Blog – Impressability Career Services

Jul 12

What to do when you’ve climbed your Everest

By Zoë Wundenberg

I was one of the many millions of sports lovers who watched Ash Barty’s incredible performance on Saturday night to win the Wimbledon ladies crown.

Watching someone achieve a lifetime dream was remarkable.

However, Todd Woodbridge’s comment about the reality of the experience was a telling one.

He said that his response was, “is this it?”, explaining it as being a feeling of surrealism and one that didn’t sink in properly for some time.

This really spoke to me, as the achievement of a goal – especially one that is as momentous as winning Wimbledon – can leave you feeling somewhat cast adrift, like your life’s purpose is suddenly behind you. So, what’s next?

UP TO IT: Having achieved her life's ambition, Ash Barty will face a psychological challenge. Picture: Han Yan/Xinhua via Getty Images — *Picture: Han Yan/Xinhua via Getty Images*

The problem with the question, “what’s next” after achieving such an enormous goal, is the question of whether any other goal can now compare.

So the biggest challenge in setting your sights on achieving your dreams is not actually the achievement of the dream, but having a plan to help you through the other side once you have achieved it.

The same principle applies to non-world championship sporting feats of glory.

There are plenty of articles out there about why gunning for your dream job is important, about how to set yourself up for success, how to pursue your dream job and so on, but there isn’t a lot out there addressing what to do when you get there.

If your dream job is dreamy, and you love every day, then woohoo! But you need to keep yourself motivated, so identifying what this will mean is important.

Are you the kind of person who needs to be challenged? Do you want to continue to make more money? Do you want to pursue further development? Or education? Or promotion?

These questions are important to ensure that you don’t lapse into comfortable apathy and wake up one morning realising that you’ve lost your way.

But, if you finally land that dream opportunity only to discover that it’s not what you thought it was going to be, or you do in fact feel a little cast adrift, then all is not lost.

Very rarely does the achievement of one’s dreams come without sacrifice.

This means that the price we pay for our goals is an even heavier burden if the goals don’t turn out to be what we expect.

Many of us double down at this point and refuse to cut our losses because of the sacrifices that we made to get there.

But the truth is, that this just compounds the sacrifices and without any promise of a pay-off: it becomes self-punishment.

Experience is never wasted – everything that we go to forms a part of who we become, how we think, what we see in the world around us. There is power is pivoting when our dreams become nightmares.

Feeling like you’ve already climbed Mount Everest and have nowhere left to focus your energy after the achievement of your goals is a danger to focusing on one tangible outcome.

Our career development structure is traditionally developed around the idea of achieving a dream job title, without a whole lot of energy being put into how we want to feel about our work.

Recently, we’ve seen a shift towards identifying our values and ensuring our work connects with a broader sense of purpose than a specific title, and this means that our career planning needs to be a continual evolution and requires ongoing attention throughout our careers.

For Ash, the next goal is likely Olympic gold, then the round of grand slams continues, but keeping your eye on this prize after you’ve just achieved your life’s ambition will be psychologically challenging.

Ash strikes me as someone who is incredibly resilient, dedicated and genuinely passionate about her career, and I’ll be one of many (again) cheering for her from home as she fights the next fight.

But for the rest of us, it’s vital to ensure that we can see beyond our dreams and that we don’t pin everything on the achievement of that goal.

Because whether we achieve it or not, there is always going to be a tomorrow and we need to make sure that we are planning for that too.

This article first appeared in The Canberra Times on July 12, 2021.

Apr 08

Empowerment or Endangerment?

By ZoWun | Career development

Do women feel pressured to ‘have it all’?

I recently heard Jane Caro on the ABC’s The Drum talking about ‘empowerment.’ She understood the concept to have become a stressor and an expectation – that to empower women (in particular) to have both a family and a career is to put undue pressure on girls to live up to high standards of a perfect family, a fabulous home, a great figure, volunteering in the community, and managing a successful career. In essence, she believes that through this concept of ‘empowering’ women to ‘have it all’ we are putting them in the position of feeling like they have to ‘earn the right’ to this and as a result, all being ‘empowered’ means is to feel totally exhausted as they struggle to juggle all the balls of life at once.

