Career Stories

This week's guest is Simon Johnson, Senior Director of Customer Success for Asia Pacific and Japan at DocuSign. Simon leads a team of around 35 people across the region, but his career did not start with a clear plan. He missed the marks for the degree he wanted, fell into tech almost by accident, and built his way up through Macquarie Bank, JP Morgan, MYOB, EMC, Google and Okta.In this episode:Simon explains what customer success actually means in a software business, and why making sure people get value from what they bought is its own discipline.He describes leading a customer success team across Asia Pacific and Japan for a US-headquartered company, and the realities of managing across time zones.He talks about what he looks for when hiring and developing managers: commercial experience, genuine curiosity, and the confidence to hold a room of senior people.He shares his non-linear route into tech, from wanting to be a physiotherapist to starting out in a junior role at Macquarie Bank.He reflects on the leadership lessons he learned the hard way, leading an inside sales team at MYOB as a first-time manager.He looks back on the culture at Google, where noble failures were celebrated and moonshot thinking was the norm.He explains why he thinks about work life blend rather than work life balance, and how he weaves family time into a demanding role.Simon's career advice:"Doing what you said you would do is important. But being consistent with that means that you build some real credibility and trust with the people that you've got around you."Read the full episode notes at the-career-library.com/career-stories-episodes/simon-johnson.All opinions are the guest's own.New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you'd like Luella and Michelle to answer at stories@the-career-library.com.Support this podcast by becoming a member at the-career-library.com/join and get access to bonus episodes containing work-related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests, plus a monthly newsletter with tools and guidance from this week's advice episode.Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's guest is Anita Owen, Chief Delivery Officer at Novigi, a 550-person tech and data firm serving Australia's superannuation industry. Anita leads a team of 350, but her path to the C-suite started in data entry at a life insurance company after she dropped out of university and travelled the world. Her career has been built on curiosity, putting her hand up, and asking questions when other people rolled their eyes.In this episode:Why Anita hires for soft skills before tech skills, and how she can tell within 10 minutes of an interview whether someone is right for her team.How asking questions at a superannuation legislation briefing led to her first proper job in product and marketing.Why doing an MBA after years of work experience is what made it valuable, because she could bring real context to every concept.Why working three days a week made Anita more productive, not less, and how constraint forced her to focus.Being a hard marker on yourself, and the cost and discipline of an internal critic that thinks about failures more than successes.Why "you can do it all" is a myth, and how Anita balances family-first priorities with leading a big team.Working through public speaking nerves with the discipline of MBA presentations, and the year she has decided to put herself out there.Anita's career philosophy:"I'm probably towards the end of my career, but I feel like I'm still at the start."All opinions are the guest's own.New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you'd like Luella and Michelle to answer at stories@the-career-library.com.Support this podcast by becoming a member at the-career-library.com/join and get access to bonus episodes containing work-related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests, plus a monthly newsletter with tools and guidance from this week's advice episode.Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's guest is Annette Brodie, founder and CEO of The Reconnect Project, a Sydney-based social enterprise and charity on a mission to close Australia's digital divide. Annette spent more than two decades in the not-for-profit sector across Australia and the UK, with a career that moved from retail communications and waste avoidance to running her own organisation from the ground up.In this episode:What the digital divide is and who it affects, including why 1 in 5 Australians currently cannot get online.How The Reconnect Project works: collecting donated phones, tablets and laptops, refurbishing them securely, and distributing them through over 130 social service agencies including women's shelters, homelessness services and refugee support organisations.How the repair and refurbishment process creates employment pathways for neurodivergent young adults, giving them skills and a real foothold in the tech industry.Why Annette designed The Reconnect Project as a social enterprise with income-generating business units, rather than relying on grant funding alone, and what that model means in practice.Annette's career journey from a failed first-year university course and years of experimentation to finding her