I set my self a target to be a Director by the time I was 50. According to research by the Family and Work Institute in the US most people stop jostling for promotion at 35 coinciding with child care responsibilities. Not me, I dragged my family around the country in pursuit of my goal. However that was not the most destructive element of my ambition. After 18 months in post I would start looking for a new job. I was far too impatient to wait for an opportunity to arise locally I increased my chances by applying all over the country.

Hardly a month went by when I didn’t submit an application, attend a short listing interview and prepare for the final interview. I attended a lot of interviews and spent a lot of Friday nights and Monday mornings waiting for the phone to ring. It ruined a lot of weekends. My success rate to interviews was disappointing but I did change jobs roughly every 3 years. In only one case was I desperate to leave because I was unhappy with the job and my boss. It was ambition that drove me.