'I moved next door to a leading sports journalist' – your lucky career stories

I moved next door to one of the UK’s top sports journalists

I was studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores University. As a mature student I found that my body couldn’t take the midweek social scene on top of the work, so in the final year of my degree I moved to Didsbury and commuted. Luckily, the house I moved into was across the road from one of the UK’s top freelance sports journalists. My housemate at the time was looking for work and befriended our neighbours. He built a friendship with the journalist and introduced me. I was able to spend the next five years working as a freelance football journalist, something I always dreamed of. The irony is that neither myself nor my new friend are working in journalism anymore, but we remain very good friends. Andrew Ashcroft

They asked: ‘Can anyone help with an art exhibition?’

In the 70s I had just completed a postgraduate sculpture course and was in the studio working on a frame. A call came from a nearby art gallery asking if there was anyone who could help out with picture framing for their exhibition. An hour later, I was offered part-time work with the gallery. The following year I was invited to set up a sculpture area as a sculptor in residence in a London school.

A few minutes into my first day, as I was organising the studio space, the noise in the corridor outside grew louder and louder. When I asked the group of students who they were waiting for, the answer was: “Whoever’s teaching in the room you are in”. So I fell into teaching, and into a career I have loved. Above all, I am proud to have enjoyed such a rich, creative career in an area that I love – working with unforgettable students. Anonymous

After my marriage ended, I was offered a job which changed my life

1992 was the worst year of my life: my marriage ended and I was made redundant. After 17 years underground, my life as a coal miner was over. I thought it was the end of the world, but it terms of my career it was the beginning. In the months following I tried for so many jobs that I lost count. A friend in the Czech Republic suggested I become a Tesol teacher (teaching English to speakers of other languages). So I sent out applications for jobs in Turkey and Hungary. My letter was read by a recruiter called Ian Williamson, who changed my life. He told me the final choice for the job was between myself and a woman who’d run a hot-air balloon business. On a whim he decided, as he’d never had an application from an ex-miner, he’d give me a chance. I finally got lucky.

In the intervening years I met people, went places across the globe, did things I never thought I would. There are pivotal moments in everyone’s life, and this was one of mine. John Anderson

Once my career took off, I never got a chance to thank him

I was at university in Scotland in the 70s and I wanted to work in a bookshop in the UK, but kept getting rejected. The writer and broadcaster Frank Muir was rector of the university, and offered students help with anything from charity fundraising to academic troubles. I wrote and asked him if he could help me get an interview with a bookshop so that I could plan my future. Frank not only met me for a drink in St Andrews, but brought along his daughter who had worked in Hatchards to talk to me about her experiences. He set up interviews for me in the two top bookshops in Glasgow and Edinburgh, but Hatchards offered me a job based on his recommendation. It was a fantastic opportunity and I spent three happy years with them. It gave me the basis for a career that developed through publishing and journalism, to becoming deputy editor of a magazine for classical musicians, my dream job. It also allowed me to move to London which opened so many other doors for me. My life would have turned out completely differently without Frank’s help.

I was so touched to read his autobiography after his death and find that he’d mentioned this incident. I did thank him at the time, of course, but always intended to do so again once my career was established, and never did. Clare Stevens

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