One woman who wasn't lining up for cinema tickets to Elizabeth: The Golden Age last month is Sarah Hunt. She never got on with that part of history. "I found the Tudors so boring! I tried really hard to get that part of history into my head because I knew it was crucial to do well in my A-levels but it was just so dull. The teacher was boring, the piece of history was boring and I just couldn't learn it."

She likens this experience to how she felt working as a lawyer - her original career. Swept up in what was considered ‘successful' at school, she went into law because it was one of the few options presented to her at the time. "It was either become a lawyer or a doctor, and I became a lawyer so I was a ‘success'. But I was absolutely the least happy person you've ever met in your life! I felt I didn't fit with the profession and was stressed because I wanted to do a good job. Like the Tudors, it didn't click and I had to keep relearning and reminding myself of everything.

"So I started to wonder about what being successful really meant. I didn't feel a success but everyone thought I was, and there's a real pressure to stay in something you don't like because it's perceived as that."

These days, Hunt doesn't worry about the concept of success. As MD of her specialist recruitment business, Equity FD, she's happy with her lot - helping give others stuck in traditional careers some different options. But it's been a long journey to get here, with some serious soul searching along the way.

After five years of relative misery as a banking and insolvency lawyer, she quit. "I always admire people who are good at it, but it was not for me. I could have stayed there in my success box with a tick and my mother going ‘oh, she's a lawyer, fantastic!' while I was gradually dying inside," she admits.

"I could have stayed there in my success box with a tick and my mother going ‘oh, she's a lawyer, fantastic!' while I was gradually dying inside."

After a brief period of self evaluation and worrying that life was passing her by, Hunt leapt into something completely different. Recruitment. ‘A sales job? Oh my god! Ugh!' were the reactions she got. But, very quickly, she realised it was for her. She loved dealing with new people, enjoyed the fact that placing candidates impacted the bottom line of hers and her clients' businesses, and that it was always an exciting new start for candidates.

"I'd never heard of anything like recruitment as a concept when I was at school. It hadn't crossed my mind and people hadn't mentioned it. So when I went to a few interviews and they liked what I was saying without having to ‘learn' or memorise it, there was just a natural click."

Six years and one baby later, Hunt left her job at Michael Page in 2000. "I wanted to set up a business that offered classic career minded people - accountants, who are just like lawyers - a different angle on their traditional careers."

Equity FD recruits finance directors into entrepreneurial growth businesses which are usually equity backed or AIM listed. "Some are start-up businesses and some are further along but they're always backed or funded, always independent and usually about growth and acquisition."

Hunt is the first to admit it's a specialist area. "You must be interested in working for a growth company or business where there's an exit for the shareholders and where you're very much on the front line. These are roles for finance directors who will be visible across the business, accountable and work closely with the chief executive."

She's clear on this when meeting candidates. "We are very focused on trying to understand what it is that drives the people to come see us. Yes, we're going to be offering them careers in finance rather than the fashion business, but these roles are about opening minds, not closing them. I want people to take them up because they want to work with the right people and companies, not because it looks good on their CV.

"Yes, I'm going to be offering people a career in finance rather than the fashion business, but these roles are about opening minds, not closing them!"

"It's like spinach for me. I don't like it, I don't eat it and I don't care that it's good for me. It's disgusting and I'll get my vitamins elsewhere. That's how I want people to choose their career - with their heart, heads… and stomachs."

And business is booming. In 2005, Equity FD expanded to include Equity FC for financial controllers, and now seven people work across both businesses. They place between 50 and 100 people in companies across the country each year, of which 15 per cent are women, a ‘disproportionally high' number compared to the number of women they meet.

"We don't see enough women candidates and there's no particular reason why we shouldn't. Men and women make great finance directors and controllers," she sighs. Growing awareness of the brand and networking in the area, Hunt hopes, will rectify this in the future and help continue growing her business.

As for Hunt herself, she couldn't be happier. Delighted her lawyer career is behind her, she concedes it still comes in handy. "It jolly well made the rest of my life seem a whole lot better," she laughs. "It also taught me how to put together a business, and understand equity and debt which is central to my business now."

Personally, she's also in a great place. She celebrated turning 40 with a trip on the Orient Express with her husband and met up with a bunch of her friends in Venice ("Age? Well the alternative is you're dead, so I'd much rather get older") and she's now at the stage where she's starting to have ‘pretty broad' conversations with her 12 year old daughter.

What if she chose law as a career? "I wouldn't be negative, it's about making positive decisions which interest her. I'd really try and speak to her and find out why and what makes her tick. But, most importantly, I'd want her to know that if she didn't like it, she could do something else because there's a whole load of careers and opportunities out there. I think everyone needs to remember that."

By Barbara Walshe