This an edited version of a blog that was shared internally for International Women’s Day, March 2022.
Most people who join the Workplace (Facilities) team are unsure what they want to do for their career. It is mostly young women that apply. I have a lot of I-had-a-quarter-life-crisis-and-decided-to-change-careers type conversations. I was no different. When I started at reception I didn’t think I was capable of doing anything else.
But your experiences shape you and over time my confidence grew. That feeling of having no idea what you’re doing starts to become less prominent. You also learn that in fact no one has any idea what they’re doing most of the time. I was given lots of opportunities, and it was the encouragement of others that gave me a little boost every day. My now manager promoted me to Workplace Manager with little people leader or facilities experience. He knew I was capable before I did.
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing though. In facilities you predominantly work with older men and tradies who are used to working with people who look like them. With this much younger woman trying to show that she was meant to be here and in charge. Introducing a new male colleague to one of them, that tradie immediately questioning who the manager was now. That respect I had been trying to gain for years, my male colleague gained in moments.
And with my own team learning and wanting to be a leader that is respected, but also empathetic and kind. Do I have to be assertive and tough? Do I need to change how I communicate? “I think”, “just wondering”, “sorry”, “ ! ”. I consider my journey quite new and I am forever evolving.
During International Women’s Day we often hear from women who are very senior, or well established in their careers. Which is great. It’s inspiring to hear from women in any form. But for those who are not sure or just starting out, hearing from someone who has already achieved their career is so far away from where they’re at now. It’s hard to relate.
We very rarely hear from people who are closer to the start of their journey. And we definitely never hear from women in support roles. What has gone well, what helped, feelings of anxiety, imposter syndrome, confidence, no confidence, and everything in between. People who come into Workplace are usually unsure what they want to do, want to kick start their journey, or they’ve just changed careers. It’s a place to find your feet and I think that is an interesting story to tell.
So please take it away Workplace (plus Kate).
Alyssa, People Services Specialist
To be honest, I have never known what I have wanted to be professionally and I have a sneaking suspicion this will stick with me throughout my working life. When I finished university I didn’t have a desire to have a big corporate career, I desired to live overseas and see the world which something I did and do not regret it for one second. However, working in a variety of administration and office coordination roles throughout the years, it’s hard not to compare yourself to your friends climbing the professional ladders becoming architects, lawyers, and many other successful careers by the age of 30 and questioning if you made the right life choices.
Saying this there is a lot I love about being in a support role! One of the misconceptions (and my pet peeve) about doing administrative work is that you are just a smiling face at reception who does nothing but greet people all day, but there is a whole lot more to it. Helping support a team or a business is a big job and I have learnt a lot of valuable life and work skills from my roles. I absolutely loved my role as Workplace Coordinator at the office in Sydney and am very proud I was able to make connections within the office (even though I started in the middle of a pandemic) and I hope made a positive impact to the office in my time in the role.
Having studied Psychology at university I was always drawn towards the People and Culture world. Admin has opened my eyes to so many potential career avenues and along with the support of very wonderful managers helping me along the way I am forever grateful when I had the opportunity to join the People Services team on a secondment as a People Services Specialist. Even though I question myself everyday if I am good enough to be doing the role, I am so glad to be pushing myself and branching out to a different world where I have learnt so much in a small amount of time. Who knows what the future holds but I will always be grateful to my support role roots for giving me a good foundation for essentially any role I hold in the future.
Sophy, Internal Communications & Sustainability Coordinator
Back in 2016, while working at a job that had me so stressed I ended up in hospital (whoopsie), I figured I should probably look into changing careers. I just didn’t know what exactly that career should be. Having worked in the arts for my entire adult life I found myself in my late 20s with no degree and no direction which — while watching various friends around me practice law, land 30 under 30 nominations, operate on people, and all sorts of high-achieving activities — felt pretty crummy. A quick glance at job boards told me finding a new career without qualification would be tricky. In preparation, I went full quarter-life crisis mode and enrolled in a TAFE course, and then a Uni degree, and finally I decided to leave my job. I’d been working in a pretty niche part of the industry and wanted something as far away from it as possible which led me to ultimately applying at REA. I knew from my very first interview with the Workplace icon herself (Laura Naim, obviously) that the Workplace Receptionist role would be rewarding and nurturing and hopefully help me figure out what I wanted to do, be, etc.
A few months in and I was promoted from Workplace Receptionist to Workplace Coordinator — Job Change #1. Laura and I had been talking about next steps, what I wanted to do (I still wasn’t sure) then at the start of the pandemic when my office-based job was at risk, I had to make a choice and miraculously a secondment in People Services came up. I’d done my TAFE course in HR and so naturally I applied — Job change #2. During my time in People Services I began working closely with the Internal Comms team and my gut said this role that I’d never even heard of before starting at REA could be the right fit for me. After taking every opportunity I could to work on any comms relating to people services, and quite frankly pestering my now manager (sorry Charisse, thank you Charisse) job change #3 popped up. 5 months into Internal Communications & Sustainability and I think my gut was pretty on the money. I’m constantly thankful to have been so supported here, every manager I’ve had, every person who’s acted as a mentor to me (and there have been lots of you so thanks!!) has made those 5 out of 7 days in my week so fun and so nourishing.
