#8: Why I sold a Porsche and bought a Renault.

And why it matters to your career.

TL;DR: Make a change. Improve your lot. Do the thing. Don’t care what other people think.

Growing up in the 80s was a great time.

Big hair rock bands, no mobile phones, playing out until it went dark, awesome sports cars.

I loved the cars. KITT. The General Lee. The A-Team van. Face’s Corvette. Autobot Jazz. The Cannonball Run’s Lambo. Magnum’s Ferrari 308 GTS.

Ferraris were always my thing. 308s, 328s, GTOs, and into the 90s it was all about the unobtainable Ferrari F40.

The pinnacle of boyhood dreams. All in cheap black frames from Athena all over my stripy bedroom walls. Athena, remember them?

There was the odd Porsche too - like Turbos with massive whale-tail spoilers and Martini stripes.

One day in 1991 I was sat in a GCSE design class talking cars with one of the other boys. He was firmly in the Porsche camp.

“You could get a Ferrari,” he said, “but with a Porsche you get class.”

We argued playfully like a pair of grown men over a pint.

Shift forward many years to 2006 and I finally I bought an old Porsche 911. My mate’s words had slowly permeated my grey matter, and I’d saved.

Now, this isn’t about flexing, posing, or being a statusy nobhead.

This is about a petrolheady lust for the beauty of the design, the lineage, the story, the noise, the smell. Everything. And I couldn’t afford a Ferrari.

I’ve had other various other bits like a mk2 Golf GTI, a mk1 MX-5 (one of those Eunos Japanese grey import jobs, a V-spec if you remember your GranTurismo) an Audi Quattro (um, A4 estate) and a John Cooper Works Mini.

But nothing came close to that 1990 911 Carrera 4.

After 6 years though, I sold it.

And bought an estate car.

The 911 wasn’t getting used as much, and it needed much more money spending on it than a) I had and b) it was worth. I needed a load lugger for family camping trips and mundane tip runs. Life had changed.

I regretted selling it. A lot. Particularly when the market soared for 90s air cooled 911s.

Buying a newer 911 became the new aim (did it ever go away??) and a couple of years later when I scored a decent role at Amazon.

13 years old, Seal Grey in colour, a 3.8l engine, great sound, amazing drive, and of course that timeless, iterated 911 shape. Hours of research and viewing shitty cars had yielded a gem. It ticked most of the options boxes I wanted, too.

👆 Collection day 😍

We had a lot of fun together. A road trip to Le Mans, drives around the peaks, a week enjoying the Welsh mountains - even a nip to Aldi was an event.

However, after 4 years and many miles covered, last year I decided I needed something else. Something different, a change. The love of the car and the look and feel and noise were all still there, but….. I was just a bit bored of it.

I had other itches to scratch.

But that would mean putting it up for sale, tyre kickers, cleaning it every five minutes, haggling, test drives, re-advertising… blah blah.

Inertia set in and it took me another six months to put it up for sale.

Then what would I get to replace it? Too much choice in the world of modern classics. 90s Mercs, 2000s M3s, early Fiesta STs, Alfas…. So, much research was conducted into many 10-30 year-old potential money pits.

I wanted: Something reasonably modern but still in the analogue age; fast and fun; looked after; mild practicality to cart my music gear around in. Sub 6 grand-ish.

I didn’t want: Something too analogue - I wanted to be able to plug my phone into it; loads of unusable power; a £1500 bill every time it needed something doing.

I bought a Renault Clio.

A Clio RS has been on the list for LONG time. Since the haloed Williams. It’s all about the revs and the handling. Both are sublime.

Now, I’m knocking around in a cheap, twelve year old hot hatch again like it’s 2002, but with a 46-year-old’s insurance premium.

One of the few cars left in the car park at last night’s car show.

The “What would the neighbours think about me getting rid of my Porsche and buying a hatchback?” thing wasn’t, well, a thing.

It’s incredible. SO different. Holds the road like a limpet on rollerskates. Direct steering like the 911 but in a smaller package. Feels like a toy. Puts a smile on my face both to look at and to drive.

“So, what’s the bleedin’ point of all this Phil?” .

The point is, sometimes we all need a change, but very often the rut we’re in can make it seem impossible, inertia sets in, we don’t know how to make the changes and then we spend too much time worrying about what other people are going to think.

If you want a change, make it happen, FOR YOU.

Here’s 4 steps to take:

Step 1 - Ask yourself WHY you want to make the change, and what’s going to be different as a result.

Step 2 - Do the research (like my hours on forums, Pistonheads and Autotrader). Work out what you want, and importantly what you don’t want. Or need.

But draw a line between analysis paralysis and taking action. See point 3.

Step 3 - Get on with it. People often say “don’t settle”. But all the time you’re not settling for anything less than perfect, you’re missing out on loads of great stuff in the meantime.

I really wanted a 911 with heated seats. But the one I found had a shouty exhaust and other toys.

I wanted a Clio with perfect bodywork and leather inside.

I’d have never bought either if I’d waited for my supposed “perfect” spec.

Step 4 - Continually focus on what makes you happy and engaged. Or find a way to do more of what makes you feel like that.

For me, it’s a bit of reliving my youth, blasting around some B roads in a hot hatch.

And not because of some midlife crisis, but because, well, why the fuck not?

The careers link.

Taking into account 1-4 above… If you’re bored, or fed up with your lot:

👉 Try a sideways move into a different field in the same company

👉 Take on different projects that expose you to new teams, products, or goals

👉 Leave the firm you’ve been with forever.

👉 Take that course you’ve been meaning to take - work related or not.

👉 Sell what you know and go consulting or start a side hustle.

👉 Position yourself in your company or CV as ready for the step up.

But DO SOMETHING DIFFERENTLY.

3 Take Aways…

1 - Change will enrich your life, spawn creativity and new ways of working and expose you to new ideas, people, opportunities and experiences.

2 - Who said life has to be dull? Don’t accept boredom and stagnation.

3 - Making decisions for YOU (and not for your perception of what people are going to think) is wholesome and rewarding.

Auf Wiedersehen and a bientôt …

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Behind the scenes at The Jobs List

I sat writing the bones of this last night at a new local Cars and Coffee night.

I get my inspiration from all over the place, write about what I know (life, careers, CV writing, interviewing and job search) and the things in life that give me joy (movies, music, pop culture, and cars).

Recently we’ve had Mr Benn, The Terminator, Guns n’ Roses, When Harry Met Sally, Pulp Fiction and He-Man all popping up in the name of helping you with your job search. See my past posts here.

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Finally (and thanks for sticking with this slightly longer than normal email) here’s a few bits of job search support from the socials this last couple of weeks:

🤘 This is a short one on how to liven up your CV and land interviews.

🤘 This is from my Pro Tips Tuesday series on Linkedin on saving yourself some hassle before an interview.

🤘 This is about me getting out of my comfort zone. You can do it too.

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Did you find this diatribe borderline useful/vaguely interesting/lightly entertaining?

Share the shit out of it 💪

Thank you,

Phil