Girls can't be what they can't see. Why we need virtual Career Mentors now more than ever.

It was Oprah Winfrey who once said: “A MENTOR IS SOMEONE WHO ALLOWS YOU TO SEE THE HOPE INSIDE YOURSELF”.

It is true that mentorship can be a powerful determinant of a young person’s life and career trajectory, access to workforce opportunities and aspirations for their future.

Unfortunately, not everyone has an equal start in life, or equal access to industry mentors, professional networks, personal connections or the learning opportunities they need to succeed, especially when living through a pandemic, and especially when living in marginalised communities or in remote, rural and regional areas.

This disadvantage has been impacted further during the remote working and learning environments of the past 18 months, and the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions which are preventing opportunities for face-to-face industry mentorship, work experience, WIL placements and real-world learning opportunities. 

Like many education businesses, girledworld has pivoted to digital delivery models where possible during the pandemic. 

But in order to continue to extend reach to students across Australia, we knew we needed to look at more scalable, on-demand, personalised solutions that could connect young women anywhere, anytime, with real-world industry role models to help them shape their thinking about what’s possible in their future career pathways.

To meet this challenge, we have partnered with Future Amp - a market-leading, seamless, all-in-one, data-driven proprietary platform to support secondary and higher education students and institutions across Australia with workforce readiness, access to 100’s of incredible virtual mentors and 100+ skills-based, on-demand learning courses. 

You can’t be what you can’t see, and you don’t know what you don’t know.

Today’s jobs require constant updating of knowledge and expansion of skills, but when you’re a young person, it’s hard to know what’s out there and to keep up with the world of work so you can make more informed decisions about your future.

Future Amp provides every student with anytime equity of access to differentiated, real-world opportunities to discover global workforce insights, develop and gain critical in-demand skills, learn from 100’s of inspiring virtual mentors from leading global and local companies, and plan career pathways well before they enter the world of work, not just once they’re in it.  

Students can learn at their own pace, in the one place, and get a genuine career early start advantage through learning from real people, in real companies, who share their career stories, and showcase their skills.

While girledworld remains more committed than ever to building the workforce capacity of young women, increasing their participation in STEM industries and bolstering the visibility and opportunity for women’s leadership across Australia, we know that frame of reference and equity of access matters most when students are undertaking their early career exploration and discovery.

By showcasing many of our girledworld mentors in the Future Amp Career Mentors video library and learning courses, we can connect more young women across the country with amazing industry role models who can help positively influence their choices, ignite their interests and ambitions, and help them access knowledge about diverse future career pathways.

COVID-19 has catalysed a step change in the way we live, work and learn.

Our global economy, the jobs market and education systems have undergone enormous change during the pandemic, and will continue to as we move forward. The way we traditionally learn in classrooms and lecture halls no longer meets the demands of the modern workforce – learning and work are integrating, skills-based hiring approaches are driving the new labour market, and hybrid education models are here to stay. 

To meet this new world of education, today’s students need access to digital bridges to the real world of work. We are excited to be part of this change, and will continue to partner with Future Amp, and companies and brands across Australia to bring their people, pathways and skills to students everywhere, so they can get job-ready before they get a job.

Through this digital education partnership, we can continue to extend access for young women across Australia to 100’s of virtual mentors to help them discover what’s possible, build their employability skillsets and see what they can be. This in turn will contribute to a thriving, inclusive, diversity-led economic and social future for Australia.

If you are a business, corporate, startup, co-working space or institution who would like to talk to us about digital partnerships and virtual mentor programming as part of this Future Amp partnership, we’d love to hear from you!

Please get in touch at hello@girledworld.com 

LEARN MORE ABOUT MENTORING:
Listen to This Working Life, where girledworld Founder Madeleine Grummet joins Lisa Leong to discuss The Power of A Good Mentor and tips on how to find one.

Facebook stamps out false news about COVID-19 with new education campaign

We’re living through weird times right now with lots going on. It can be hard to keep up with news, and know what’s real and what’s not, especially when it is clear that some influencers and bad actors are spreading COVID-19 misinformation online.

In response to this, Facebook has launched a new campaign with digital creators to target misinformation, and provide toolkits with resources and instructive guides to prevent false, misleading and incorrect information being shared to social platform followings.

Influencer Abbie Chatfield will be at the forefront of the campaign, and in a recent interview with The Daily Aus said:

”A lot of people just don't understand how to recognise sources. I often get my information from either government websites or direct primary sources, like quotes ... I did a whole video series where I asked doctors and pharmacists and scientists [about] common misconceptions and common misinformation that is being spread about coronavirus and the vaccine."

"I'm hoping [by] using my platform, I'll be able to help people understand how to recognise misinformation before they share and think about what they are sharing," she said.

Facebook has said it is now, more than ever, committed to working to connect people to accurate sources, and show less misinformation — especially about COVID-19.

“We want to give people the tools to make informed decisions about the information they see online and where it comes from. To support this effort, over the coming weeks we’ll be rolling out a new campaign in countries across EMEA to educate and inform people about how to detect potential false news.”

In consultation with fact-checking partners, Facebook has also developed ‘Three Questions To Help Stamp Out False News’, which will show up on Facebook through a series of creative adverts, and link out to a dedicated website - www.stampoutfalsenews.com

These advertisements will ask people to challenge the information they see on posts by asking themselves the following:

1. Where’s it from?
   If there’s no source, search for one.

2. What’s missing?
   Get the whole story, not just the headline.

3. How does it make you feel?
   People who make false news try to manipulate feelings.

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond, Facebook has said it will continue working with industry experts and people on their platforms to ensure they are effectively tackling misinformation, and providing social media users the resources they need to help spot and challenge the content they are seeing online.

To learn more check out Stamp Out False News

Why girledworld and Future Amp are changing the game: Mads Grummet episode on Game Changers Podcast

Education in Australia has certainly been thrown enormous challenges in the past 18 months, with students spending weeks learning from home due to ongoing COVID lockdowns and restrictions.

While there is still much uncertainty about the return to face-to-face learning in October, what is clear is that education has been forced to undergo significant transformation during the pandemic, adopting new technology-enabled delivery models that actually create opportunities for more real-world, relevant and on-demand learning.

So we thought it was a great time to revisit this inspiring conversation about the future of work and the fundamental role of education in a changing world, in which our girledworld Cofounder and CEO Madeleine Grummet chats to Game Changers podcast hosts Associate Professor of Education and Enterprise Philip Cummins and prominent educational thought leader Adriano Di Prato.

In this episode, Mads shares the journey of girledworld from Melbourne Business School to now, and why girledworld and Future Amp are on a mission to upskill the next generation for the workforce of tomorrow and equip 1 million students with roadmaps to their future careers.


