Micheal Carberry's thinking about life after cricket

What made you decide to use the Personal Development & Welfare Service?

Although I had had a brief meeting with my Personal Development coach at the end of the 2004 season, I hadn’t really given much thought to my life after the game and didn’t feel ready to start thinking about it. A year later, with another season closing and some uncertainty as to where I would be playing in 2006, I decided to give her a call. I felt that the time was right to start planning ahead and putting some long-term plans in place. I also wanted to develop some skills that would help me in the workplace.

How has PDW worked for you?

My Personal Development Coach explained to me that long-term career planning was not something that we could resolve in one meeting and that in order to do this properly we would need to meet on a regular basis. We have met frequently over the past 10 months and maintained regular contact over the phone in between our meetings. This has helped me enormously and kept me focused on the process rather than allowing me to drift and put off the planning for another few months.

What has PDW enabled you to do?

When I first met with my Personal Development Coach I had little idea as to what I wanted to do long-term. Although I spend much of my free time outside of the game working as a DJ in bars and clubs in the London area, I am realistic in that this may not become a full-time option for me and I really wanted to have something more secure as a back-up plan. Through her questioning, and the exercises that she set, it became clear that my passion for art and design remained strong (I had studied this at school) and was something that I had a real interest in. I have narrowed my ideas down to the field of ‘Product Design’ and this is something that I am seriously thinking about long-term. I also wanted to develop some additional skills, in particular IT.

Where are you now?

During the off-season (2005-2006) I developed my IT skills by attending a course at the local Learn Direct centre. This was great as it provided me with the understanding that I required, and also helped me to develop some well needed IT skills which will no doubt stand me in good stead both now and in the future. The course was perfect in that I could study at my own pace and also in my own time. In terms of Product Design, realistically I will need to have a degree or HND to get into this field. In order to be accepted onto a course I will need to study for a foundation course in Art and Design at college so I also identified a number of courses at colleges in the Southampton area that I could complete on a part-time basis.