My choice to move towards ‘green collar’ work should be no surprise to anyone who knows me well, but some have raised eyebrows at my decision to leave my current job without something firm to go to. It was not a decision that I made lightly, but I feel the timing is right. 2009 was a tough year on the job market, but I have felt a sense of optimism since the dawning of the new year. Environmental sustainability is still a major concern for our world, but thankfully it is still warranting serious discussion and decision-making by our politicians and business leaders. I want to contribute to this field and aid the transition away from unsustainable behaviours.

On a personal note, I used 2009 as a year to deepen my knowledge of sustainability through a raft of books, seminars, meetings and discussions. I organise and attend Green Drinks Brisbane, which has further increased my knowledge of the players in the sustainability industry of Brisbane (as well as being a great social asset to the city). I also run a cartoon website that has had around half a million hits in the last 12 months, and has even found my take on the world published in print in countries from South Africa, to New Zealand, Germany and Belgium. The cartoons were supposed to be a fun diversion from my normal activities, but have turned into a fairly large part of my life!

For those that don’t know, my background is a Bachelor of Business Management (marketing major) from the University of Queensland (2005), and my job at Australian Red Cross Blood Service was ‘Apheresis Panel Coordinator’. This was a behaviour change role that drew upon principles of marketing to move selected donors from ‘normal’ whole blood donations to the more valuable plasma and platelet donations. I can see strong potential for these skills being able to be applied to the sustainability industry through project management, behaviour change strategies and many other roles.

I gave the Blood Service six weeks notice of my decision and am leaving on good terms, with fond memories of the time spent working closely with nurses and blood donors. I will even continue to donate plasma once or twice a month at the Edward Street donor centre. My current tally stands at 57 donations and I am interested to see how high I can go!

I am full of confidence that something good will happen with this decision, and like the idea of ‘drawing a line in the sand’ and devoting eight hours per day to job hunting. I will keep this blog posted with updates about my search, as well as the things I do with my time during the job hunt after I finish with the Blood Service at Easter.