LISTEN to the Game Changers podcast with Madeleine Grummet.

Read article about the episode themes.

Learn more about Game Changers.

You Are Not Your Face - a book by girls, for girls, about where the world's at.

Today’s article on the front page of The Australian about the harmful effects of social media platform Instagram on the mental health of teenage girls is no surprise.

Facebook’s research, published by the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday, revealed that 32% of teen girls said Instagram made them feel bad about their bodies, and 13% of teenagers in Britain who reported suicidal thoughts linked those to their use of Instagram.

Todd Sampson’s recent Mirror, Mirror documentary which aired on Channel 10 last week, also laid bare the rise of social media and Snapchat body dysmorphia, hyper-sexualized modern beauty ideals and the commodification of insecurity fuelling ‘beauty’ company profits, and a mental health pandemic in the young women who are their target market. 

This is something we know all too well at girledworld.

We have worked with 30,000 girls since 2017, and get to stand in their world view frequently. (I also have four daughters so I'm pretty much swamped in a daily sea of oestrogen, social feeds and teenage insouciance).

In 2019 we delivered a girledworld In Search Of Selfie Teenage Forum at the Melbourne Writer’s Festival - a youth-led discussion and open Q&A exploring the role of social media and selfie culture in teenage personal narrative and identity development.

We then decided to drill deeper on helping young women get a reality check on their online and offline selves, so we put out a campaign call across APAC to capture young women's sentiments for a social storytelling project we called You Are Not Your Face. We wanted to simply better understand what the world looked like from their vantage point. 

But what we got back simply blew us away.  

Thousands of teenage girls from India, Brazil, Pakistan, China, Australia, France, Germany, Korea and the USA contributed their raw truths, real stories and abundant wisdom to the girledworld You Are Not Your Face project, which has now turned into a powerful book written by girls for girls, that will be released on November 1, 2021.

The stories you’ll find across the pages are universal in their truths. They speak of acts of courage and strength, of bravery and love, of broken and enduring friendships, and of a brand new f**k-you feminism pushing up from the brink, built on an awakening power, and an urgency to set things right on our pale blue dot of a planet.

These are also stories about life in a digital, filtered world - the complexity and confusion of navigating life on and offline, of grappling with identity and growth, of self-worth and social media edited lives, of anxiety, depression and self-hard, and of times when the world turns unexpectedly and overwhelmingly dark. 

It’s also a powerful snapshot of young women who have never known life without the internet and the fickle currencies of social media likes; who are growing up in a volatile, technology-fuelled and hyper-connected world on the edge of singularity. 

These are young women who are trying to work out who the hell they are; picking up the tab for the planet to take action on climate change; righting the global reckonings catalysed by #MeToo and the Black Lives Matter movements; and shouldering the burden of finding future social solutions for a disproportionately ageing population. 

These are young women who are trying to balance the tipped scales of a persistent global gender pay gap; recalibrating with the changing global economy and job market; and working out what real leadership looks like amidst a growing disengagement with modern-day democracy. (I don't blame them given recent windows in via MsRepresented and Strong Female Lead ....) 

These are young women who are facing into all of that stuff, plus riding the everyday, dizzying, hormone-fuelled, identity-shifting, social media minefield of a rollercoaster that is simply being a teen. So it's no bloody wonder their worlds can get a little overwhelming sometimes,

And although they, nor we, know where all this is really going next, You Are Not Your Face simply serves to capture the voices of the next generation at this moment in time. 

While some of these stories are hard to read, nearly every one of them has given us hope in where humanity is heading in the capable hands of the next generation of women.

Because despite the current dystopia, I do ultimately have hope.

Hope in humankind, in kindness itself, and in the rising power of this next generation of women to stand up, step up, start the engines of our future world and correct the darker forces in the digital world we all built and they were born into.

They can shape a world where young women can and will define the new age of equality, where more girls and women are elevated, celebrated, respected and taking up the spaces they long should have occupied so they can do the bold leadership work the world needs to get done.

Yes, they may be young, and unfurled — for now. But I do get the incredible privilege of living with, working with and learning from them every single day, and I ultimately do think we will be ok. 

You Are Not Your Face brings up just some of the stories of girls we believe should be told. 

I hope you will find in the words — and the spaces in between — inspiration, courage, challenge, rage, calls to action, hope, healing, truths — all the raw, unexamined and untrammelled stuff of life that also sits inside nearly all of our stories as humans on earth. 

If anything, I hope you can just hear these words of girls. 

They are our future leaders, inventors, CEOs, poets, coders, scientists, innovators, founders and game-changers.

We need to stop. And listen. 

Madeleine Grummet, September 2021
Cofounder girledworld

------------------------------------------------------

You Are Not Your Face will be released in November, 2021.

So you want to get a job? Here's how to nail the job interview!

Knowing what it takes to shine and stand out in a job interview has never been more important as the world of work pivots, jobs are scarcer and the workforce undergoes a seismic shift.

In fact, recent SEEK data shows since COVID-19 hit, there are at least 800,000 more #unemployed Australians but just two-thirds of the jobs available. On top of that, the #hiring market is seeing more candidates competing for a smaller pool of jobs which has meant job applications per ad have increased exponentially.

But whether you’re going for your first job, a volunteering position, part-time Summer job, university internship or your first step into a ‘real’ career role during COVID, standing out in an interview calls for a new suite of skills and qualities that you will need to quickly get up to speed on.

So we asked career leadership and interview skills coaching experts James Lynch and Mykel Dixon just what it takes to get an edge on the interview process to give yourself the best chance of landing a job in today’s employment market.

Make your resume reflect who you really are.

The right preparation starts with a creative and personalised resume which will ideally grab the attention of a potential future employer. 

Creative and cultural leadership expert Mykel Dixon, an award-winning speaker, event curator, musician and author, says it’s important to think about ways to make your resume standout before you've even offered a job interview.

“Do everything you can prior to the interview to create a unique, personalised context for you to shine in. Add a video, write a handwritten letter, build a website that tells your story. You want to prime the people interviewing you so that they're already anticipating and/or excited about your interview before you’ve even arrived,” he says.

Research the role and ‘prove it’ with real-life examples.

Once you’ve wowed them with your application, it’s time to research and plan for the interview - whether that be in person or online.

Leading interview skills coach James Lynch, a recognised leader in interview skills coaching and behavioural based interviewing techniques, says it’s crucial to fully understand the position you are applying for as a first step in the process. 

“What’s their business model, unique offering, profile of clients, team profile, future expansion? You need to research and map out all of the above prior to your interview. Print out the job description and underline all the key points and their needs,” he says.

“Then target their needs, by identifying all your past relevant knowledge, skills and experiences. 