calling in communications and waste avoidance, and how those threads eventually converged in The Reconnect Project.The moment she used the equity in her home mortgage to secure a shopfront for the charity, and what that decision required of her.Her experience of perinatal depression across two pregnancies, psychiatric hospitalisation and ECT treatment, and how those years shaped the resilience and empathy at the heart of her work.The career philosophy she developed in her 20s: the moment she felt comfortable in a job was the moment it was time to move on.Annette's career philosophy:"If any point in time I got scared of leaving, it's time to go. You've got to keep challenging yourself."Resources mentioned:The Reconnect Project - thereconnectproject.com.auAustralian Digital Inclusion Index - digitalinclusionindex.org.auPay What It Takes campaign - paywhatittakes.com.auSupport The Reconnect Project:Donate financially at givenow.com.au/thereconnectproject. Donations over $2 are tax-deductible. Average cost to restore a device is $200.Donate a device by mail to: The Reconnect Project, 8 The Strand, Penshurst NSW 2222. All makes and models of phones and tablets accepted (any age or condition); laptops up to 8 years old. Perform a factory reset before sending to remove your personal data.Drop-off locations across Sydney (full list at thereconnectproject.com.au/donate): Bondi Junction (The Boot Factory, 27-33 Spring St), Hurstville Library (12-20 Dora St), Kogarah Library (Belgrave St), Lane Cove Council Civic Centre (48 Longueville Rd), Manly (Office of James Griffin MP, Shop 2, 2 Wentworth St), Maroubra (Lionel Bowen Library, 669-673 Anzac Parade), Marrickville (Among The Trees, 27 Sydney St, Saturdays 10am-4pm; or Reverse Garbage, 30 Carrington Rd), Matraville (Malabar Community Library, 1203 Anzac Parade), Northbridge (Office of Tim James MP, Shop 26/145-151 Sailors Bay Rd), Randwick (Margaret Martin Library, Royal Randwick Shopping Centre; or Sustainability Centre, 27 Munda St), Sutherland (Sutherland Shire Council Customer Service, 4-20 Eton St), Thornleigh (Community Recycling Centre, 29 Sefton Rd, Tue-Fri 8:30am-4pm, Sat 8:30am-12pm). Note: the Epping location is currently unavailable.Corporate or bulk donations (10 or more devices) - visit thereconnectproject.com.au/donate for the dedicated form.All opinions are the guest's own.New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you'd like Luella and Michelle to answer at stories@the-career-library.com.Support this podcast by becoming a member at the-career-library.com/join and get access to bonus episodes containing work-related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests, plus a monthly newsletter with tools and guidance from this week's advice episode.Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's guest is Fadzi Whande, Chief of Section for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, where she leads DEI across an organisation operating in 130 countries. She has spent 15 years building a career in the field, moving through employment consulting and corporate DEI roles at organisations including Mission Australia and Western Power before being headhunted by the United Nations during Covid. In this episode: Fadzi explains what UNHCR does and what leading a global DEI function at the world's refugee agency looks like in practice, including her conviction that how an organisation treats people externally must be mirrored internally. She traces a career path that moved from trainee insurance broker in Botswana to public relations, hotel customer relations and travel roles, before landing in employment consulting in Australia and eventually finding its way into DEI, almost by accident. She talks about her work as an employment consultant at Mission Australia with long-term unemployed clients, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, and how that experience sharpened her thinking about disparity and opportunity. She shares how she got into DEI: a friend found a role, they Googled 'what is a diversity consultant?', she got the job, and that was nearly 15 years ago. She describes being headhunted by the United Nations during Covid while working at Western Power in Perth, needing three attempts at a travel exemption to leave Australia, and arriving in Geneva in 2021 to start a role at one of the world's most high-profile organisations. She reflects on going to university for the first time at 40, completing an MBA in Australia and then a Master's in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics. She talks about the "teachable spirit", her core career philosophy of always being in a position of learning, whatever the situation. She describes how her definition of success has shifted from material markers and achievement to what she has overcome and the fact that she kept going. Fadzi's career advice: "If somebody gives you a microphone, don't ask, why did you give me a microphone? Use it and say what you want to say." And on work-life balance: "This is what I do, but this is not who I am." All opinions are the guest's own. New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month. We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you'd like Luella and Michelle to answer at stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member at https://www.the-career-library.com/join and get access to bonus episodes containing work-related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests, plus a monthly newsletter with tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

