Claire Munday

When Claire left policing after 31 years, she wasn't simply changing jobs. She was stepping away from a career that had been a huge part of her identity and starting again in a completely different world.

Since then, she has thrown herself into her development with PasedaCoach, completing Advanced Practitioner, Master Practitioner, Positive Psychology and Team Coaching training, alongside Coach Club and The Table. What is particularly brilliant about Claire is that she hasn't followed one narrow path with everything she has learned. She has explored where this new career could take her, getting involved in work with individuals, teams and children alongside her counselling work, and continuing to build a career that is very much her own.

Her commitment has already seen her named Emerging Coach of the Year and take to the stage as a keynote speaker at the National Coaching Conference. Yet behind those achievements is someone who has spoken openly about having to learn to trust that she belonged in this new space and resisting the temptation to return to the career she knew so well.

Claire is one of those people who puts everything into what she does. She keeps learning, keeps getting involved and keeps saying yes to opportunities that stretch her, which is perhaps what makes her story so inspiring for anyone wondering whether they really can leave a long-established career and become a coach.

You absolutely can start again. And your first career might just give you more to bring to your second than you realise.