Ready for a Change?
Changing careers can be a fraught process, sometimes done out of choice, often out of necessity. It commonly involves periods of retraining and the daunting prospect of starting over again from scratch.
But what if there was a sector which requires all the skills you already have (customer facing, admin, IT) and also values “lived experience”? Turning what might be seen as a weakness in the private sector, such as periods of unemployment, economic inactivity or poor health, into an asset and a strength?
If that sounds good perhaps you should consider changing careers to the Social Enterprise sector!
Why change careers to the Social Enterprise sector?
A quick google around changing careers reveals that amongst the top desires and motivations of people researching the subject are that they are looking for;
- Purpose and opportunities to help others
- Flexibility and Autonomy
- Emotional Reward
Working for an existing social enterprise or starting your own certainly has the potential to provide all of these, which could explain why the sector is attracting people traditionally facing marginalisation in other sectors, reflected in statistics like;
- Women make up two-thirds of the voluntary sector workforce.*
- Just over 1 in 4 (25%) people identifying as disabled in the voluntary sector*
- 13% of social enterprise leaders identify as belonging to an ethnic minority background (compared with just 6% of leaders in the wider business community)**
I suspect if you asked 10 people to describe their route into working in the social enterprise sector you would hear 10 very different stories – so, how did I end up in the Social Enterprise sector and what practical tips would I give to anyone considering making the move?
My career change journey into the Social Enterprise sector
Up until 2015 I was making a reasonable living as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator, picking up work from larger design agencies doing largely unglamorous but necessary work for national and international clients.
I had already been introduced to the social enterprise sector through a friend who asked me to be part of a steering group (and, eventually, a mentor) for a social enterprise called BizFizz which supported marginalised people start their own businesses.
It struck me, as my involvement grew, that the life experiences of many of the people BizzFizz supported were not that dissimilar to my own and that, if I happened to have one or two additional marginalising factors, I would be in exactly the same position as them.
So what eventually made me make the decision to change careers entirely? It was actually a combination of things.
Following a commission to draw a comic for an independent games company, through my links with the social enterprise sector I was invited by a local arts organisation to run some comic creation workshops for adults with learning difficulties (drawing on my lived experience as the parent of a SEND child). This proved to be both an enormously rewarding use of my creative skills and a fantastic opportunity to learn new ways of thinking and communicating.
At around the same time I also started getting very bad RSI from time spent at a computer keyboard doing design work. It was getting to the point where I could hardly move my hands anymore, so it became imperative that I found a way of making a living that involved less keyboard bashing.
These factors, along with advice and help from people I’d met through BizzFizz, led me in 2015, to setting up a social enterprise specialising in creating comics with marginalised people and communities, now called Sideline Studios CIC. This was followed by a successful £10K funding application to run a year long project creating comics with long term unemployed people in Gt Yarmouth.
Since then I’ve divided my time between running funded projects through my own social enterprise, and consultation as a community Projects Manager for organisations like The Shoebox Enterprises in Norwich and Social Enterprise East of England.
Practical Tips for a sustainable career in social enterprise
So, based on my experience, how does working in the social enterprise sector score on the 3 top desires and motivations behind career change I mentioned at the start?
- Purpose and Helping Others
- Flexibility and Autonomy
- Emotional Reward
Whilst other types of work might provide rewards in one or two of these, working in the Social Enterprise sector (whether running your own, working for another organisation or doing a mixture of both) has the potential to score highly in all three, with the downside being that much of the work is impermanent and will run out when the funding ends!
My tips for maximising your chances of a rewarding career in the social enterprise sector are;
- Leverage your previous experience and transferrable skills: it helps to be able to do a bit of everything in a Social Enterprise. Not being awash with cash social enterprises usually don’t have the luxury of a dedicated marketing, accounts or administration department – very often everyone has to muck in and be prepared to do a bit of everything (such as writing the occasional blog post!)
- Keep your options open: don’t limit yourself to just working for other people, start your own social enterprise too! There’s no taboo about being made redundant in this sector, funding and projects end then you’ll need to look for something else – if you have your own social enterprise technically you’ll never be redundant (even if you’re not currently making any money!)
- Don’t forget why you chose this: at the end of the day I discovered I’m rarely happier than when I’m in a room with a bunch of people helping them achieve their goals, whether it’s making comics or helping their communities!
Feeling Inspired?
Take a look at ‘Has it got legs?’ and be really honest with yourself about your idea!
Stuart Paterson runs Sideline Studios CIC, a social enterprise specialising in creating comics with marginalised people and communities. He is also Project Manager with SEEE.
26 January 2026
Sources:
** https://www.socialenterprise.org.uk/news-and-views/how-social-enterprises-will-contribute-to-growth/