The next step is to turn these into ‘Prove It’ statements and provide ‘real life’ examples. These have far greater value when they match (the interviewers’ wish list) - and every interviewer definitely has one!”

Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

Mykel agrees, and believes that the key is, during the interview, be professional but ultimately be yourself. 

“Make sure you bring your full self-expression. Don't diminish your passion, dilute your vision, or discount your previous experience. You have a unique way of seeing and sensing the world that is valuable and relevant. Specific skills can be taught. Most employers now believe that self-awareness, self-confidence, drive and a willingness to contribute are far more valuable than previous industry experience,” he says.

Another important consideration to ensure you put your best professional foot forward for the interview, whether face-to-face or online (due to COVID-19 hiring and recruitment practices pivoting to online).

James says online interviews are still “real life” personal interviews, and so candidates should approach them with the same level of effort and commitment they would to a face-to-face interview. 

“Dress appropriately, make sure your background is appropriate and have good overhead lighting. If using a laptop, set up the correct distance from the screen for sound and light quality and test it first with a friend online. Make sure you're plugged in, powered up, and know your technology,” he says.

Sell yourself by telling a story. Make yourself shine!

After 20 years of talking to more than 200,000 students about how to stand out in an interview, James consistently encourages them to have the confidence to “think good things and say good things about yourself”.

“Students and candidates hate doing it because they think they're bragging or showing off. However, if you don’t tell your interviewer what’s good, special or different about you, how are they going to make the right choice for the position?,” he says.

“People always say to me, "I hate selling myself." To be honest most people are pretty rubbish at it until I say, "Stop! I want you to tell me about the most exciting holiday, activity or passion that you are involved in and I know nothing about.". 

“Then suddenly they become animated. I can hear the smile in their voice, they string big, long, exciting, convincing, sentences together. Then I turn round and say, "There you go, you can sell.” So make sure you take this same level of passion into telling your story, because you need to be passionate about yourself and your next interview.”

“It’s just like a good book, set the narrative and make sure that they understand the storyline. Take them on your journey, and finish with a positive, or successful ending, that reflects favourably on you and meets their needs and expectations.”Mykel also suggests leaving your interviewer something to remember you by, something that tells them who you are.

“Not a bribe or a tacky momento. Something thoughtful, meaningful, authentic and creative. Something that cements for them you are the only candidate they'll ever need,” he says.

girledworld and Future Amp equip today’s young people with key skills for tomorrow’s jobs and industries.

In 2021, the award-winning girledworld founding team launched Future Amp - an online proprietary national career education platform for students.

The platform features ‘Job Ready’ Career Development Modules which are Australian-curriculum aligned, interactive, activity-based learning courses, showcasing real people in real industry contexts.

Reach out to the team at hello@futureamp.co to learn more, and discuss how you can incorporate Future Amp into your in-school careers and employability learning curriculum for 2021 and 2022!

Why Mentors matter at a time like this.

At girledworld we know how powerful mentors can be to show girls what they are capable of.

Since 2017, we have connected 30,000 young women with a diverse range of leading industry mentors so they can expand their frame of reference, get beyond the classroom walls and their demographic or geographic circumstances, and develop crucial real-world understandings of emerging jobs and workforce skills which helps them to make more informed decisions about their future career pathways.

girledworld was founded on a problem - girls can’t be what they can’t see. 

Research shows that mentorship is a powerful indicator of future success. Young people need to find someone who can show them the way forward, can help them discover their abilities, strengths and future potential, and can support them as they start taking small steps toward their career pathway planning. This can make all the difference to their future outcomes.

But actually finding a mentor, work experience or industry placements can be pretty daunting and intimidating for students who are still working out who they are, and have no idea where to look or what to look for. 

On top of that, for disadvantaged students, it can be difficult to connect with professional or highly skilled industry networks, or to overcome multiple barriers to accessing mentorship and work experience. 

In fact a report revealed that students from disadvantaged or low socio-economic status (SES) backgrounds benefit the most from industry mentorship or work experience, but are least able to access it while at high school. This lack of access is attributed to geographical isolation and low ‘social capital’ for these students, such as a family’s limited social connections with individuals in desired career fields.

The report also stated that mentorship and work experience is one of the best drivers of students’ academic outcomes, career aspirations and self-confidence, especially for high-potential students whose aspirations aren’t consistently reinforced by family, friends and at school.

However, currently in Australia, only about 30% of students can access to up-to-date career information, work experience or mentorship, and this is a hidden weakness in Australia’s career development strategy, and means that SES is a strong predictor of the post-school destinations and pathways undertaken by young Australians. 

Compounding this disadvantage is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has reduced opportunities for young women to connect with industry mentors or undertake meaningful work experience.

We therefore need more online solutions providing high quality virtual work experience and accessible industry mentorship to solve this problem for students, bridge the SES divide, and better link education with future jobs, skills and industries.

But the good news is it’s not all bad news!

There are some students who are fortunate enough to access work experience and reap the benefits. This is often facilitated through formal program providers, school initiatives or by reaching out to family friends or personal connections. But this is often more an exercise in accessibility or convenience rather than tapping a student’s real passions or genuine career interest areas.

So the best way for a student to explore options, jobs and industries and expand their frame of reference is through access to on-demand, high quality career education and industry mentorship early on in their high school journey so they can explore interests, and get a head start on building skills and developing strengths while still at school.

In fact, the power of an inspiring mentor can leave lasting and life-altering impacts on a student searching for answers and greater direction as they embark on the great adventure of life and work beyond high school.

Here’s a GREAT case in point.

Ex-Haileybury student Michelle credits an incredible group of Melbourne mentors with helping to shape her outlook on learning and future career prospects.

At the start of 2019, Michelle successfully gained a summer internship with Girledworld where she shadowed Co-founders Madeleine Grummet and Edwina Kolomanski to see what working inside a fast-growing education company looked like day to day. That same year, Michelle also participated in the Victorian Government sponsored Girledworld Workplace Mentoring Program with UniSuper Chief Delivery and Information Officer Anna Leibel as her mentor. 

“I spent a day with Anna and her team on International Women’s Day to learn about their work, and her team later kindly offered for me to come in during the holidays to show me other departments I might be interested in. Through this, I was able to explore fields I never even thought of working in, such as cybersecurity, governance, risk and financial crime - all of which were incredibly fascinating!,” Michelle says.

It wasn’t just the insight into career pathways that Michelle found valuable, but the broader significance of seeing females excelling in industries like finance and entrepreneurship that have long been the primary domain of men.

“While my mentorship experience definitely gave me insight into career pathways, being mentored by female leaders, in particular, showed me that girls could excel in industries that may otherwise be male-dominated. I’m a strong believer in “girls cannot be what they cannot see”, so female mentorship has played a really significant role in my perspective of what I can achieve,” she says.

