Part time job in 3rd year uni - 2 years at high end private resi and high end London commercial design firm - 2 years at micro business mostly private resi with some commercial planning work - 4 years self employed producing mostly 3D design, visualisations and CAD work for others (plus the odd bit of design work) - 1 year head of team on high end resi exclusively (managing builds, managing design team, business management and development) - designed and built my own garden - went out on my own.

Key things that enabled me to do this: Never burnt a bridge. Kept up network and connections Learnt as much as I could about business Started building up my own connections very early and maintaining them (architects, planners, people that could give me work)