How do you keep growing in your career when you feel like you've hit a ceiling? In this episode of Career Stories, Michelle Gander and Luella Forbes explore the habits, mindset shifts, and everyday practices that help professionals stay curious, motivated, and engaged, no matter where they are in their career. In this episode, we cover: What a growth mindset actually looks like in practice (it's not just positive thinking) How to spot the difference between a fixed and growth mindset response to setbacks The powerful idea that "your job description is the floor, not the ceiling" — Associate Professor Michelle Gander Why finding flow, that state of total engagement and joy, matters for sustainable careers Practical strategies for learning and growing without burning out How to stay motivated when progress feels slow You can find more detailed show notes and things to try in practice here.Resources mentioned:Above and Below the Line thinking: [Accountability and Mindset]Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi If you liked this episode:New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Follow Career Stories on Linkedin and InstagramHelp other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's guest is Elizabeth Shaw, Partner responsible for diversity, equity and inclusion consulting at PwC Australia. Elizabeth has spent her career at the intersection of gender equality, workplace culture and social impact, from chairing UN Women Australia in her early thirties to advising the Prime Minister and representing Australia at the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She is one of Australia's most respected DEI practitioners, and her career story is anything but conventional.In this episode:What a partner at a big four consulting firm actually does, and why the role is as much about people and collaboration as it is about expertise.The work Elizabeth does in workplace culture reviews, including why she is drawn to the high-stakes moments when something has gone wrong.How Elizabeth's unconventional early career, from an arts degree and a nomadic NGO role to representing Australia at the UN, shaped the skills she draws on today.Why Elizabeth has consistently failed to see opportunities for herself, and why having people who could see further for her has been career-defining.The difference between a mentor and a sponsor, why women are over-mentored and under-sponsored, and what sponsorship actually looks like in practice.What Elizabeth has learned about wellbeing, outsourcing the domestic load, and building a life you do not want to escape from.Why Elizabeth leans into what she is good at rather than trying to fix everything she is not, and what it feels like when you finally do that.Elizabeth Shaw's insight on sponsorship: “I had people who can see further for me than I’ve seen for myself, and they’ve tapped me on the shoulder and encouraged me. And I think about who in my life can I be that person for.”All opinions are the guest's own.New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This month on Career Stories, Dr Luella Forbes and Associate Professor Michelle Gander reflect on the career stories of Steve Price, Dr Mia Carbon, and Dinda Timperon — three very different people with some surprisingly connected threads running through their careers.In this episode:Why the people who say they don't have a career strategy often turn out to be the most strategic of all — and what Steve Price and Mia Carbon's decisions reveal about planning versus being open to what comes up.The difference between push and pull factors in career decisions, and how Maslow's hierarchy of needs maps onto the moments when we choose to move on or stay put.What ambition actually means for women at work — including research showing there's no ambition gap between men and women when career support is equal, and why that gap appears when it isn't.Why Dinda Timperon's story, from deciding at 17 to join the RAF to building a community around cybersecurity and personal development, is a case study in knowing your own mind.Seizing opportunities versus planning for them — and what happens when the universe decides to make the decision for you (Luella shares the story of how she ended up in Australia).The role of networks, mentors and sponsors in career development, and why the most powerful career conversations are often the ones you're not having.Michelle's take on ambition: "I applaud all the young women nowadays that embrace wanting to be ambitious and wearing that as a badge of honour — because there is nothing to be ashamed of about that."Resources mentioned:• Drive — Daniel PinkMore detailed show notes with links to information discussed by guests can be found here.New epiosodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's guest is Dr Mia Carbon, Deputy Director General of Biosecurity and Emergency Management for Western Australia — or, as she describes it, part of the team