The Australian school system currently has a heavy focus on academic performance, but Michelle says workplace mentoring helped her to understand the value of employability skills such as communication and leadership.

“The biggest takeaway for me was that the world of work is becoming incredibly dynamic. Also, to excel at what you do, it’s very important to develop workforce skills such as communication and leadership rather than only technical skills. It also seems like the world of work is becoming much more interdisciplinary, especially with the way tech is changing the face of (pretty much) every industry out there,” she says.

“In terms of my outlook now, I am definitely trying to develop my “softer” skills after realising how valuable they are. I’ve realised that in 10-20 years, there will be jobs that never existed before. Technology, the emerging gig economy and maybe even the Covid-19 pandemic will change the job landscape completely, so I’ve learned that versatility and the willingness to grow is the most important thing!”

Finding a good mentor fit can be a challenge, though, particularly for high school students.

“I would say that as high school students, it is quite hard to get access to useful info because oftentimes you’re not qualified enough to apply to a lot of the internships that allow you to explore the world of work,” Michelle says.

Michelle’s BEST Mentoring AdviCE FOR GIRLS

“The biggest piece of advice I could give is to just put yourself out there. A good place to start would be applying for internships, work experience, or projects you’re passionate about. (eg: research projects, volunteering for a cause etc…) Once you’re in the internship/project, you’ll be introduced to people in the industry, and it’ll sort of be a domino effect where those people you know will introduce you to even more people, and soon you’ll be connected to a network of people that you can reach out to.”

“Another way would be to research organisations that seem interesting, which can be done by simply keeping an eye out on social media. Perhaps you’ll see an opportunity pop up on your Instagram or Facebook feed (may be through ads), or even your LinkedIn feed, which you can then further look into or reach out to and grab coffee to learn about them. While this can be daunting, I do feel like a lot of professionals are very keen to help young people looking to learn. 

So definitely just give it a go!”

Thanks so much for sharing your insights, Michelle. We can’t wait to see what your future holds!

LEARN MORE ABOUT PARTNERSHIPS + WORKPLACE MENTORING PROGRAMS. CONTACT OUR TEAM TODAY

For more on mentoring listen to this ABC Episode of This Working Life with Lisa Leong and girledworld Cofounder + CEO Madeleine Grummet, or read this ABC article on The Power Of A Good Mentor.

ABC Interview with girledworld Cofounder Madeleine Grummet: Why you need a portfolio career, even if you have a good job.

Listen to ABC 'This Working Life' Interview.

Article by girledworld Cofounder Madeleine Grummet

“Do you feel like your work matters?
Are you making an impact?
Living your why?
Are you in that sweet, self-actualised spot in the Bullseye of your Ikigai?

If you answered 'Um, no' to any of those questions, it might be worth considering a rethink and recalibration of your working life to design your very own personalised and rewarding portfolio career, so you can work to your purpose, play to your strengths - and wake up every day to a career that lights you up!

So what is a portfolio career anyway?

According to Forbes, a portfolio career is a working style where you combine multiple streams of income - often creating a mix of full or part-time employment, board positions, specialised skill-based project roles or working as a consultant.

Unlike a full-time job, app-based gig economy mix or a freelance blend of projects in a particular sector or market segment, a portfolio career is not reliant on a single source of income and can play across multiple sectors.

The secret sauce of a successful portfolio career is that you know your true value; you are absolutely your own boss; and you know how to distribute your time, skills and value across multiple roles whilst liaising with multiple clients and stakeholders.

A good way to think about a portfolio career is to apply portfolio theory to its construction. In other words, instead of putting all your eggs in one basket, a portfolio career is thoughtfully curated across a range of differentiated services in order to maximise earnings, and - just like an investment portfolio - is always evolving based on where the returns on your time are driving the highest rewards - financially, professionally or personally.

Why I choose to make my work work my way

I have been a long-time convert of the portfolio career. This is in the main because as a working parent of four fast-moving kids, I have had to find a way to work my way, design a career that best utilises my my skill mix, and that enables me to work on value (and not time-based) metrics. This has meant a curated mix of stints in corporate, startup investment, consultancies, my own companies and Non-Executive Board advisory roles.

But like the rest of the world at large, 2020 threw a wicked pandemic spanner in the works which catalysed a reconstruction of my work portfolio on the fly. Luckily, because of my portfolio career, I'm used to agility and adaptation so could respond and redesign according to the opportunities the COVID world catalysed in the edtech sector.

Which means that now we're into the (fingers crossed) smoother sailing waters of 2021, this year my portfolio is deliberately dominated by our work at girledworld and at Future Amp, given our new edtech company is in a significant growth phase as we move toward national pilot release of our smart career education platform.

While Future Amp and girledworld take up the bulk of my days, my portfolio also includes active roles as an investor with Working Theory Angels and in a private capacity; mentoring startup founders; Cofounder and CEO of girledworld; Board advisory roles; Cohost of the Human Cogs podcast; and I continue to work across media commentary, writing and keynote speaking. These roles - while seperate in their activities - are all synergistic in their value alignment to my personal Ikigai. And it's entirely up to me to manage my prioritisation, productivity and portfolio segmentation based on those pieces of the pie.

Listen to ABC 'This Working Life' Interview (March 15, 2021)

I recently joined ABC's This Working Life and host Lisa Leong to chat about my portfolio career alongside Dorie Clark - sought after New York-based executive coach and consultant - who explains how the portfolio model saved her in 2020 when hundreds of thousands of dollars income dried up almost overnight. In the interview, Dorie also shares her blueprint for professional independence, including insights and advice on becoming a recognised expert, monetising your expertise, and extending your reach and impact online. 

The portfolio career is here to stay

As we all concur in the show, the case for the rise of the Portfolio Career is more than a stop-gap against the current pandemic-swamped disrupted and unpredictable marketplace.

With industries growing and shrinking, startups hiring and supply chains morphing, organisations need fresh and flexible talent to plug and play to solve for a fresh suite of business problems - and opportunities - that are not going to go away any time soon. Instead of hiring for permanent roles, we're seeing an increasing demand in the market for consultants, short-term contractors, interim managers, advisors, industry experts and other independent professionals, who move around based on the market dynamics and demands. 

In fact, a recent OECD Future of Work study predicts that 50% of developed country workforces will be gig and portfolio career workers by 2030, and Australian demographer and social commentator Bernard Salt predicts the average 20-year-old in Australia today will have 20 jobs in 15 different organisations over a 45-year career. So the reality is that even if you wanted to, it is very unlikely you will spend your entire career in one industry, let alone in one company. And that the portfolio career will increasingly become the norm in the future of work.

