What alternative career paths have you considered or are interested in?
They say most people will work four or five different careers in their lifetime. That’s certainly been true for me — though looking back, I’m not sure I’ve ever really changed careers. The work has always been the same: helping things grow.
I began as a computer programmer in a major bank. It was good experience and disciplined work, but I was surrounded by people who loved machines more than people. I realised early on that I was more interested in people — what makes people think, act, and change.
For twenty years I served as a parish minister. That role shaped me deeply. I loved walking with people through seasons of birth, loss, doubt, and discovery. It was about helping people find meaning, and watching faith take root in ordinary soil.
When I began my doctorate, everything shifted again. I moved into the university world, first as a lecturer, then in an executive role. Teaching was a joy — a chance to see minds come alive. The administrative side, less so. Still, even there, the heart of the work remained: nurturing growth, creating the conditions for others to flourish.
For the past eight years I’ve served as principal of a university residential college. It’s a small community but a rich one — a place where students from all over the world live, learn, and grow together. I love the energy, the stories, the way young adults stretch toward who they might become. Every day is a reminder that education is not just about information; it’s about formation.
Along the way I tutored maths for more than twenty years, meeting students one-on-one in their homes after school. Many of them began with fear and ended with confidence. Watching that transformation — the light that comes when a concept finally lands — was its own quiet joy.
And there are the paths I never took. I once dreamed of being a writer, but I also liked to eat, so that stayed a hobby. I’ve taught others to write their life stories instead, and many of them have self-published for their families. I’ve also imagined a life spent in bush regeneration — hard, honest work, restoring native land overtaken by weeds. That, too, has become a kind of a hobby. And I’ve sometimes thought I’d love to be a dog trainer, helping beautiful creatures harness their energy and purpose. In another life, perhaps.
But maybe that’s the point. The career titles have changed — programmer, minister, lecturer, principal, tutor — but the calling has not. Each has been a way to help something or someone grow: a student, a story, a community, a patch of land, a dog learning trust.
The common thread is growth — and the quiet satisfaction of seeing life take root where it once struggled. Perhaps that’s the truest work of all.
The Afterword 
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