The response to this interview was widespread affirmation that women all over the country are experiencing this level of exhaustion as they balance the needs of home, work and (usually last on the priority list) their own health and wellbeing.

However, is this really the story of a person who is empowered?

To be empowered is to give someone the authority or power to do something on the one hand, but on the other, it means to make someone stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights. It appears that somewhere between these two arms of the definition of empowerment, we have lost our way. Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we necessarily should. We are in a society where women can ‘have it all.’. However, there is a difference between empowering someone to have the choice to build a career and have a family, and expecting them to.

Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we necessarily should.

Many of the clients that I see are women returning to work after they have started a family. It’s not ‘empowerment’ that drives them back to work. Usually, it is the need to put food on the table. In ‘Mum-land’ there is a lot of pressure to be the perfect parent: women appear to be excellent at shaming each other and it is a widely held fact that you literally cannot get it right whether you breast or bottle feed, use cloth or disposable nappies, dress your girl in pink or blue, co-sleep or let baby cry it out – everyone has an opinion and everyone believes their opinion is ‘truth.’ Whether a mother returns to work (and when she chooses to do so) does not escape this social scrutiny and the development of social media for 21^st century mums only magnifies this scrutiny.

As individual as the choice to use cloth or disposable nappies is, so is the choice to return to work. This decision is metered by many factors including balancing the cost of daycare with the salary they will earn, investigating the value of returning to the world of adulthood and leaving the Wiggles behind for a few hours, and understanding the importance of continuing to build a career that means something to them. Socially speaking, people are going to judge you no matter what you choose: if you choose to stay home, you could be considered less valuable to society (even the government is known to support women returning to work – a working mum is a tax paying mum!) despite the fact that you are raising the next generation of Australians (a full time job in itself!). If you choose to go back to work, then you aren’t fulfilling the ideal model of motherhood because you are choosing to put the children in daycare and ‘not raise them yourself.’ This social judgment creates quite the conundrum that often pits mums against each other when we really need to be standing together and supporting each other.

At the end of the day, returning to work or staying home is a choice that you need to make based on what’s important to you and what your family needs. Trying to manage a perfect life is to succumb to social expectations and pressures. However, to feel confident in your decision, knowing that it is the right one for you and your family is to be empowered. What Jane Caro was describing was mummy guilt and overwhelm – to really be empowered, we need to be free to make our decisions outside of social pressures and away from Facebook.

Feb 28

Unemployment’s not so Black and White

By ZoWun | Employment/Career Statistics , Unemployment

“The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.”
Mahatma Ghandi

Last week, I wrote about numbers. About how underemployment is sitting at a 23-year high and trending up, how we have 1.1 million Australians looking for more work than they currently have, and how even the unemployment rate is significantly higher when you change the parameters of the survey from a person who hasn’t worked at least one hour in the previous month to a person not working and looking for work at some point over the previous month.

This week, I want to write about a common story found behind the numbers. For many of us, finding work in Australia is hard. As a society, we seem to have little patience for people experiencing unemployment or underemployment, and we base this on two things. Firstly, the assumption that finding work isn’t actually that hard because “I’ve never had any trouble”, and so by default, the unemployed person must be either too picky or too lazy to “get off their bum and get a job.” Secondly, that in some way, the unemployed person is beholden to us because “our taxes” pay their welfare.

I was stunned when I saw the responses on a local social media page when a woman sought advice regarding finding work here.

There was no consideration given for her qualifications, experience, her strengths and weaknesses, health or capabilities. No one even inquired about them. Every suggestion was menial and was often accompanied with a comment about how she should take whatever she could get.

There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding that if the job is unskilled, it’s easy to get.