This means that with entire industries transforming and at risk as AI, machine learning, autonomous vehicles and other exponential technologies go from the fringe to mainstream, the writing is also clearly on the wall that specialising in just one industry could be limiting at best and catastrophic at worst (traditional law or media, truck driving, basic accounting services etc).

So to future proof your working life, a diversification across a range of transferable future skills, industries, companies and roles is the only way to stay relevant in the shifting sands of the modern economy and marketplace, and to ride out the precarity of the new job market that's most certainly here to stay.

As Charles Darwin said: "“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change."

LISTEN to ABC This Working Life Interview here.

Who's delivering Entrepreneurship Education across Australia?

In 2020, Liz Jackson - Education and Research Directorate at Sydney Catholic Schools - set an ambitious target of mapping the K-12 Entrepreneurship Education Ecosystem across Australia, to understand exactly what programs and initiatives are available to school-aged students around the country.

Supported by Chad Renando, Founder of #startupstatus, Liz has recently successfully mapped entrepreneurship initiatives from 200+ organisations including industry, government, edtech startups and tertiary education providers.

girledworld features in this map, as we continue to design and deliver industry-backed startup career pathway, entrepreneurial thinking and founder stories digital modules and online programs to students across Australia. Since 2017, we have worked with 30,000 students in 180 schools, universities and education institutions to equip them with critical understandings, skills and industry mentors to enable them to thrive in the future of work.

Our company Cofounders Madeleine Grummet and Edwina Kolomanski both hold a Master of Entrepreneurship from Melbourne Business School, The University of Melbourne, are qualified in Stanford Design Thinking and Startup Sprint facilitation, and are passionate about growing the entrepreneurial capabilities of the next generation - so they can step up to solve the problems and build the businesses of tomorrow.

The ecosystem map does not yet include schools and educators providing cross-curriculum programs and initiatives in this space. If you are an educator doing something entrepreneurial in your school please reach out to Liz directly to ensure this map is as comprehensive as possible, and provides a useful tool for educators across Australia to bring entrepreneurship education to their classrooms and students in 2021, and beyond.

LEARN MORE or see full map here.

International Womens Day 2021 - How will you Choose To Challenge?

Guest Blog from our Founder + CEO Madeleine Grummet

”This year’s International Women’s Day 2021 campaign theme - #ChooseToChallenge - comes at a time on the planet where we have been challenged in ways we could not have predicted.

We are living through a VUCA world - dominated by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity - and are faced with mounting environmental, societal, economic, political, cultural and human challenges that call for us all to take action, take responsibility - and find a way to problem solve together to create solutions for lasting, equitable and impactful change, for the benefit of all.

But change will only happen when we each step up to challenge ourselves to make our individual choices, thoughts, words and actions count - every single day.

Change starts with challenging status quo.

Change starts with asking hard questions.

Change starts with challenging what we think we know.

And real change starts with recognising - and then calling out - inequality, gender stereotypes, injustice and unconscious bias.

I choose to challenge by upskilling and mentoring today’s generation for the workforce of tomorrow through our work at Future Amp and girledworld with 1000’s of students and industries across Australia.

I choose to challenge as a business mentor by championing the rights of women; engaging in advocacy for structural organisational changes to create more leadership opportunities for women; and by amplifying and shining a light on women’s achievements, whenever I can.

I choose to challenge as an investor, both privately, globally through SheEO, and at Working Theory Angels, by backing female founders, because I know that for every $1 invested, female founders return 78 cents compared with just 31 cents from male founders. So female founders offer investors 2.5x more return than their male counterparts! A compelling figure for any investor wondering which startup to back.

And as a mother of four daughters, I choose to challenge every single day by doing not saying, learning not teaching, and listening not speaking, so that each of them - in time - can step into a world that is ready to welcome the challenges they each choose to seek.

We've still got a long way to go to achieve gender equality.

But I choose to challenge, today - and in all the tomorrows I’ve got - until we get there.

How will you choose to challenge?”

#IWD2021
#ChooseToChallenge

LEARN MORE about International Womens Day.
LEARN MORE about Future Amp.

MONDAY MARCH 8, 2021

Girl Geek Academy and Microsoft Australia partner to provide FREE AI Technical STEM Workshops for high school girls! Enrol now!

Amazing opportunity for high school girls (aged 13-16) from our STEM friends over at Girl Geek Academy!

It is well documented that young women are under-represented in STEM subjects and careers due to complex and long-standing cultural issues including a lack of representation of female role models in STEM, cultural stereotyping and inadequate support. In fact, currently, only 16% of Australian STEM University graduates are women which has a knock-on effect on overall representation in the technology industry and STEM workforce.

This year Girl Geek Academy is partnering with Microsoft Australia to launch the FREE FOR STUDENTS 'Girl Geek Academy x Microsoft AI Technical Series', designed to inspire and educate Year 7-10 (13-16 year old) female students to solve problems with AI by building technical skills.​
​
Amazing ​FREE STEM learning opportunity for high school girls:
⭐ Learn coding, technical and AI skills
⭐ Learn practical skills like creating your own website, Chatbots, face tracking apps and drawing with code
⭐ Access inspiring women models at Microsoft & Girl Geek Academy, and hear their career journeys
⭐ Virtual sessions after school at 4:30pm-6pm AEDT, every Monday from February 22 – June 21 2021

LEARN MORE: Girl Geek Academy x Microsoft AI Technical Series

CAREERS IN STEM: Access FREE girledworld STEM Pathways Module here
(Meet women in STEM and learn about the real world of work inside STEM companies!)

WORKPLACE MENTORING: Access FREE girledworld Workplace Mentoring Module here

FREE girledworld STEM Pathways Online Learning Module and Download DJPR Women and Girls in STEM Map!

girledworld provides industry mentorship, career pathway and skills education for young women aged 15-25. Our work over the past 4 years has enabled us to engage with 30,000 female students from 180+ schools..

A big part of that work is providing STEM pathways education in collaboration with industry and government partners. And although there are many organisations like ours supporting the STEM development of women and girls in Victoria, they can be difficult to access in one, convenient place.

To improve the visibility of STEM activities, the Victorian State Government has recently launched the 'Women and Girls in STEM Map', which displays the range of STEM programs currently available to Victorian women and girls.

The guide is a fantastic summary of STEM events and competitions local to Victoria, plus it’s got information for every stage in the pipeline from primary school to professional - a great resource for anyone wanting to inspire, support and retain girls and women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths.

Access ‘Women and Girls in STEM Map’ here

Access FREE girledworld STEM Pathways Module here
(Meet women in STEM and learn about the real world of work inside STEM companies!)

Access FREE girledworld Workplace Mentoring Module here

girledworld 2020 on 2020, and what's next?

