During her time as part of the Vario community, Meg has completed multiple assignments ranging from six weeks to 15 months.
A natural-born multipotentialite with a true portfolio career, Meg continues to work in-house for leading international companies whilst completing a Psychotherapy degree, establishing a private therapy practice, and running a ‘mindful wine’ company. She shares her belief that, as her father used to say, “You can do a lot with your life, as long as you have balance”.
‘I’ve always been someone with lots of interests who was constantly trying out new ideas. When I was nearing the end of my training contract, I was exploring options such as corporate responsibility roles, running my wine tasting business full-time, or working in the Samaritans’ head office. None of the options felt quite right, but I knew that I didn’t want to be a career lawyer.
I found Vario through sheer luck of timing — I had a good relationship with Alison Bond when she was setting it up, and everything just slotted into place. I’ve done a lot of assignments! What I really love is coming into new teams or new businesses, observing the dynamics and learning how people work together, then bringing my own energy to the team in the most effective way.
It’s hugely satisfying. Having said that, I am now on my second assignment with my current client, BP — I went back because I really like the culture. Their employee engagement is authentic, which matters to me.
As an introvert, I also enjoy the recuperation time I get from working at home — although I couldn’t do that full time! Currently, I’m working four days a week with BP, and one day a week as a counsellor with young adults at a dance and music school. It’s completely fascinating work and the artists are inspiring — the pressure of performing on stage is huge. Ideally, I’d like to be seeing therapy clients two days per week — I’ve recently been licensed to practice privately so am now making arrangements for that.
I set up my wine tasting events company, ‘The Dancing Vine’, when I was at law school, originally doing mainly corporate events and ‘classy’ hen parties! For the past few years I’ve been focusing especially on ‘mindful wine’, running events that encourage people to be more present in their experience of wine tasting. The interest is really growing as people recognise how scattered our attention is in today’s world. I am leading a mindful tasting in Düsseldorf in May for a large German energy company, which I am really excited about. Once I’ve got my psychotherapy dissertation completed I plan to dedicate more focus to this project, beyond the occasional corporate event.
It’s interesting, I didn’t really enjoy law as a trainee, but I enjoy working as a Vario. Originally it was work to tide me over financially as I developed my other passions, but now that I could feasibly move away from it, I don’t actually want to. The variety of experiences it offers me, along with the control I have over where, how and when I work, is absolutely right for me.’