There are a number of problems with this. Firstly, this advice is often administered by people who have been in the same job for decades or haven’t experienced unemployment, especially not long-term unemployment. The comments generally start with “I’ve never had a problem finding a job, you just have to get off the couch.” Therefore, it’s not coming from a place of experience or empathy, but of judgment. Secondly, menial and unskilled work is not actually easy to attain, especially if you have unrelated qualifications and a work history that doesn’t demonstrate the required skills. Even then, the willingness to undertake menial work does not necessarily lead to employment.

Unemployment is often a demeaning experience on its own, without the social media trolls coming out of the woodwork to tell them how easy finding work is and to get a job scrubbing toilets.

There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding that if the job is unskilled, it’s easy to get. A hirer in this situation is still doing risk assessments when it comes to hiring decisions and often being unsuitably, or over, qualified can be a huge disadvantage. Telling this woman that ABC company is looking for a concreter isn’t realistically helpful when she is a trained counsellor.

Unemployment is often a demeaning experience on its own, without the social media trolls coming out of the woodwork to tell them how easy finding work is and to get a job scrubbing toilets. Unemployment is the leading cause of poverty according to the Australian Council of Social Service. It puts people at a significantly higher risk of depression, which in itself impacts a person’s self-motivation, sense of intrinsic value and ability to engage with others. When this person actually reaches out and seeks help, only to be told that they aren’t trying hard enough, this advice compounds an already challenging and emotional situation.

Ghandi famously said: “The measure of a society is found in how they treat their weakest and most helpless citizens.” If this is the case, we are going to be found wanting. Out of the federal budget, the cost of welfare for the unemployed and sick is $10 billion a year – it costs us more to support families with children than it does to help those experiencing unemployment. Allow me to ask you, what is the cost of not helping them?

This article was first published in the Border Mail on February 27, 2018, and is republished here with permission from the Editor in Chief, Xavier Mardling.

Apr 24

There’s life, and work, after Defence

By ZoWun | Career development

The ANZAC day tradition is entrenched in our national identity, however, as proud as we are of our ANZAC heritage, the transition to civilian life following a career in the military is often a journey fraught with challenges.

My own grandfather was in the British army during WWII. He got out after the war ended and went back to his trade as a carpenter. He found it so hard to work alongside people who couldn’t share in his experience of war and who, subsequently, just didn’t understand who he was, that he re-enlisted in the British Army and became a career soldier among people ‘like him’. However, staying in isn’t an option for everyone.

The culture of the Australian Defence Force is unique in that it doesn’t just offer a job, it offers a way of life, a community, a family…

The culture of the Australian Defence Force is unique in that it doesn’t just offer a job, it offers a way of life, a community, a family that is often characterised by camaraderie, honour and commitment outside of the regular 9-5 hours of a civilian job. Moving into civilian life can be a culture shock for Defence members and can result in a loss of identity, feeling cut off from the community of Defence families, no longer feeling respected as a serving member, and along with that, a loss of personal status. Additionally, sometimes, military training is not recognised in civilian labour markets which means all that training and development that you undertook during the course of your service can feel useless because it just doesn’t get you anywhere on the outside. All of this can impact your ability to connect with other people, build friendships with civilians and rebuild your professional identity. As a result, depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health challenges can rear their heads and it’s really important to ensure that you are well-prepared with appropriate resources and support networks to assist you in the transition from military to civilian life.

Defence Force veterans can come up against bias and prejudice (conscious or subconscious) in the civilian labour market, but these struggles don’t have to define your experience. Common issues include hirers being prejudiced against ex-military members because of preconceived ideas about their inability to think independently, being hard task masters, inflexible and being fierce sticklers for following rules– we’ve all seen those military movies with those frightening drill masters screaming in soldier’s faces, spittle flying! However, modern military members know that this is far from the case. When you are applying for work, you can shake this impression by following the same rule that civilians need to follow when it comes to applying for work: tailor your application to suit the needs of the job.