As this tumultuous year comes to an end, it is now a great opportunity to pause and reflect on why we do what we do.

girledworld is all about our community. When we reflect on the ripple effect of the work we do, it presents itself in the comments section of the Instagram, Facebook, or LinkedIn posts that we share;. it exists in the feedback that our mentors share with us, saying that someone has reached out to thank them for opening their eyes to new opportunities; and it is in every interaction we have had over the past 4 years, connecting more than 30,000 students with hundreds of industry mentors from companies across the world.

With every world of work careers event, Design Thinking hack day, industry placement, skill-building workshop, blog post, industry mentor video and partnership we’ve delivered, we hope that our community of fearless, game-changing girls is a little bit more inspired to pursue their dreams. After all, this is why we exist. We are here to show young girls that they can achieve whatever it is that they want in life and more!

As a collective, and as individuals, young women are unstoppable. You only have to look at the first TIME 2020 Kid of the Year - the incredible 15-year-old scientist and inventor, Gitanjali Rao - to see that the next generation of young women are going to shape this world into something much, much better. And as an organisation, we are honoured to be able to play this role in inspiring the young female minds that will do just that. 

As we look beyond what the year 2020 has been, we are grateful for the opportunity to operate digitally to deliver our mission. It is in 2021, that we look forward to bringing accessibility to the forefront of our offering, so young women all across Australia (and the world) can have equal access to the resources and opportunities that girledworld provides. After all, every young girl has the right to see what she can be and feel empowered to do so, no matter where she comes from. 

To our community, thank you for a wildly wonderful year! It’s been an amazing year of learning, growing and innovating in a complex time for us all. But for now, it’s time to switch off, rest, relax and reflect on the year that was, before we step into the excitement and opportunity of 2021!

Over & out!

- The Team @ girledworld
Written by Imogen Kerr

Trades, Apprenticeships & VET - the Forgotten Career Pathways

For those interested in a pathway outside the heavy debt burden of university, apprenticeships and VET pathways offer greater benefits than one might imagine.

Guest Blog by Harriet Grummet

The vast majority of students who graduated from my private high school went straight into uni degrees. One of my friends described it as the “natural pathway” to take after finishing school: a Bachelors's degree, maybe a Masters, then into the workforce. But why should a debt burden of $30k and graduation into a highly competitive workforce be the “natural pathway”? Careers in trade are often neglected by career counsellors, to the detriment of students who would likely thrive in hands-on apprenticeships, free from debt.

Even more enticing is the fact that those in apprenticeships are essentially paid to learn. Sure, the starting rate is around $12 an hour, but the rates quickly increase as the apprenticeship progresses. Getting paid to learn means you don’t have to find a part-time job on top of your studies, unlike those in uni degrees. 

A Career in Trade is More Lucrative Than You May Think

Undertaking a career in trade is also more lucrative than you may think: some electricians can earn up to $91,000 a year straight of their apprenticeship. This is compared to the median annual salary of $54,000 for new bachelor degree graduates in their first full-time job, according to Graduate Careers Australia. 

Plus, employment rates for those going into trade tend to be far higher than those for university graduates. In 2014, 84.1 percent of trade and apprenticeship graduates found work, whereas only 68.8 per cent of their university counterparts were employed full-time.

Don’t Let Your High School Score Be The Deciding Factor of Your Career

Finally, try not to let your academic skills or gender influence your decision about whether you take up a pathway in trade and apprenticeships. Even if your ATAR is 90+, you don’t have to enter a uni degree just for the sake of it. University may well be the best decision for you, but so might a trade pathway! 

Similarly, don’t be put off by the stereotype that tradies are mostly men. There are heaps of female tradies out there (just ask @melbournechippychick!) and cool initiatives to encourage more women to enter trades (check out BUSYAtWork if you’re in Queensland). 

Here’s an infographic with some of the most popular VET courses in New South Wales - see if a career in trade could work for you!

The Power of Micro-Credentials: Innovating for the Future of Education

Attaining a tertiary degree was once the main motivation for most students on their journey to a fulfilling career. But as the world of work rapidly evolves, so too does the path to get there.

Increasingly employers are becoming just as interested in the skills potential candidates possess outside their structured education, as much as within it.

Stackable and un-packable micro-credentials, those myriad of skills acquired in addition to the traditional learning, are a valuable asset that could propel a candidate ahead of a competitor. And those acquired competencies can begin as early as high school.

Melbourne’s Haileybury College is leading the way in recognising and highlighting student micro-credentials.

Jacqueline Gough, Head of Curious Minds, says the school is “pushing the envelope” in creating a streamlined and long-lasting structure for the way students acquire micro-credentials to recognise all of the unique opportunities they engage with during their time at school.

Haileybury’s HY Creds

HYCreds – Haileybury’s micro-credentialing programme, was initially introduced via the co-curricular space as a way to spotlight the learning opportunities available to students alongside the academic program, but it has become so much more than that.

“Enhancing one’s level of employability by acquiring skills and mastering competencies has never been more important. From here, the ability to evidence and swiftly share these skills and competencies will put students on the path to being recognised as contenders for jobs that may not even exist yet,” she says.

“Looking to the future, we understand and recognise the evolving zeitgeist around the ATAR and its ability to appropriately define students’ competencies and aptitudes beyond their secondary level education.”

“Although we a strong supporter of the ATAR and its needs, micro-credentialing is relevant as it provides a malleable avenue for students to upskill themselves and be recognised for the breadth of their attainments across a plethora of domains.”

Micro-creds give students an edge in the future workforce

Ms Gough says the most relevant and valuable digital credentials are those that assist students in accessing varied pathways.

“It will be those filled with meaningful metadata by way of evidence URLs. The Badgr Australia platform allows for the showcasing of what the student did (evidence) and how it was assessed (assessment criteria),” she says.

“Contributing to the lasting nature of our badges, viewers will be able to click to view assessment rubrics, competency frameworks and evidence data. From the outside, HYCreds also visibly identify partnerships with exponentially growing industries and organisations, a visual flex that can also grow and change as the school and students who achieve them surely will.”

She says micro-credentials complement traditional learning and give students an edge in the future world of work.

It’s not just who you are, but what you can do

“Formally recognising student choice and their capabilities in many and varied areas, micro-credentials complement traditional learning and the successful achievement of outcomes by painting a picture of students’ interests, skills and passions — a more holistic view of who they are, as well as what they can do.”

“The benefits for students in acquiring micro-credentials lie in the ‘backpack’ and evolving learning pathways that their digital badges may pave.

We want HYCreds to empower students in helping them to see and display their deeply experiential, co-curricular achievements. It’s like giving them back a piece, or many pieces, of their own school journey; one that they can share - and keep - forever.”

