Susan Sommerville enjoyed working as a teacher, first to young children, then later to teenagers. She is, however, the first to concede it could be hard work: “It is exhausting. You give so much of yourself.”
Despite the sense of purpose the work gave her she found herself feeling wistful when she watched the children leave for university education and careers. “I wondered if I could cut it in the wider world.” She hankered after experiencing “something different”.
So at 30, she quit her full-time job to go back to university to study occupational psychology. While she was doing research at PwC, the professional services firm, as part of her Masters degree, she came across the role of organisational consultant — an area which she is still working in today at the age of 45.