Taking the role as Workplace Receptionist felt like a gamble back in 2019: I was giving up on an industry I’d been in for almost a decade, I had literally zero corporate experience, no degree, I didn’t know if I’d find it fulfilling, and I was petrified I’d be terrible at it and have to go through the process of figuring it out all over again. I now count joining as one of the best life choices I’ve ever made.
Rebecca, Associate UX Researcher
When I left school, I had a plan. I was going to do a Bachelor of Science and then post graduate medicine to become a surgeon -ya know, like on Grey’s Anatomy! 6 weeks into my science degree I quit — tired from 13 years of school and wanting to see the world instead of my uni campus. I worked in retail and travelled for the rest of the year, and then decided on a different route — I was going to become a midwife (I honestly don’t know what possessed me), THEN I’d become a doctor after that.
The first time I saw a birth was a video shown in the first week of class, it hadn’t occurred to me to maybe idk YouTube one and figure out if I had the stomach for this super intense and gory moment?! Luckily, I pulled through (lunch still where it was meant to be), finished my degree and practiced as a midwife for 4 years. It was the most rewarding, and most difficult job I’d ever done. I saw what doctors had to deal with day in, day out and decided that wasn’t the path I wanted to take. As a midwife the highs were amazing, but the lows were incredibly challenging. The shift work was brutal, the system was, and still is, in crisis and there was a real lack of support from management. I was overwhelmed, exhausted, burnt out. I quit without a job to go to. I felt lost. I didn’t have any other career ideas outside medicine. I decided to look for a job in admin while I figured out what the heck to do with the rest of my life.
I was offered a temp role as a Workplace Receptionist in the Melbourne office. The temp agent told me passionately that it was a great place to work. And I absolutely loved it! I applied for the permanent receptionist role and stayed on in the team to become a Workplace Coordinator. At that point, I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my career, I felt like I should have figured it out by now, I was in my late 20’s and I was STILL so unsure and upset about it (I use to get very stressed and teary when it came to career conversations). I knew I wanted to stay, I loved the people and there were still so many roles that I had no idea what they even were. Like, what even WAS UX Research? Turns out, after I’d spoken to the team and sat in on a few customer interviews — really cool! It had a strong people side which I loved, and there was so much to learn in an area I found interesting.
Lucky for me, bad for the ~ economy ~, covid happened and I was offered a part time secondment with the UX team to help the Workplace and UX team manage their workloads. I really enjoyed it, I didn’t know if it was going to be my forever job at that point, but I was open and willing to see where it would take me. It felt like a step in the right direction. I was over the moon when I was successful in landing a full time Associate UX Researcher role last year, it turned out to be one of my best decisions! I’m so grateful to all the people who encouraged me and gave me a chance to explore my options without judgement, it takes a village and I’m so glad I found one.
Gabriella, Workplace Coordinator
I have never known what I wanted to do for work. Through my five years of uni, people told me I had plenty of time to figure it out — I would find my thing. I believed them at first but eventually felt let down and frustrated by this narrative as I peeked down different paths, unable to find one that pulled me all the way in. Traveling and living abroad did pull me in and so, after graduation, I centred my life around that, doing jobs that would make this other thing I wanted possible. Even so, not knowing what I wanted to do, or where I could go from where I was professionally caused me a lot of shame. I spent a lot of time putting “just” in front of the different titles I held, as if the way I’d chosen to go about my life made me less than.
I thought that at some point the future version of myself would swoop in and take the wheel; she would be more competent, confident, and sure and she’d know far better than me. Now I know that this driver’s seat switch isn’t happening and no one else is coming; it’s just me in here and that future, stronger woman isn’t just going to pop out of nowhere one day. I have to take the steps to become her and I’ve got to be the one to make a good life for myself, whether I one day have the professional epiphany I’ve always been waiting for or not. Understanding this (and that the epiphany is likely never coming) helps. Knowing that everyone else also has to tread through uncertainty, and that we can support each other as we do it, also helps.
I love being in Workplace where most of us have arrived unsure. One of my goals was simply to land myself somewhere where I could see and know other women I felt similar to who I could look up to and maybe follow. I now have a wonderful vantage point of the many women who have held this role before me and the vastly different paths they have all set out upon from it. Having that has made a big difference for me.
