Meet the Career Changers “As I was a young woman in a very male dominated profession - they were probably trying to ‘dare’ me to see if I was brave enough…” Interview by Mrs Alexandra Horner, Queen’s Director of Communications and Development. Many people switch to a teaching career later in life, after successful first careers. Our teachers at Queen’s are no exception. During lockdown I caught up with two of our teachers who had particularly interesting former careers: Mrs Josie Baker (Teacher in Charge of Economics and Editor of Queen’s Today) and Ms Cathy Rogers (Head of Geography). What was your first career?
What was the highlight of your career before teaching?
JB: My first job after university was working at Clonter Opera Farm – which, with my marketing hat on, I swiftly rebranded as Clonter Opera Theatre (as putting ‘Opera’ and ‘Farm’ together creates massive cognitive dissonance). It was the perfect graduate job as I got to do everything from counselling weeping opera singers, to interim stage management, to unblocking the toilets. I gathered some fantastic material for my novel (as yet unpublished, with names changed to protect the guilty!) More seriously, this experience got me started on a successful career in arts management.
JB: My happiest memories from working in the arts are definitely the opening nights. You’ve been working so hard (in my case always behind the scenes) to get things organised, but it is such an great feeling when you see it all come together and the curtain comes up. I really feel for those working in the arts right now, as the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on that sector is so profound. I do hope we will all get to experience some more opening nights in theatres and concerts halls in London soon. CR: When I was a Health & Safety Inspector, I was responsible for Blackpool Pleasure Beach. The guys who owned the ‘Big Dipper’ invited me to join them on a walk up and down all the dips of this giant roller coaster, to check it was safe. I think that – as I was a young woman of only 23 in a very male dominated profession – they were probably trying to ‘dare’ me to see if I was brave enough. But it was an amazing experience and I must be one of only a handful of people who’ve ever had the chance to ‘walk the Big Dipper’!
Mrs Baker trying her hand at page turning, circa 1998
CR: My first ‘proper’ job was running a health promotion programme for my local Health Authority, on a double decker bus. Sadly, I didn’t get to actually drive the bus, but we did tour all around the North West visiting lots of workplaces to measure people’s fitness, test their blood pressure etc. This was the 1980s, before the whole health and fitness movement took off, so this bus was really ahead of its time. I then continued my public sector career by getting a job as an Inspector for the Health & Safety Executive. There were only a few female Health & Safety Inspectors then in the whole country and it was a pretty eye-opening experience. Later on, I also qualified as a personal trainer and enjoyed running sports and spin classes; perhaps a throwback to that double-decker bus!
The (former) Big Dipper on Blackpool Pleasure Beach
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