Dave Watts - (PC) Plod to Podcasting
I’ve been podcasting for 2.5. years now. My motivation was a further redundancy [Number 5) at 63.
It’s my favorite saying ‘If there is no wind, then row.’ Don’t prevaricate forever. There is no ‘right time.’
I have had my role made redundant multiple times – occasionally, it’s been quite tough going, but we have survived.
Overview of earlier career
Graduate entrant with Ford Motor Company - I wasn’t interested in cars then, or now, but they did offer me a company car at 22 (a Cortina 2.0ltr GL no less, and the chance of international travel – a seductive offer for someone who only had a Honda 125 to their name and whose idea of glamour and the romance of travel was a trip to Haverfordwest).
What I really wanted to do was join the police…and 30 years later…
Dave Watt started his podcast The Redundancy Podcast in his spare time aged 63 after multiple redundancies wishing to help others who faced redundancy. He has since created fans in over 50 countries.
The trigger for change?
Multiple redundancies.
As part of the Ford management training programme we were expected to move around the UK every few years to build up experience.
This I did and at the same time, managed to do serious damage to my wife’s career, a rare skill.
We ended up living in York and couldn’t face a move back to Essex working in an industry I wasn’t interested in and that was likely to bring my wife’s career to an abrupt end once again. I left Ford, made a laughingly bad career move, corrected it but only by rejoining the automotive industry.
However, from my late 30’s I had my roles made redundant a number of times. Realising, at last, what the common theme appeared to be and deducing it was working in the automotive industry, I graduated with an MBA and started moving away into more general management and then into senior management roles.
Until…further redundancies.
First steps
I needed to reinvent myself. How do I develop more skills?
Take a further qualification. How can I afford this?
My then employer was offering to pay, in full, for the cost of taking an MBA (part time).
What’s a boy to do? I took up the offer.
It proved essential as it gave me the confidence to move industries - ultimately ending up in the police.
What I learned
I knew that at 40 my career would stall if I didn’t do something radical. I also realized that I had to find a way to really develop transferable skills
I knew I had to get out of the automotive industry.
I knew an MBA, in itself, was not a golden ticket to fame, celebrity and wealth (as is evident) and that some companies were anti-academic. You had to demonstrate street smarts.
What things did you invest time well in?
The MBA, digital training, training - anything, anytime. I became as IT literate as possible on PCs and Macs. I never turned down any training – you never know when it could become useful.
If you could do it all over again, what would you change, if anything?
I would have done far, far more not to damage my wife’s career at the expense of mine. It’s a partnership. We would probably taken the chance to live abroad for a period, when offered, in our mid 30s.
What became important that you didn’t think was important in the beginning?
Firstly IT literacy and investment in technology – my early conversion and consistent investment has proved of huge importance.
Secondly adaptability and resilience. My career has not been a careful plan, it’s been largely a series of responses to events. I’ve adapted, evolved, gone backwards at times, made big steps forward.
What did you discover about yourself that would have helped if you’d discovered it earlier?
I’m not good with detail but I’m good with analysis at a strategic level and making sense of chaos.
Professionals n their 50s and 60s are being toasted by corporations who view them as inflexible and unable to learn new skills. How about a 63 year old who starts a podcast and gains followers in over 50 countries. How’s that for adaptability?
And anything else that you think might help others thinking of making changes but not being sure what to do or how to do it?
You can only make decisions with the information you have to hand at the time. Change and adapt as new information comes to hand.
However, and it’s my favorite saying ‘If there is no wind, then row.’ Don’t prevaricate forever.
There is no ‘right time.’
How it feels on the days you wake up and know you made the right decision?
I don’t know if I made the right decisions as there is no way to view the parallel life that would have happened if I’d made different choices (for an explanation of what I mean watch the last 10 minutes of the movie ‘La La Land’). I/we just made decisions.
I have had my role made redundant multiple times – occasionally, it’s been quite tough going, but we have survived.
And I got to travel the world extensively, do things I never would have done, meet people I would never have met, had experiences that would have been impossible if I’d stayed with just one or two employers. Redundancy has proved very positive in many ways.
So how did you get into podcasting at 63?
I’ve been podcasting for 2.5. years now. My motivation was a further redundancy at 63. I started applying for jobs where, a few years before, I’d be reasonably sure to at least get an interview but all I got was the sound of silence.
I’d always managed to get a job following my 5 previous redundancies (when I put it like that it really does seem a case of wrong place, wrong time lots of times) and I realised that this time it was going to be much harder despite my qualifications and experience across a number of sectors.
I had done lots of things right before to get back into work then make my way back up the corporate ladder and I’d made a number (lots) of mistakes on the way as well.
I knew there must be many like me, facing ageism, yet still wanting to work so I started the podcast to share my experiences, good and bad, and offer practical advice and guidance. What I hadn’t also realised was the problem is worldwide - which is why, so far this year, the podcast has been listened to in 36 countries and last year is was over 50.
As for the podcast – I clearly enjoy sitting alone in a room and apparently talking to myself. My genesis was a regular slot on the Bronglais Hospital, Aberystwyth radio station whilst a university student there.
But, now, I can see the listening figures, the subscribers and the countries it’s been heard in and think ‘it must be making a difference somewhere.’ And just who are those listeners in Kazakhstan?
Find out more about Dave
And my guest appearance with Dave for his podcast here.