The lack of a direct route has been tricky but with hindsight I can appreciate the road it’s brought me down. Had I known all along where I wanted to get to, I doubt that I would’ve made it here. The hunt across continents and states that my search has led me on has been quite fun and I now look forward to continuing to embrace that. I still don’t know what my dream job is or what shape my future roles will take but I think I’ve finally arrived at a space where I’m not sure I need to.
Kate, ERP Support Coordinator
In 2019 I started in the Accounts Receivable Team. Starting at a big compnay was such a major change to the small 15 people firm I had been used to for the past few years and honestly, I was so nervous: I now know it was one of the best decisions I have made to date. I stayed in accounts for two years before I was ready to further challenge myself.
If you had told me five years ago that I would end up in a tech/software support role I would have never of believed you. But here we are. I had never heard of Netsuite. My only experience with it was what I had learnt while working in AR. During this time, I got to work with the Finance Squad whenever I needed assistance or broke something. At the end of 2020 I had an amazing opportunity to work with the team supporting them on a project which really gave me the confidence to leave my comfort zone and try something new!
One year into the ERP Support Coordinator role and my confidence in my knowledge & skills is growing every day. I still have days that I doubt myself, but I’ve come to realise that’s okay — you can’t know everything! I have a great team & friendships that support me daily.
The biggest thing I’ve learnt in this support role is that it’s okay to make mistakes: Every mistake is a learning opportunity.
To this day, while I have a general idea of where I want my career to take me, I still don’t have a set-in stone career plan. I’m excited to keep my options open, see what roles are out there and embrace the opportunities that come my way.
Lucy, Workplace Receptionist
Growing up I was constantly changing my mind about what I wanted to do when I was older. Until I got to high school and started taking Psychology classes, then I was sure I wanted to be a psychologist. However, after studying for 3 and ½ years, I wasn’t ready to enter the workforce. So I went travelling — postponed thinking about the ‘real world’, came back and realised that I wasn’t interested in psychology anymore. Then came 2020. As a 22 year old, basically fresh out of Uni with a large HECS debt for a career that I wasn’t even interested in anymore, I felt lost. I did some research, realised all I could think about and all I cared about was the impacts of climate change. So, after trying to survive through a bunch of lockdowns (plus eco-anxiety), I decided that being an environmental psychologist would be a cool career (plus all that HECS money wouldn’t go to waste!) but a career that’s relatively new doesn’t garner many search results. So I decided to reach out to Deakin University and enrolled myself in a bridging course that would get me into a Masters in Sustainability.
While this was happening, I was trying to find another job. My Sales Assistant role — acquired as a way to make money while studying was not fulfilling anything for me, I’d learned all I could while in that role and was ready to move on and finally have some job stability. This led me to my current role — Workplace Receptionist. I was keen to learn new things and not be doing the exact same thing day in, day out.
It was hard at first, there was so much to know and it could get a little overwhelming at times. As someone who was desperate to please and had (still has, but getting better) a deeply rooted fear of making even the tiniest mistake, it was a bit of a scary time for me. Truth be told, sometimes it still can be overwhelming and the anxiety and self-doubt kicks in. But having an understanding and considerate manager (who once let me cry in front of her after making a small mistake) has really helped me — I’ve never forgotten her saying to me that when a mistake is made, instead of focusing on the mistake, she starts thinking about solutions. I’ve tried to adopt that thinking myself and I think I’m getting better at it, slowly, one day at a time. I never would have guessed that life would be so unpredictable and full of uncertainties and doubt, but I’m glad that I wound up somewhere I can share in these uncertainties with the wonderful people around me who have been or who are still unsure about what their future holds.
Claire, Workplace Coordinator
Although I haven’t reached my quarter-life-crisis age (yet), I do feel like my short career has been a rollercoaster of emotions and experiences. After finishing year 12, like most, I wasn’t set on anything. I had goals of maybe becoming a dentist/hygienist??? With no clear path, I studied to be a dental nurse thinking this would give me some sort of clarity. I was wrong. As much as I loved being a dental nurse, I knew it wasn’t my forever career and I had no desire to be a dentist anymore, so I was stuck thinking what do I do now? Most of my friends at this time were well into their uni degrees and getting their lives together. I. Was. Stressed. Although I know everyone is on their own unique path, it’s hard not to compare yourself to others and their achievements (especially when it’s all-over social media)
What I DID know is that I love being around people and helping others. This led to taking the leap, studying HR, and landing a job in a very corporate law firm. It was an experience, to say the least. Working within this firm full of highly educated, successful people added extra pressure that I probably didn’t need. I decided that if I wanted to ‘make it’ a diploma wasn’t going to be enough. So, I enrolled in a Bachelor of Business, my third course within a year. Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, my role became redundant, and I was back thinking about my next step. Do I get a simple job while studying? Do I stop studying? Do I run away? Luckily after a short intermission, a new opportunity presented itself, and I’ve never applied to something so fast.