Your résumé and cover letter needs to be about you, but it also needs to be about the hirer and their needs. Your job in applying for positions is to make it as easy as possible for the hirer to identify your value to them and thus be able to align your skills and experience with the needs of the vacant position. Acronyms and jargon often become such an ingrained element to Defence personnel’s language that it creeps into application documents under the guise of assumed knowledge. In reality, all this does is complicate and confuse civilian hirers who become bamboozled by terms they don’t understand and this clouds the value that you bring to the work place. Focus on communication skills, relationships building, listening skills, genuine leadership characterised by empowerment and staff development. Break your skills down into translatable categories that will create meaning for a prospective employer: consider business acumen, leadership, communication and team work as the cornerstones for your areas of expertise, and remember that you need to help the hirer understand how your military service empowers you to work ethically and honourably with a sense of accountability and drive that is second to none. There are also industries that offer a similar sense of belonging and camaraderie that you can consider such as the police force and even mining.

Military service is something to be proud of. It can also be a great asset in the civilian labour market if it’s pitched appropriately.

Apr 17

I want to get into mining!

By ZoWun | Career development

‘I want to get into mining,’ is a statement I still often here from clients. For many, winning a job in mining is perceived as being similar to winning the lottery – it means a big salary that can open doors for people in their lives.

During the mining boom, opportunities were more widely available despite still being quite difficult to land. This fever doesn’t appear to have been diminished much by the downturn in the mining industry. When mining traineeships are advertised, people tend to go a little crazy and the number of applications that are submitted for a small number of jobs can number up to 1000.

I hear from a really broad spectrum of people who are apparently interested in getting into the mines as mobile plant operators: from labourers and tradespeople to hairdressers and teachers. Across this diverse group, there is a common theme: they are looking for a big pay cheque. They don’t often want the actual job in the mines, they want the salary that goes with it and there is a big problem with this.

Working in the mining industry is not an easy job. Reverse parking a 380t+ dump truck under a 300t+ digger is obviously significantly harder than reverse parking a Holden Astra at Big W. It might be considered ‘unskilled’ work, but operating mining equipment is a huge responsibility and it does take confidence and a particular skill set to be able to master. The people who succeed in this industry are the ones with a genuine passion for the work – who live and breathe the industry and the equipment, with a real buzz for operating such huge and powerful machines. To succeed, the pay cheque has to come second to the love for the job.

Then you have the living situation. For many, moving into the mining industry means FIFO work – this is not for everyone. I speak to a lot of people with families that are wanting to ‘make the sacrifice to provide for their family.’ This is honestly a really noble approach, however in reality, nobility doesn’t protect your mental health or repair broken relationships as you find yourself spending more of your life away from your family than with them. This can breed resentment, loneliness, separation issues from children (for both the parent and the child/ren), and we’ve all seen the reports on mental health issues and suicide rates in FIFO workers by not-for-profit organisations like Lifeline and various government agencies.

Furthermore, the pay cheque can be a bigger burden than saving grace.

Furthermore, the pay cheque can be a bigger burden than saving grace. People tend to get into debt based on the salary that they are earning – it allows them to get the loan for their dream home and to finally purchase that super powered GT. However, the mining industry is far from stable and jobs are not as secure as they used to be. Technological development is driving change in the industry and they are moving away from manned operation and moving towards remote control for cost and safety reasons. This means there is an increasing number of people who have got themselves into debt to a level that they can’t sustain back home in other industries and this is causing greater pressure and stress on their home-life. Mining might seem like the answer to their prayers, but even if they manage to get into a traineeship, it can be a personal, familial and financial disaster.

This story has an important theme – when you are looking at your options when it comes to job choices, consider what you will be doing on a daily basis and whether or not it is something that you would genuinely enjoy. There is nothing worse than dreading getting up in the morning because you have to go to work and even when the pay cheque is substantial, there really is no price that you can put on being there for your children, your spouse and being able to sustain a healthy mental outlook. You also need to consider the projected developments in the industry that will define growth and continued labour stability as technology is driving change in the marketplace and impacting jobs across the board. There is a lot more to consider than the salary.

Apr 04

What is career development?

