Editor’s Note: This post is by Alon Loeffler, co-founder of Find My Pathway, who is completing a PhD in Physics at The University of Sydney after an undergraduate degree and honours in Psychology. So you’ve finally finished 3-5 years of an undergraduate degree. Maybe an honours year too. Perhaps you’ve even taken a year off to travel and find yourself. What now? Should you take on another 3-5 years of study, and take on the daunting task of doing a PhD? Here are 4 things I wish I knew before ultimately making the decision to pursue my PhD.   “A night out with PhD colleagues at a bar, you ..read more

Editor’s Note: Our latest guest post is by Sue Brennan who shares her experience in transitioning from studying exercise science to working for an Intelligence Agency.   I have to hold my hand up and admit that there was no masterplan. I had never given a job, let alone a career any consideration. Simply, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. However, a good career advisor at university set me on the straight and narrow – or at least on the path to a good degree. I studied exercise science and graduated with first-class honours and two potential PhD offers. But… I was tired of ..read more

Editor’s Note: Our second guest post is by ANU Postgraduate Medicine student, Jeremy Basser, who shares some tips from his experience in applying for, and ultimately being accepted into a postgraduate medicine course. Getting into Postgraduate Medicine is a daunting task. Compared to Undergraduate Medicine, the application process appears long and arduous, and the idea of doing two degrees for the price-of-one can seem ceaseless.  From early on, you might hear of the dreaded 6-hour exam that is the GAMSAT. Or you may hear about the complicated application and preferencing system. This wou ..read more

EP01 – Forging the Path World Leading Immunologist Sir Gustav Nossal We sit down with Sir Gustav Nossal to learn about his early career decisions and hear his advice to students interested in pursuing a career in science and research. Watch the interview Listen to the podcast Interview You’ve had all these amazing opportunities and all these different potentials for career pathways. How did you decide the direction of your career since you graduated? Funnily enough I’ve wanted to do medicine and become a doctor as long as I can remember, from probably about the age of seven. Would you believ ..read more

If you just want to know which role suits you better, skip to the end for a quick personality quiz! Take The Quiz What is Human Resources? Human Resources professionals typically work in business settings. As the name suggests, they are responsible for managing all things ‘human’ within an organisation. Consequently, their specific job responsibilities may vary drastically from recruitment and on-boarding, to employee relations, payroll or training.   Human Resource professionals are responsible for managing all things ‘human’ within an organisation The role of an HR professional varies b ..read more

Editor’s Note: Our first guest post is by famed author Lee Kofman who shares some tips from her experience in transitioning from her career in social sciences to pursuing her creative passion — writing. Lee Kofman I’ve been teaching writing and mentoring writers for over a decade now, and doing my own writing for way longer (I guess I could say I wrote my first poem at the age of three… Or so my mother tells me). The following tips, then, are based both on what I have observed while working with other writers and even more so on my own ongoing trial-and-error. 1. Write about what matters ..read more

Let’s face it – job hunting is the worst The thrill of loading up Seek.com, and wading through the thousands of advertisements with vague job descriptions, wears off after about… an hour. Next thing you know, it’s six months later, you still have five decent-looking jobs in open tabs or clogging your bookmarks, and you’re closer to becoming a permanent resident in your parents house than you are to a career you love. Well, let me reassure you that you’re not a failure, you’re not worthless, and you’re definitely not the only one facing this issue. I recently wrote a response to research s ..read more

A throng of demoralising articles have surfaced over the past month, warning of decreasing employment opportunities for millennials and other young people. A series of articles from a range of sources, including The Age, Sydney Morning Herald, and The Daily Mail, call this the Quarter Life crisis, suggesting that it is now harder than ever to find employment as a 25 year-old. This, in turn, is making young people more stressed than ever before, leading to a crisis. While it is difficult to argue with the research behind all this (conducted separately by LinkedIn and the Foundation fo ..read more