I’ve come to realise that the culture of a company and the support of one another make a world of difference. It’s been wonderful and refreshing to be surrounded by women who have all had similar experiences and want each other to win. As for the future, I’m still not sure what it will hold but I have decided that 1. happiness comes first and 2. Say yes to all opportunities.
Cara, Travel & Expense Specialist
The age at which I think I’ll have my sh*t together seems to take a leap each time I begin to approach it…sorry 10-year-old me, it wasn’t 18, and 18-year-old me, sorry it’s not 25, and 25-year-old me, I know we were pretty sure this time, but it looks like it’s not going to be 30 either, must be 35, right?!
I can recognize now that it is a privilege to be indecisive about my career, it means I have a choice, but for a long time I was just plain old frustrated.
I studied Business, a discipline my parents were in. A couple of semesters down and I thought this isn’t for me, so did a little soul searching whilst volunteering overseas. I was having my main character moment. I figured after 4 months I’d walk back through Tullamarine customs with a sense of purpose, a 10-year plan and Whitney Houston’s I’m Every Woman blasting through the PA system. I came back, same gal, no plan, no Whitney and no closer to discovering the meaning of life. I decided to take my dad’s insightful advice; ‘just finish your degree’. 4ish years later, a bit more travelling, a semester in the US and bam, ya girl got qualified in business management & accounting.
My journey so far has had a couple of memorable moments as a female. Dishonourable mention to the CEO who asked me to only print off the CV’s of female office manager candidates during a hiring process as ‘the male ones may go for his job’, another nominee for ‘best leading male, not reading the room’ goes to the managing partner of an accounting firm who after I politely declined a job offer, asked me out to dinner. My nervous sweating during the interview must have given me a glow.
Thankfully I found my way to receptionist.
Whilst I was still in probation (sorry again Laura) a spot in the Finance team became available, I decided to ‘shoot my shot’ as the kids say. At this point, my strategy was, ‘well, you don’t quite know what you want to do, so just do everything you get a chance to do’. During this time, I met with people from across the business to learn more about their roles and the opportunities that might be out there for me. I have also been lucky to meet and lean on some pretty remarkable unofficial life coaches. Fast forward a little and a role in the Travel & Expense team became available. I enjoyed the administrative roles I had held in the past, but now I would have access to something that combined my love of numbers, and analyzing patterns, with design and reporting. This new role has also allowed me to expand on these skills by participating in further studies in Business Analytics.
My unsolicited advice — Figuring out what you do like is hard, try everything you can, and along the way learn what you don’t like. You’ll naturally navigate away from that and before you know it, you’ll be 35 and everything will have fallen into place…please someone tell me it’s 35!
And finally, a huge thank you to Laura, for taking a chance on me, for her love of Mecca moisturisers and for continuously helping receptionists find their forever homes.
Anastasia, Team Assistant
Once you finish high school, there is that conversation that all aunts, uncles, grandparents, family friends etc etc ask you, so what do you plan to do at uni? What career path have you chosen? That’s a lot of pressure to pop on someone who has just finished school and still finding out who they are. I was that kid who had no clue. Everyone else I knew was going to study at university, so I did too. I had an interest in Design and thought that communication design would be the best option. Two years into the course, knowing that it wasn’t for me, I stuck it out to finish and thought, now what? This isn’t what I want to do.
I loved being around people so a job in retail and then a retail manager felt like the right decision to pursue at the time. As much fun as it was, I felt like I had achieved everything I could and secretly, I wanted my weekends and Christmas Holidays back. Working in customer support to reception and now a team assistant, you never know where your path will take you. There are so many different roles that you get exposure to and it’s a great opportunity to get to know other people in the business and what they do.
I have come to learn that it is okay to not know what path you would like for your career. I have embraced the fact that I don’t have a plan set out for me and to follow what interests me and what feels right in that moment. If an opportunity comes up, take it and give it a go. You never know where it may take you.
Alicia, Workplace Coordinator
Laura kindly gave me an extra hour to write a piece for International Women’s Day. “I work well under pressure,” I said with a lot of confidence for someone who missed the original deadline. Then I was immediately sidetracked by things popping up at reception. Such is Workplace Life!
I quit my job at the end of 2019 to travel (Ha! Hahaha…) Going into lockdown, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I had to learn to let things go, be more self-reflective, re-evaluate what I valued most. And what’s more valuable than time? (I also got a cat. She’s a jerk and I love her so much.) I came out of lockdown, still unsure of My Future. But I do know I’m a lot happier now than I was in 2019. When I remember to, I let that feeling sink in all the way to my bones. I try to remember that more often.
Hour is up!
Josie, Technical Support Specialist
Josie was a busy bee at the time of writing this. Studying to be a tech guru! But lucky for us she has already shared her career story here.
