Former media CEO Nic Jones left a decades-long career for bus driving; eight months later, he called himself a fulfilled and happy bus driver

A successful career can bring professional recognition, financial security and opportunities to lead, yet those achievements do not always guarantee personal satisfaction. Nic Jones, a former media executive in Australia, left the corporate world after a long career in media and music to pursue his lifelong interest in buses, becoming a bus driver in Sydney.Jones began driving for the transport operator Keolis Downer in April 2024. In a profile published by Australasian Bus & Coach magazine in December 2024, he said he loved the feeling of helping people and valued the camaraderie among his fellow drivers. His move offers a different picture of career development from the usual climb up the corporate ladder.Nic Jones’s dream of driving a double-decker bus since he was five Jones told Australasian Bus & Coach that one of his earliest memories, growing up in England, was sitting with his mother on a bus into town and wanting to sit behind the driver of the double-decker to see how he drove. He said he was less interested in where they were going than in watching the driver. After finishing university in the UK, he also worked as a long-distance lorry driver for a year before deciding he needed a “real job.” For the best part of 40 years, the magazine reports, Jones held executive positions in media and music, including CEO of an ASX-listed company an most recently, of the live music platform Moshcam. His Advertising Week APAC biography lists senior roles at Yahoo and Vevo, where he was chief revenue officer. He said he often joked with his family on holidays that he might one day become a bus driver.The 2024 funding loss and the decision to return to a childhood dream The profile reports that the funding Jones’s business needed fell through at the start of 2024, forcing him to step away from it. His father’s death in the UK that January added to the setback and Jones decided the best way to rebound was to return to the dream he had first had as a five-year-old. He said he wanted to recapture his purpose in life and try something different and although Uber driving was an option, he chose buses because of the community-minded side of his personality. He earned his MR/HGV licence and applied to become a bus driver and in April he began driving for Keolis Downer, a public transport operator, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. The magazine adds that Jones is already wondering whether he could add value to Keolis Downer and the wider bus industry and he said he would be interested in operations work if the chance came up, though first he wants to master driving a bus.Driving for Keolis Downer on Sydney’s Northern Beaches from April 2024 Starting the job brought difficulties. The magazine reports that Jones was nervous before his first day with Keolis Downer, but that driving gradually became second nature and he said a bus is not an easy vehicle to drive. He added that the public are, for the most part, delightful, that the drivers are an incredibly close group and that his biggest worry had been that he would not find his people.The description of an October 2024 episode of the Future Squared podcast says Jones discusses how driving buses and working with people each day gives him a sense of meaning he can see. He also wrote on LinkedIn that he loves feeling that he is working in and for the community.What Jones said about purpose and privilege in late 2024 By the time of the magazine’s December 2024 profile, about eight months after he started, Jones said he loved driving and helping people. His experience suggests that career satisfaction can come without a high-profile role or a high-status title. His story does not imply that everyone should leave an established career, or that bus driving automatically brings happiness and the Future Squared episode description notes that Jones himself addresses the view that leaving a well-paying job is a choice open to only a few. Still, his case points to another way of approaching career change, since some people may find work satisfaction that does not involve climbing the corporate ladder and for Jones, the move brought him closer to the dream he had held since he was five.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.