responsible for protecting one of the world's most unique environments. From training as a vet and working in rural Victoria and the UK, to a pivotal move into public policy, to leading one of WA's most complex government roles, Mia's career has been shaped by curiosity, values, and a willingness to make hard calls at every stage.In this episode:What biosecurity really means for Western Australia — and why the state's scale makes it unlike anywhere else in the worldThe ethical turning point that led her away from clinical veterinary workStepping into a senior executive role on the day three government departments were being merged into oneWhy she withdrew from a senior role at finalist stage — and what she learned from itHow attending nine schools growing up shaped her adaptability and resilienceHow being a parent has influenced the decisions she's made throughout her careerHer approach to leadership and navigating complexity in the public sectorMia's insight on leadership: "In any leadership role, as you go up, you can do less. You absolutely cannot get it all done yourself. The skill as a leader is being able to bring all of those different threads together and knowing how to get them to work together to achieve what you need to achieve."The proverb Mia lives by: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's episode is our first monthly career advice conversation, where Dr Luella Forbes and co-host Michelle Gander — Associate Professor and specialist in Career Development — reflect on the themes and insights from this month's guest interviews with Mehdi Langroudi and Kelly Shay.In this episode:What purpose actually means at work — and why the research uses different language than the business world doesThe difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation — and why it matters more than a corner officeThe data behind purpose-driven work: why high intrinsic motivation is linked to lower burnout, higher engagement and greater resilience to changeWhy younger generations are demanding meaningful work — and why mid-career professionals are asking the same questionsHow leaders can connect their team members to purpose, even in highly structured or resource-constrained environmentsThis month's listener question: imposter syndrome — how to back yourself when everyone else already believes in youThe difference between imposter syndrome and a lack of confidence (they're not the same thing)Book recommendation: Feelgood Productivity by Ali Abdaal — how to do more of what matters to youA note on how to evaluate career advice: what to look for when deciding whose voice to trustFor access to the sources discussed in this episode please refer to the blog here.This week's book recommendation:Feel-Good Productivity — Ali Abdaal All opinions are the hosts' own. New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

This week's guest is Mehdi Langroudi, Executive Director of Network Operations for Main Roads Western Australia — or, in his son's words, "the guy who fixes traffic"! With a global career spanning Scotland, London, Dubai, Qatar and now Perth, Mehdi shares how he accidentally fell into traffic engineering, what he's learned about leading diverse technical teams, and why career choices don't need to be over-engineered.In this episode:What a traffic operations leader actually does (and why his team includes people from the gaming industry)How predictive data modelling is helping his team get ahead of congestion before it happensThe differences between working in the UK, the Middle East and AustraliaHow to know when it's time to move countries — or jobsWhat he looks for when hiring, and why attitude beats technical skill every timeHow Mehdi thinks about leadership for leaders managing large, diverse technical teams His thoughts on work-life balance, wellbeing and what career fulfilment actually looks likeMehdi's leadership advice: "The standard you walk past is the standard you accept."Resources mentioned:Feel Better, Live More — the wellbeing podcast hosted by Dr Rangan Chatterjee All opinions are the guest's own.New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion on what we've heard in the last week of the month.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance from this week's advice episode. Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

Introducing Career Stories, the podcast that shares other people's career stories to help you with yours.New episodes on a Wednesday, where Dr Luella Forbes interviews leaders, entrepreneurs or experts on their career story, and in the last week of the month, a discussion with Associate Professor Michelle Gander on what we've learned from those conversations.We'd love to hear from you. Share your thoughts on recent episodes or questions you would like Luella and Michelle to answer to stories@the-career-library.com. Support this podcast by becoming a member and get access to bonus episodes containing work related advice from Luella, Michelle and expert guests as well as a monthly newsletter with access to tools and guidance to help you with your career and leadership.Help other people find this podcast by subscribing in your podcast app and leaving a review.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.