How Careers Counsellors Can Help: Gil's Advice

 

If you are considering working in a different field than that of your degree, the first thing Gil wants you to know is: you are not alone.

As a UTAS Careers Counsellor with over twenty years of experience, Gil has seen her fair share of students in the same position. “This is a regular occurrence. It’s not unusual in the least,” she explained. “It can occur for a variety of reasons and is not just specific to a certain degree.”

According to Gil, such reasons could include cultural differences, unsuccessful practical placements, self-reflection, maturity, boredom, or a degree being too broad with no specific outcomes.

To help students who come to her, Gil follows the “narrative approach,” which she explained to me as working like this:

“I’ll usually ask a series of questions. The narrative approach means a student sits and tells me their story. From that story, I paint a picture. In order to do that, I need to know some professional answers and what their life is like.”

 

Testing out the approach on me and my degree of Media, I was asked several questions such as:

·         Why did you choose the degree?

·          Did you go to year 11 and 12?

o   Did you have career conversations in year 11 and 12?

·         Do you have a family and/or partner? Where are they located?

·         Are you willing to move if your degree doesn’t have much employment locally?

·         What is your “personal situation?” Are you an indoors or outdoors type of person?

·         Have you researched the degree/job opportunities?

 

As you can see, there were several questions asked and ideas raised just on my situation, and the questions will differ for yours. It will also depend on where you are in terms of completing your degree. Gil explains that, “if they’re halfway or more, I’d tread very carefully advising them not to finish the degree. Sometimes it’s easier to have them finish the degree and do something else post-graduate.”

Sometimes, Gil may offer an alternative best suited to the student’s needs, offering the Business Degree as an example:

“The UTAS Business Degree is very broad,” she explained, “and the maths component is core. In other (business) degrees, it is not a core component.”

 

Another significant impact on a student’s decision regarding their degree, according to Gil, is the regionality of Tasmania. She said that, in year 11 and 12, students would tell her, “I don’t care where I go, just get me out.” In addition, she explained that “if a student had to move to Hobart it was just as easy to move to Melbourne or Sydney. They would apply everywhere.”

Gil said that may apply interstate if their degree was more recognised there, or they may move interstate simply because their degree was not available at UTAS, for example, archeology and forensic science. Some courses, such as physiotherapy, aren’t available to study in Tasmania, but there are plenty of job opportunities for students to come back after completing study, which may be an option.

Using personal stories, Gil told me, “students can struggle because they might be academically able, but may be the first in their family to go to university, or they may have grown up regionally and not have social skills because of limited contact with people.” An example she cited was a student failing their education practical placement due to having limited social skills after growing up on a farm in a regional town and not interacting with many people. “To help her overcome that, the school she failed at invited her back every week for half a day.”

 

As you can see, for any problem that may arise, careers counsellors can help. Counsellors like Gil will listen to your personal situation and tailor their advice accordingly. For those who are in the situation now, Gil has the following advice:

“The worst thing you can do is not get advice or seek support. If you’re unhappy, you won’t do well. It could be as simple as talking it out, Sometimes I don’t have to say anything; they’ll just come and blurt it out. They need to get it straight in their head. Sometimes it’s just as simple as laying things out on a whiteboard.”

Gil added that she can show people jobs from interstate and locally and is open to students coming back for multiple appointments as, again, it is dependent on the situation. While she cannot answer questions that are not based on fact/choice (such as “should I do paramedics or nursing?”, Gil says that a benefit of careers counsellors is having an uninvested third party to talk about your situation with, as opposed to parents who may want you to do something.

 

As for the best thing you can do?

“Get clarity. Enhance your degree,” Gil said. “Don’t just come out of your degree expecting a job because that’s not going to happen, especially in Tasmania. What are you doing to set yourself apart? Start looking at opportunities like internships and volunteer work.”

 

The important thing to take away from this story is that careers counsellors can be a significant help if you’re unsure of what to do next; they are available and can provide some great advice that you may not have previously been aware of.  

 

Medical and Financial Difficulties Impacting Work: Hayden's Story

 

Hayden graduated from UTAS with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Theatre, in 2017. However, they soon found themselves facing medical and financial difficulty.

“Basically, theatre is the only industry where being discriminated against is part of the game and legal and being underpaid is part of the game and legal,” they explained to me.  “Unless you’re part of a big production, you’re usually being paid for the project and not for the hours. It’s called an honorarium and it’s totally legal.”

Providing an example of their own experience, Hayden stated that they were paid $1750 for three months full work, which equated to just under two dollars an hour.

“Because it’s theatre, there’s a certain ‘type’ they’re looking for,” Hayden further explained regarding the discrimination. “A character might be a straight, white, cis man. There may be no reason why they are but that’s who they’re looking for and that’s who gets the role.”

Medical issues have also prevented Hayden from working.

“I’m in pain all the time,” Hayden says of their illness. “My pain levels vary, so sometimes I’m very capable and can achieve a lot, however (usually immediately after one of those days), I can ‘crash’ and will be bedridden for perhaps weeks on end.”

“Because of the unpredictability of my illness, it’s hard to make a schedule that works around it in a professional setting that involves a lot of other people, particularly theatre.” The illness also led to difficulties getting hired, as Hayden explained that, “If something goes wrong, they could potentially get sued. I’m a risk they don’t want to take.”

Hayden’s issue presents a very real problem for disabled individuals entering the workforce. Having had this experience themself, Hayden advises:

“Work for yourself. Starting a business is expensive, unfortunately, but if you’re driven enough and can find the funds, it can be a great way to work around limitations that are often systematically in place in the workforce.”

If starting your own business isn’t an option, Hayden recommends outsourcing:

“Outsourcing and delegation are great ways to be part of the clog without it messing with illness too much,” they said. “You don’t have to know how to carry a coffee to manage a café, for example.”

 

In their experience, Hayden has always found it easier with jobs that are distance or can be applied to via distance. “The easiest thing was anything I could do online, (such as) typing up documents, sending files, emailing correspondences, that sort of thing.”

Sometimes in-person interviews have even prevented Hayden from applying for the job. “I’ve cancelled interviews because I’ve been sick or in pain, which would have been easily solved with a Skype interview. Travelling always adds a complication,” they said. “Not to mention non-illness things such as having to find the location of the job interview (and) needing money to get there and back.”

Accessibility and discrimination have been the hardest things for Hayden when they were looking for jobs in the workforce (which they are currently not doing due to their illness). Detailing their experience, I was informed, “phone calls are difficult when one has anxiety. Transport is difficult when one is poor. Keeping jobs is hard when one has a shoddy immune system.”

Adding onto discrimination with what they referred to as an “interesting phenomenon,” when they were applying for jobs. Hayden explained, “Because the name on my resume is Hayden, they expect a man. Every time I walked in, their faces would drop and they would speed me through. It was ridiculous.”

 

Despite their current situation, no longer being in the workforce, and the difficulties they faced in theatre, Hayden has no regrets from their degree as they use the skills from their degree in everyday life, such as public speaking, organisation, cable management, design and art.

Hayden, however, believes that universities could be doing more to help students in their situation, especially those with a disability.

“Make knowledge and pathways more accessible by actively providing those things. They should be asking disabled students what they need, rather than assuming or guessing.”

 

So, while illnesses and disabilities can provide difficulty in gaining employment, there are pathways available. Some jobs can be done by distance, interviews conducted via Skype, and tasks can be outsourced or delegated. As Hayden advised, starting your own business or being your own boss can be a great way to work around limitations, and that will be their plan if/when they return.