Episode 105 - Listen To This If… You want to kickstart your career

Transcript

Jen (00:00:14)

Hello, everybody. You are here for another episode of Listen to This If…. from Michael and Jen. We are the team from Let's Talk SciComm. And in these episodes, we like to have just five minutes to share our top advice on a problem we think you might be experiencing or a situation you're currently in.

And today's topic Michael is you've just finished uni, you want to stick, I can't even speak... Kickstart your career. What do you do? What's your top tip, Michael?

Michael (00:00:42)

Yeah look, I mean, top tip is first of all, it can take time to kickstart your career. You know, I think, on average, it can take you know, up to a couple of years actually to you know, fully transition to maybe your ideal role.

So look, the tip here is that, understand that the best jobs come from relationships, not from job adverts. And most jobs that people get actually come through their networks, not from job adverts. So it's really about putting time into developing those networks, developing those relationships. Put the feelers out, as I like to say.

And you know, you can be in put-the-feelers-out-mode for a while. And that means reaching out to perhaps you know, previous lecturers. Maybe, you know, friends that you made, connections that you made at uni.

And just saying, you know, "I'm qualified now, I'm looking for work in this area. Would be great to keep me in mind. Maybe we can even meet up and have a coffee." And sometimes that can actually you know, be like an informal interview, right? The request for coffee.

So yeah, just putting time into your networks. And, you know, that's something that we can be doing all the time. You know, if you're at uni now, you haven't finished yet, but you are going to finish in a couple of years. You know, have you been interacting with and collaborating with your other classmates? Do you think that those people might be part of your network going forward?

Because when people get hired for a job, you know, sometimes it's not just them being hired, you know, it's the person plus their networks. You know, if you can say, "I've collaborated with these people", you know, "I see you, you're working on this", you know, "I've got networks that can be helpful in this with this task", you know, that's going to be really valuable.

So yeah, put time into your networks.

Jen (00:02:47)

Yeah look, I think my advice is going to have to be really similar here, Michael. I'll try and come up with a slightly different angle. But it's... of course, it's all about the people, no question.

But my first piece of advice would be work out if you actually really need to take a rest. You know, uni’s, I think we underestimate, uni doesn't... You know, the semesters are quite short. We feel like you've got a lot of downtime in between semesters.

But actually, you know, it's pretty full-on when you're in a semester. And it's not like the day teaching finishes, you finished all your assessments. You know, and if you're working as well, or you've got caring responsibilities, you know, it can be quite tiring.

And I think kick-starting a career, throwing yourself into a new phase of life takes a huge amount of energy and a lot of clarity of thought. So if you need a rest, make sure you allow yourself. And that doesn't have to be a holiday in the Bahamas, that can just be allowing yourself to have a week where you just kind of potter around in your own space or go for a bushwalk or you know, whatever you need to do to really fill your cup, I think is the first thing.

And then yeah, I agree Michael, without question, it's about the people. And the jobs that you find out about, the jobs that... I mean, there may be, maybe you don't even know exactly what you want to do.

And so maybe the flip side I can give to your recommendation, which is to talk to people you already know, my advice is going to be to be really brave, and spend a whole lot of time on LinkedIn.

And if you don't yet know how to use the alumni tool, Google it and find out what the alumni tool is. Because then you're connecting on LinkedIn with people who you share something with, as in you shared at this, you studied at the same institution.

And just be really brave and practice your skills of contacting somebody and saying, you know, "I can see your career path. You've done some really fascinating things. I have some shared interests. Is there any possibility you could meet me for 20 minutes, or you could jump onto Zoom for 20 minutes?"

And deal with the rejection of the fact that probably most people will ignore you. Most people will never get back to you. But even if a couple of people say, "Yeah, I'd be happy to chat with you", building your skills at being brave and learning to ask really great questions and listen to people and really learn from other people and be interested in other people, combined with just the new knowledge that you'll gain that might really help you to waste less time in your career search and hone in on what you actually want to be doing.

I just think it's yeah, all about people listening carefully, asking good questions, thinking, reflecting. You've got to have time to think about what you want to be doing and why.

Michael (00:05:10)

Yeah, that's such great advice. And it's actually reminding me of a food analogy Jen. You know, leaving uni, entering the job marketplace for the first time, maybe it's like entering you know, a food market.

You don't just go up to the first stall and go, "Yep, I'll have that". You need to take time, as you say, to walk around, to maybe chat to some of the people, you know. Do a little bit of research.

And that time that you take is probably going to mean that you're going to find something more meaningful than perhaps the very first thing that pops up. And take time to think, yeah.

Jen (00:05:45)

100%, Michael. So we are on your side.

Good luck everybody for both a good experience next time you want to find something delicious to eat, and for work!

Michael (00:05:54)

Yeah. Good luck!

Michael (00:06:05)

Thanks for listening. We hope you enjoyed the episode and a huge thanks to our production team, Steven Tang and Madeleine Kelly.

That's it for this week. See ya.