By ZoWun | Career development

What is career development? Typically speaking, we only really think about our career in terms of job seeking and while this is certainly a large part of it, it’s not the only part of it. That rush of panic when you find a job that you want to apply for and you realise that your résumé hasn’t been updated in 15 years and you have no idea how to respond to selection criteria (we’ve all been there!) is not a pleasant feeling! Effectively managing your career can help you prepare for these unexpected opportunities.

Career development is a lifelong process and it combines managing your education and training, your work experience and career progression, your network and community interaction together with your recreational activities to ensure that your life is balanced between work and home. It takes effort but once you are aware of the importance of consciously managing your career, the fog surrounding your future begins to lift and you are able to identify your opportunities in work, education and networking more clearly.

Statistics indicate that we spend up to 75% of our time in work related activities – travelling to work, attending work, talking about work, complaining about work, worrying about work. When it takes up so much of our time, it’s really important that we get this right, and yet many of us have a reactive approach to managing our careers.

In order to stay on top of our career development, we need to be proactive. Instead of waiting for an opportunity to arise and then panicking, we need to be prepared for it and if possible, seek and create it. Instead of dusting off the résumé and freaking out over having to update it quickly, we should maintain it as we progress through our career: every time we achieve something at work, we should document it so we aren’t left racking our brains when we are trying to demonstrate our skills and experience.

I can feel your eyes roll at the administrative perfection that proactive career development seemingly demands. Perhaps this is a plan for the perfect world as life can get so busy it is difficult to keep up with the immediate demands. However, it is worth it to keep your documents up to date with your current achievements in the long run, as this doesn’t only make our résumé current, it also allows us to build a strong, conscious awareness of our skills and capabilities which actually improves our work productivity and performance as our confidence grows. This in itself can lead to new opportunities!

Moreover, this conscious awareness of your experience and skill development is important because when you are aware of where you are at professionally speaking, it allows you to be more mindful of opportunities for training and development, for achieving experience, and for building networks with people who may be relevant to the direction in which you are heading.

Debriefing is an equally important part of career development and it is often overlooked. Talking to a career practitioner (or trusted third party) about what is going on at work can help you work through any issues or roadblocks, help you transition through promotions and manage success, as well as identify areas for improvement and seek opportunities for growth and building visibility. All that complaining about work can actually be really beneficial to your career development! Who knew?! Career counselling isn’t just for managing outplacement and for high school kids looking to choose a course (although it’s great for that too): talking to someone else about your career goals, frustrations, successes and failures is really important as soundboarding your ideas and verbalising your experiences – both good and bad – can help you to clarify what you want to achieve and how you can achieve it.

Career development as a lifelong process might be daunting or seemingly eye rolling in tedium, but it isn’t a journey we take on our own and it can lead to achieving the goals that we set out to smash.

This article was first published in the Border Mail on April 17, 2017, and is republished here with permission from the Editor in Chief, Xavier Mardling.

Mar 27

Put on a brave face and start networking

By ZoWun | Career development

Networking. It’s a word the induces shudders of horror in many of us: we often imagine stuffy meetings with men and women in suits carrying briefcases and talking about economics and commerce and legislative changes. This image of networking can be quite daunting to anyone, and yet it is a tool that is vital to our career development. I am what I call a ‘false extrovert’ – I am really an introvert, shy and nervous about meeting new people, but I force myself to face the fear daily and ‘get out there’ in the world and meet people. It is a challenge, and even now, almost nine years after I started Impressability, I still get an attack of the nerves before an event.

Many people believe that networking is only a skill required for the upper echelons of the career ladder, but in truth this is not the case. There is a widely held misconception that hirers will put a job advertisement up on seek.com as the first step to finding the person they are looking for to fill a vacancy, however, this is often the last step in their process. Most people looking to hire, initially look to their network to see if they know of anyone appropriate (or if someone they know, knows someone) – hiring from within their network is often considered to lower the hire risk because they come with a recommendation from a trusted contact. Hiring from seek.com can be a bit hit and miss – you never know who is going to apply and the risk of a poor hire is significantly greater. It really is who you know.

Most people looking to hire, initially look to their network to see if they know anyone appropriate.