Meet Dr. Deborah Bower - Ecologist and Lecturer in Ecosystems Rehabilitation

Today on the blog, as part of our environmental week, we’re spotlighting the incredible Dr. Deborah Bower - Ecologist and Lecturer in Ecosystem Rehabilitation at the University of New England in Armidale, New South Wales. In this guest blog piece, Dr. Bower offers incredible insights into life in academia and environmental sciences, where no two days are ever the same :)

Guest Blog by Dr. Deborah Bower

“A great job is like a best mate. You like them, you want to spend time with them and yet you know a bit of time apart is healthy and refreshing. I’ve always enjoyed being outdoors, observing nature, and asking lots of questions, so finding a career where I could do these things was a win all round. Now I am a Lecturer in Ecology and Zoology. The academic career pathway, which led me to my job, gives me the flexibility to follow questions that pique my interest. For me, that has meant becoming a researcher and teacher of conservation biology and ecology.”

A Day In The Life of Dr. Deborah Bower

“Academic positions at universities are highly variable. My time is split between teaching, research and administration. I might spend a week in the rainforest researching threatened frogs and the next week in the office giving lectures and grading assignments. I might spend several months writing a grant proposal or analysing data, or I might spend time helping my students to write scientific articles, or trap turtles. Last week, for example, I helped students to identify water bugs in a study looking at the importance of farm dams and wetlands, I spent time talking to landholders to arrange access to sites, I wrote a section for the Amphibian Conservation Action Plan, and I helped a PhD student to set traps for a threatened species of turtle.

As you can see, it would be difficult to get bored in my job, there is just too much variation. The challenge is maintaining self-discipline in a workplace with very little structure or direction. We also require a lot of teamwork in science because nobody is good at everything. Often we have teams with different superpowers – my current team on the Conservation of Upland Lagoons includes experts in plants, insects, reptiles, mapping, psychology, and archeology – it takes all of us working together to understand the threats and find solutions to protect these special wetlands.

Saving Our Ecosystems and Inspiring the Next Generation in the Process

“My favourite thing about working as a Lecturer in Ecology and Zoology is feeling like I am trying to help the environment every day, as part of my job. Whether I am teaching the next generation of ecologists about climate change and river regulation, or publishing papers on the extinction risk to threatened frogs, I feel that I am trying to help protect our amazing natural environment.

As part of this, I love seeing students learn and continue with quality research and outreach. I also enjoy going out into the field and seeing new places, discovering the amazing adaptations that plants, animals and fungi find to live in different places. A lot science is about seeing things for the first time and these discoveries –  whether it’s finding something in a new location, watching an unknown behaviour in a frog, or discovering a whole new species – brings constant wonder into my life.”

A Call To Utilise Our Own Unique SuperPowers to Save The Environment

Australia has so many great minds and brilliant people ready to take action but as a country, we have been very rough on our land. We are famous for so many cool inventions from bionic ears to the electric drill and we have so much potential to develop useful technology but unfortunately, we have not prioritised funding the innovation that we need to protect the environment. My advice is to think about what your superpowers are and how you might apply them to the system. We also need to talk to everyone else in the community about why and how we can improve prospects for our environment and we need to let our politicians know that the status quo is not acceptable. We need change, now.

Dr. Deborah Bower’s TOP TIPS for those interested in a career in Environmental Science!

Tip #1 - Research Careers the You Might Enjoy

It is hard to know what you want to do, before you’ve ever done it. If there is a career that you think you might enjoy, I’d suggest contacting people in jobs that interest you and asking if you can tag along. I discovered the ‘Bachelor of Science majoring in Ecology’ when I was first doing work experience at National Parks and Wildlife and I asked the staff I was working with about their career paths. I thought that working for Parks and Wildlife was so much fun so I enrolled in the same degree and then began volunteering with the staff once a week for my whole degree.

Tip #2 - Try Everything!

I tried out lots of other jobs during my studies and these experiences helped me to discover what I did and didn’t love, as well as giving me the skills, networks and experience I needed to find work in the future. If you think you might like something, try it out for a few days and see.

To learn more about Dr. Deborah Bower’s awesome work, visit her profile at Science and Technology Australia.

The Superstars of Environmental Science

Do you have a passion for the planet? An interest in science and conservation? A curiosity for discovery and research? Then a career in environmental science could be for you!

This week we’re rounding up four amazing women to give you an idea of types of careers in environmental science. These women have pushed the boundaries in their fields and made tangible impacts on the protection and understanding of our beautiful natural ecosystems. 

Read on for the profiles of these four incredible women in STEM.

Dr Phoebe Meagher

Wildlife Conservationist

Phoebe spent her childhood chasing stingrays through the surf and has always been fascinated by wildlife and the wild places they inhabit.

After working closely with sharks at a Sydney aquarium, she completed a Bachelor of Environmental Science, Marine Biology, where she received first-class honours for her novel work assessing the genetic diversity of Grey Nurse sharks in Australia.

Phoebe has been mentored by some of the greatest minds in science and science communication at leading institutions including The Centre of Ecological Impacts of Coastal Cities and The Australian Museum.

Phoebe received a full PhD scholarship to investigate reproductive biology and fishery impact in rays and was concurrently awarded the Teaching Fellowship at the University of Sydney.

Now at Taronga Conservation Society Australia she divides her time between managing research and pathology at the Wildlife Hospital and leading her own research and lecturing at the new Institute of Science and Learning. Using her experience in pathology combined with her understanding and passion for wildlife conservation, Phoebe leads the way forward in the emerging field of conservation forensics. Her recent groundbreaking work was accepted for publication and subsequently received media attention, including the cover story of the most recent Australian Geographic.

Dr Sharon Hook 

Environmental Toxicologist 

Dr Sharon Hook was born in Pittsburgh (USA), when it was still a steel town.  After steel crashed, the mill sites frequently could not be redeveloped because of groundwater contamination.  This began Sharon’s life-long interest in pollution and its environmental effects. She has a B.A. in Biological Sciences from Smith College (MA, USA) and a Ph.D. in Coastal Oceanography from Stony Brook University (NY, USA).  She moved to Australia and joined CSIRO in 2009. Sharon works across disciplines to introduce new ideas into environmental toxicology.  Her dissertation research utilised oceanographic tracer studies to demonstrate the toxicity of metals in food - traditionally dissolved metals were considered the most toxic.  She was also among the first to use modern genomics based approaches in environmental toxicology -and one of the first to demonstrate that these modern molecular techniques could be used in the ‘real world’- for non-model organisms in the field.

Her research has influenced policy. She was lead author on the oil spill monitoring handbook, now adopted as Australia’s national plan for a maritime emergency.  She also highlighted that modern use pesticides may be impacting fisheries and aquaculture. Sharon enjoys bushwalks with her family, cooking, reading ‘pulp’ novels, and running (slowly).

