I absolutely LOVE the sentiment in this image for this post that I saw on @thehappyslothclub instagram – and it is so very true.

I think it’s human nature for people compare themselves to where they are at in their own journey to where others are, and can be down on themselves (or even down on others) about that. 

And we SHOULD NOT be harsh on ourselves (or others) about where you are at = especially if you are working/training/studying in a direction that will see you progress going forward! EVERYONE has to start at the bottom – and this might mean starting at the bottom multiple times in your life.

The key is to be willing to start at the bottom, have a good work ethic, be willing to learn from others, and take charge of learning and developing yourself where needed, so that you then can progress and grow going forward – and be willing to take zigzags in your career as you go!


This is speaking from experience – as someone whose career journey went something like:

• Completed HSC.
  
  
• Applied to a random Uni course because it was “expected that you go to uni”, got accepted to Uni, deferred Uni.
  
  
• Instead went and did a vocational Business certificate at TAFE (awarded most Outstanding Female Student for that year…. *chuffed*).
  
  
• Applied for a Traineeship at the end of the TAFE course, became a trainee in the public service.
  
  
• This kick started a career spanning about 22 years in the public sector.
  
  
• Last public service role was made redundant due to an office move, so I approached them with a stellar pitch about having me work remotely for a while – this was accepted, and I ended up completing another 10 months or so working from home on a fixed contract.
  
  
• Fixed contract finished, I was bored, so I decided to go and refresh my Business quals by blazing through a Cert IV in Business Administration via flexible learning at TAFE in less than 6 months (awarded Student of The Year for that year…… *chuffed again*)
  
  
• While studying at TAFE, I applied for a part time, fixed term administrative role in the Tertiary education sector – this was great as I only wanted to work a couple of days a week while I polished off my study.
  
  
• Just after completing the Business Admin Cert IV, and while still working in the contract role, I was approached and asked if I would be keen to do my Cert IV in Training and Assessment to be able to TEACH business admin in the Vocational Education and Training sector – jumped at that chance so less than six months later I had a second Cert IV under my belt.
  
  
• Finished up the contracted role at the Tertiary education provider, and was immediately offered some work as a Virtual Assistant – something I had not previously considered, but was able to put my remote working from the public service job to good use.
  
  
• Offered a casual teaching position at a Vocational provider with the expectation that there would be a role for me in 2020 where I could learn the ropes in delivering some components of face-to-face vocational education and training in Business Admin – (but stupid Coronavirus put the breaks on that), however this ended up with a pivot into being offered work by the provider in assessing. So it’s still progress!
  
  
• Offered a second lot of work for another person as a Virtual Assistant – and this prompted me to bite the bullet and decide to open my own business providing virtual administrative management/support, social media content creation, and organising services.
  
  
• Started my business juuuuussstttt as the first COVID19 shutdown happened – lol timing….! But persevered anyway, and now I’m working with great clients on a variety of things, picking my hours, still doing some assessing work, and I’m really enjoying it and haven’t looked back!
  
  

Now here we are – in the second half of 2020.

Over my working life I’ve had a number of jobs (some similar, some different, some I’ve hated, some bits I’ve absolutely loved).

I’ve started at the bottom a number of times, but worked hard to progress which gave me an idea of where I would like to see myself career wise.

Then I took steps to pursue that by completing additional training and taking on learning and work opportunities that would help.

And I still haven’t been to uni… that’s actually on my to-do list now, and I have a much better idea of what course I want to tackle!

So that’s my tale – and I’m sharing it because I hope others can see that what you end up doing may be not what you anticipated when you left school, you might end up finding yourself doing something that you are good at – you might not LOVE it, but doing the things you are good at for work can mean you then have the money to do the things you LOVE in your non-work life (which, honestly, can be more satisfying and fun!).

The moral of this long-winded blurb – YOU DO YOU!