Job seekers, on the other hand, generally keep their hunt for a new position a closely guarded fact; it’s not something they generally share amongst their network. If they are already hired, they often don’t want their current hirer to know that they are looking to move on for fear of being given the boot. How often has that happened to you: you have been quietly looking for another job, your boss has found out and told you to finish up at the end of shift? For a hirer, they can see this as a breach of trust and a lack of commitment to the job at hand despite your work output. For those experiencing unemployment, very few like to broadcast that fact. There is often a sense of shame attached to experiencing unemployment (although I must take a moment to acknowledge that there is no shame in the experience). As such, job seekers often find themselves looking for work quietly with perhaps only their immediate circle knowing and with those few who do, sworn to secrecy!

I’m sure you can see the problem here – hirers and job seekers are coming at the issue of employment from opposite ends of the field.

However, networking does not have to mean stuffy business meetings. The skill can actually be applied anywhere. Essentially, the word itself means ‘to interact with others to exchange information and develop professional or social contacts.’ You can apply this skill to your local football club, to dancing classes, to the parent stand at your children’s sporting events and even your local pub. Anywhere that you are involved with a group of people on a regular or semi-regular basis can become an opportunity for networking. Step outside your usual circle and introduce yourself to the people around you. Get to know who they are and share who you are. You would be amazed by what can come from meeting and mingling with people just outside your normal circle of contacts.

For those who are skilled at using social media, this is another means of connecting with others, related to you or your industry. Using LinkedIn to meet new people and get involved in industry discussions in the various groups on the platform is a fantastic way to build your reputation as an expert in your field and to grow your opportunities.

Networking can seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. I have managed to land several roles over the last few years due to my contacts within my network. Despite my own trepidation, I am the first to acknowledge just how important this skill is in finding new opportunities. There is a lot to be said for taking a deep breath and introducing yourself to someone new.

This article was first published in the Border Mail on March 27, 2017, and is republished here with permission from the Editor in Chief, Xavier Mardling.

Mar 14

The danger of looking for ‘any job’

By ZoWun | Career development , Unemployment

As both a recruiter and a careers practitioner, ‘anything’ is the answer I have often heard when I have asked someone what they want to do for a job. People perhaps don’t want to appear to be picky in case you don’t consider them for a role that would mean money to them, or perhaps they are so desperate for work that they don’t stop to think about what they should do, what they want to do, or even what realistically they can do. Work is work and when there are bills to be paid, choice can be seen as a luxury that they simply cannot afford.

According to many online forums, ‘anything’ is also often the answer to what people should be willing to do but apparently aren’t when they are experiencing unemployment. Social media is rife with keyboard warriors spreading the idea that ‘anything’ is an appropriate, if not expected outcome for the job seekers in our community, set against the belief that people are experiencing unemployment because they are hanging out for a ‘better’ role. It seems that once you are experiencing unemployment, all bets are off and there is a social expectation that you will take the first job that comes along regardless of suitability.

There is a huge problem with this approach that needs to be addressed. Firstly, I understand the panic of feeling like you need to get into another job immediately regardless of what it is because of impending financial chaos with the debt collectors knocking at your door. However, you also need to consider the wider implications of this reaction.

Your mental health can be significantly impacted if you take a job that is a step (or a leap) backwards for you in your career – will you hate work every day? Research suggests that we spend up to 75% of our day in work-related activities and as such, it is so important that we get this right. Taking a job that you don’t really want can also damage the work chronology of your résumé, making it harder to get back on track. The stress (and sometimes resentment) you feel about taking this position can impact your personal relationships and cause stress in your personal life, and the longer you stay in the undesirable role, the harder it will be to break out of it and find a job that you actually want, resulting in you feeling trapped in the position that was only meant to be a ‘filler.’

Research tells us that less than half of Australians are happy with their job, and our work-life balance is getting worse. It’s so important to pay attention to our career development and look at how we can make decisions to better meet our broader needs.

