic communications. I also work in talent management, supporting a small group of content creators with partnerships, profile-building and professional opportunities.

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Alongside my communications work, I am also a career change coach and founder of Another Path, a consultancy and platform supporting people who are questioning their career direction or considering a change. Through coaching, personal rebranding support and a wider platform of stories, resources and insights, the aim is to help people rethink their careers and reposition their professional identity with greater clarity and confidence.

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What do you regard as your first career or the path you originally started out in?

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Growing up there were two things I loved more than anything, watching television and writing playscripts. I was completely immersed in both, so naturally the dream was to become a TV scriptwriter.

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When I was 16, my headteacher at school, a lovely man called Michael Chapman, heard about that dream and arranged for me to spend a day shadowing a television producer friend of his called Dee Marshall. The show was filming in Leeds, not far from where I grew up in Sheffield, and it was an ITV programme called the Used Car Roadshow.

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I loved that day so much that it led to a couple of weeks of work experience, and by that summer, I had already started getting paid work as a runner with different production companies and shows. From there my career in TV really began.

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Have there been any other careers, roles or industries you’ve worked in along the way, including any detours, pivots or unexpected chapters in your career journey?

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I did work on some TV dramas and films early on because the original dream had been scriptwriting, but very quickly I noticed that I seemed to thrive more in what the industry calls unscripted television. I went on to build a career across documentaries, lifestyle programmes and entertainment shows for broadcasters including the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and MTV, moving from researcher to assistant producer and becoming a producer by the age of 23.

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Later I moved into recruitment and talent management, first in-house at a TV production company and then through my own recruitment consultancy working with creative, digital and media businesses. From there my career evolved further into social media, communications and PR, including roles at the BBC, Natural England, Prostate Cancer UK and Causeway, before eventually launching my own PR consultancy, The Prominence Collective, and of course Another Path.

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Looking back across your career so far, what prompted some of those changes in direction?

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For a long time television was the dream and I genuinely loved working in the industry. But over time several things made me start questioning whether it was still the right place for me long-term. I found the work had become more formulaic, and for the first time in my life I began wondering what else might be out there.

 

I also realised that rather than running around a wet field with a camera on my shoulder, I was increasingly drawn to the parts of work involving strategy, planning, project management, people and building ideas. That shift in perspective became the beginning of a much wider period of reflection about what I wanted my career to look like.

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Were there particular moments, opportunities or realisations that encouraged you to try something different?

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One of the biggest realisations was just how difficult career change actually is. I found the process incredibly lonely, confusing and isolating. There isn’t really a rulebook for changing career because every path is different, and you often don’t know anyone in the industries you’re trying to move into.

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My first move away from television was still within the industry, working in recruitment and talent management at a production company. I loved that work and it eventually led me to launch my own consultancy, advising creative, media and digital businesses on talent, recruitment and employer positioning.​ That experience, combined with my own attempts to navigate several career pivots, later became a major reason I decided to train as a career coach and eventually create Another Path.

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What were some of the biggest challenges you faced when changing path?

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One of the biggest challenges was simply working out what the next step should be. When you move away from an industry that has shaped your identity for years, it can feel like you are starting again, even when you have built up significant experience.

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There were also practical challenges. When I moved back up North from London it became harder to continue running my recruitment consultancy because many of the clients and opportunities were still based there. That meant adapting again and thinking carefully about what direction to move in next. Career change often turns out to be less about one dramatic leap and more about a series of smaller adjustments, experiments and decisions.

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What helped you most in navigating those career transitions?

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What helped most was noticing the patterns that followed me from role to role. Even though the industries changed, the things I was most drawn to stayed surprisingly consistent. Storytelling, strategy, talent development, positioning and helping people or organisations communicate clearly about who they are and what they offer.

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Those interests eventually led me fully into communications and PR, through roles at Natural England, Prostate Cancer UK and later as Head of Communications and Engagement at Causeway, before eventually launching my own PR and communications consultancy. Over time it also became clear how much of my work had involved helping people think about their careers, positioning and professional identity, which naturally led me to develop my work further as a career coach.

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What has surprised you most about where your career has taken you?

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What surprises me most is how much sense it makes in hindsight, even though at the time it often felt uncertain or unconventional. Television taught me storytelling and understanding audiences. Recruitment and talent management taught me about careers, professional positioning and opportunity. Communications roles brought everything together around brand, reputation and visibility. Bringing those strands together through coaching and through Another Path has allowed me to combine many of the things I have been most interested in throughout my career.

 

What practical advice would you give to someone who is considering a career change but isn’t sure where to begin?

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One of the biggest things that helped me was learning the language of the industry I wanted to move into. When you change career, you often realise that the skills you already have are transferable, but the way they are described can be very different. Understanding how your experience translates into the new world you want to enter can be a real turning point. That might mean emphasising different aspects of your background, reframing your experience in ways that feel more relevant, or sometimes letting go of certain achievements that were important in a previous career but are less meaningful in the one you are moving towards.

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It also helps to immerse yourself in the industry you are interested in. Read widely, listen to podcasts, follow people in the field, and try to build conversations and connections where you can. The more familiar you become with how that world thinks and talks about its work, the easier it becomes to position yourself within it.

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Most importantly, recognise that your career change can start long before you actually leave your current role. Look for the parts of your job that could act as a bridge towards where you want to go next. That might mean leaning into certain responsibilities, shadowing someone doing a role you’re curious about, volunteering, launching a side project or building experience alongside your existing job. Often the path into something new begins with small steps rather than one big leap.

 

Looking back now, what key lessons or reflections would you share with others thinking about changing careers?

 

One of the biggest things I’ve learned is that careers rarely follow the neat, linear paths we imagine when we’re younger. Looking back, my own career has moved across television, recruitment, communications, entrepreneurship and now career coaching. At the time those moves often felt uncertain or messy, but in hindsight each step added experience, perspective and skills that became useful later.

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I also know how isolating career change can feel. When you’re thinking about leaving a field you’ve spent years building your identity in, it can feel like you’re stepping into the unknown. But what I’ve come to realise is that the experience you’ve already built rarely disappears, it simply evolves and finds new ways to be useful in different contexts.

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That understanding is ultimately what led me to create Another Path. I know first-hand how confusing and lonely career change can feel, but I also know it can lead to opportunities and directions you might never have imagined when you first started out.

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If you're thinking about your own next step, you can explore more about Another Path, including the About, Support, Stories, Resources and Insights pages, or get in touch to work with Edwin