"The Stamp" by Cennydd Bowles

It took me a while to realise that user experience was my calling.

Don’t get me wrong: I had been fascinated by it for years, and was slowly but surely nudging my job description from analyst to information architect. I voraciously consumed blogs, books and Boxes & Arrows and dreamt about life as a “proper” IA, but I was young and it was easier to stay in this university town with its cheap rent, beer and women, than make the move down South. However, my interest soon snowballed into passion and I knew that I had to make the leap. I took advantage of a well-timed redundancy offer and set off for London with a hangover and a new haircut.

London was everything I expected: vast, tough and quite unlike anywhere else in the country. I coped with the geographical transition surprisingly well—it was the culture of my new role that was the shock. I had landed an IA job at a well-known dotcom, and arrived at my skyscraper twenty minutes early fully aware that my horizons were about to change drastically. You never complain about an old employer, especially not in a book, and I am not about to here. It was a company that did a lot right and taught me a lot, but it was a big change from my cosy government job in the Midlands. ...

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(Image: Tower Bridgephoto by Nanagyei)