We all need money to survive, but it’s not the only thing that we need. We need to be smart about how we plan our next step – even through the haze of panic that experiencing unemployment can stir. We need to be strong in our convictions and be able to truthfully answer the question ‘why do you want this job?’ demonstrating that we have thought about it and specifically want to attain the role. Considering a lower level job in a company that we want to work for or in an industry we’d like to be in, can be a way of side stepping without creating too much damage to our careers along the way.

We also need to remember that ultimately, these decisions are rarely in our hands; being overqualified is a leading cause of failing to be shortlisted for a job. It’s not always about being willing to accept ‘any’ job that comes along – it isn’t a matter of snobbery – it is very difficult to convince a hirer to hire you when they believe you are overqualified and will leave the minute a better role comes along. The assumption that people are experiencing unemployment because they won’t accept ‘any’ job is based on the premise that they are being offered jobs and declining them. Many of us in this situation never have that opportunity.

Remember – while unemployment is rarely a choice, how you go about searching for work is. It’s not snobbery to look for work in a company, industry or career that you want. It’s not about waiting for a ‘dream job,’ it’s about being smart about what you do with the fresh start you’ve been given.

This article was first published in the Border Mail and is re-published here with permission.

Mar 01

Life can throw you a curve ball sometimes

By ZoWun | Career development

Life can sometimes throw the most unexpected curve balls. When I was a school kid (here, in Albury in fact), I can honestly say being a Career Development Practitioner was never my response to the question ‘what do you want to be when you grow up.’ It doesn’t seem to be the kind of career that a person aspires to as a child – it tends to be something we fall into along the path to other destinations.a

When I was in high school I wanted to be a palaeontologist – just like my 8yo son, I was fascinated with dinosaurs and loved learning about them, although to be fair, my 8yo would have put me to shame in a battle of knowledge of these prehistoric beasts! Then I wanted to be a sports journalist – I thought that travelling the world and being paid to watch sport was pretty much the best gig a person could imagine. Then I wanted to be a teacher. Given that both my parents were teachers, this is probably the most predictable outcome and off I went to university to study a Bachelor of Arts to be followed by a Diploma of Education.

But somewhere along the way I fell off the path well-planned and thought about post graduate studies and PhDs and the romance of studying in the UK so before I knew it, my Diploma of Education turned into an Honours year in History instead (studying witchcraft trials because there is such a calling for that sort of thing in the current labour market!) … and then I met a man in uniform. An Airforce uniform.

I ended up moving to Katherine in the NT for the most eye-opening, naiveté-stripping experience of my life at that point where my partner was stationed at Tindal before he got out of the ADF and we moved to Perth. I ended up working in the Public Sector and found my way into Recruitment where I discovered a passion for helping people find work.

And then I fell pregnant. Like many women, I felt that this meant my career was over, or at least my days where my career was so centrally placed in my life. Little did I know, that the birth of my son would also birth the opportunity to build the career I didn’t know I always wanted – the freedom to create my own path on a daily basis, limited only by my imagination (and capital!) and flexibility to allow me to attend my son’s school assemblies while also meeting my clients’ needs. They say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, for me it was a case of when life closes a door, build another one.

This is an example of chaos, quite literally – the Chaos Theory of Career Development. My own experiences have taught me that it is important to have a plan, but it is even more important to be open to variations and tangents, opportunities and risks because our labour market is so changeable (and becoming more so) that we need to be able to adapt and change as the needs of the market evolve. With unemployment being so high in parts of Albury Wodonga, creativity and innovation in our approach to career development is vital to designing opportunities to build meaningful careers.

Self-employment might not be for all of us, but taking the approach that we are a company of one, that we are selling our brand to prospective employers creates a new perspective on the career experience that often makes us stand out from the crowd. Have you created a personal brand for yourself? What does it say about you? Do your social media profiles and career documents (such as your résumé and cover letter) reflect that brand?

We are in an era where innovation and entrepreneurialism is currency, but you don’t have to be an entrepreneur to innovate your career path. It’s all in the way we perceive ourselves and then portray our brand to those around us.

This article was first published in the Border Mail and is re-published here with permission.