Dr Ellen Moon 

Environmental Engineer 

Dr Ellen Moon is a lecturer in environmental engineering at Deakin University. Her research focuses on developing sustainable remediation strategies for land and water contaminated with heavy metals. Her work combines fieldwork, lab work and synchrotron-based analyses to understand the molecular-scale processes that ultimately control the way heavy metals move through the environment.

Ellen received her PhD from the University of Southampton (UK) in 2012. She moved to Australia in 2011 and since then has worked in both industry and academia, on a range of projects including the environmental sustainability of industrial processes and the resilience of remediated landscapes to climate change. She has also been involved in national scientific policy design related to waste management.

In 2017, Ellen travelled to Antarctica to participate in Homeward Bound, a ground-breaking leadership, strategy and science communication initiative for women in science. She uses her experiences in Antarctica to engage young people in the importance of STEM-based careers for tackling current and future global challenges.

Ellen is a proud advocate for women in STEM and strives to make science & engineering more accessible to young women.

Dr Deborah Bower

Ecologist specialising in amphibians and reptiles 

Reptiles and amphibians can squirt blood out of their eyes in defence, push bones out of their hands for grip and drink through their feet. They are truly awesome. Researching how we can conserve these remarkable species for future generations is at the core of Debbie's work. She holds a position as a Lecturer in Ecosystem Rehabilitation in the Laboratory for Applied Zoology and Ecosystem Rehabilitation (LAZER) at the University of New England in Armidale, country New South Wales.

Debbie’s Ph.D. was awarded by the University of Canberra and she has since published over 30 scientific publications on the ecology and conservation of wildlife. Making science available to everyone is Debbie's goal and passion. This manifests in community frog hunts, frog life cycle dances for children and writing a weekly nature column for Fairfax Media. As a LGBTQI and Women in STEM activist, Debbie is working to increase equality in environmental science.

To find out more about fascinating career pathways in STEM, check out the following link:

https://scienceandtechnologyaustralia.org.au/list/2019-superstars/

Meet Dr. Teresa Wozniak - Saving the World From Superbugs

Today we are spotlighting the incredible Dr. Teresa Wozniak - Epidemiologist and Research Fellow at the Menzies School of Health Research. A day in the life of Dr. Teresa Wozniak involves saving Australia from the spread of infectious superbugs that are evolving from increasing antibiotic resistance.

Guest Blog by Dr. Teresa Wozniak

Curiosity and finding a career of influence

“I still struggle to identify with a single job description and I was never impressed with job titles.  I wanted to be in a career of influence that helped somebody/ or the population, and that would challenge me and give me autonomy.

I was always curious about human health (and suffering), plus working in infectious diseases I think the bacterial ecosystem is just so fascinating, so adaptable and such an ingenious design. I am sure bacteria are by far more intelligent than humans and are probably laughing at us right now with their master plan!

My career pathway therefore has been about acquiring experience and knowledge across the health spectrum. From basic molecular science to knowledge translation to applied health policy.”

Learning the language of human health

“Working across sectors felt at times like stepping into different world, and not too much different from my personal experience of being an immigrant. In academia, the private sector and government everyone speaks a different language and has completely different approaches and ways of thinking. I am certain that in half of the emails we write to each other, we mean completely different things!

I guess public health chose me then, because the cross-sector and multidisciplinary experience led me to have a deeper and more clear understanding of the complexity of human health (intertwined closely with animals and the environment).

Knowing that there was not one angle to tackle infectious diseases problems such as antimicrobial resistance was both liberating and empowering. And I realised that my matrix of experiences and knowledge was highly valuable to contribute meaningful solutions to tackling this great global challenge.”

Coffee, corridor conversations and clinical collaboration

“Every day starts with a coffee - no matter what pandemic is going on, or which child needs their lunch made. This is a time to sit and reflect on my priorities for the day.

My work currently is to consolidate the pieces of the puzzles that I have gathered over the years on the health and economic impact of antimicrobial resistant infections (aka superbugs) in Australia. So I collaborate with health economists, spatial modellers, clinicians and those creating and implementing health policies. This requires a certain skill set – communicating in a common language. I am basically a translator or interpreter, and the language is the language of deciphering what each one of us specifically needs.

The great thing is that every day is as spontaneous and exciting as the next! On my way to the water bubbler the other day, I passed a colleague who is a social scientist who is fascinated by people and their experiences. We organised to have a coffee after lunch. It sparked an idea and we then pulled together a small grant application … that was due the next day!”

The more I learn, the less I know

“I have realised that the more I learn, the less I know - and there is this bottomless well of knowledge that I still have not even touched the surface of. I really love that my work is about helping others, perhaps even saving lives and avoiding human suffering. And my work really feeds my creative side in that I can explore facets of the problem that have not ever been previously considered.

What I don’t love is the instability of this job, and I do think it’s important to make it clear that there are aspects of this work that could definitely be improved upon.”

Positivity, pandemics and working for equality

“I am known to have infectious enthusiasm so I will almost always see the bright side of the state of the world. I was born into a communist country and when I was little we had food stamps, military curfew and pineapples in a tin. I then moved and learnt English in an Apartheid country and saw extreme violence … but on the positive side, pineapples were not in tins! Ever since my teenage years, I have lived in Australia where I have both many freedoms plus amazing fresh fruit. I still feel incredibly grateful!

The current pandemic, and many more to come after it, will require preparedness and planning … and ideally an Australian Centre for Disease Control. These are achievable goals if we can come together as governments, as scientists and as the general public.

The thing that worries me most about the state of the world is the inequality in opportunities. This will be a very difficult challenge to overcome, and it will require many more brains to try to resolve this inequality. But it is possible, and when we do find a solution to reduce this, the future will be much brighter - for us all!”

Dr. Teresa Wozniak’s Top Tips for young women interested in careers in Public Health

“To use COVID-19 as an example; if you wonder how coronavirus spread, why some populations are at higher risk of infection than others, and if it bothers you at how unjust it is that populations in resource-poor settings are worse off than their wealthier neighbours – then you will definitely find a public health career challenging and fulfilling.

You could be out in the field as a field epidemiologist (after you study this or this) interviewing populations at risk or collecting data on environmental risk factors or leading health promotion programs to teach basic sanitation and hygiene to communities and school children.

If you love data, you could find yourself in front of a mega computer crunching big datasets that links people from when they are born, to what hospital they visited and where they died. Public health is the fundamental science - and art - of preventing diseases, improving life and promoting health.”

What career could be more rewarding, real-world and purposeful than that?!
Thanks for sharing your amazing career story with our community Dr Wozniak!

Learn more about Dr. Wozniak at Science & Technology Australia.