I’ve been to university three times in my life. Three times when I was at a crossroads, where investing in myself and reinventing who I was via learning seemed like the only way forward. The first time was in the late 1980s, at 26, when I was disillusioned with my banking career. The second time was just after I had my daughter at 29. The third time was at 44, when I broke up with the Italian. After the third time, I said that I would never undertake formal study again. Ever. And this was mainly because I didn’t want
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I started a PhD in 2008. A year later I quit, but that’s not what this post is about. This post is about women, work, and career advancement. It’s about what I see happening again and again in workplaces. Where women overwork in the hope they will have career success. Where women are often chewed up and spat out by the places for which they work. Where women of a certain age can’t get work. Where women have to hide their age on paper to even get a look-in for work. This post is about that, which, coincidentally, was also
Continue reading...This is the second part of My ten favourite purchases, which I started writing waaaaaaay back in the beginning of July. 6. My degrees In 1989, when I was 26, I left full-time employment and enrolled in an Arts degree at The University of Adelaide. Coincidentally, 1989 was when the Australian (Labor) Government decided (in its wisdom… not) to charge its students for attending university. I think I paid about $800 per semester per subject back then, but it’s risen quite steeply since, with the cost dictated by the degree being studied. Arts and teaching: not so much; medicine, law
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To my horror*, I have recently discovered that I have a sense of entitlement. If I examine where it comes from, I can see it’s premised on my education and being smart. I have several degrees, and when I work, I bring my education and my knowledge to the cubicle. I have to, because it’s in my DNA to perform well and take in new challenges. I always give my job 100% and I err on the side of doing the right thing for the organisation. The organisation, of course, benefits from my knowledge, my ambition, my wanting to do
Continue reading...I went to university at age 26 because I thought having tertiary qualifications would mean that I would have better career opportunities. After all, that’s what all the rhetoric said, right? Before that I was worked in banks and took temp jobs to pay the bills. So I graduated from university, clutching my trusty Arts degree, thinking: “OK World, here I am! Come and get me!” And it did. It pulled me right back to banking and temp jobs. Hmmph. So much for better opportunities. Luckily, I became pregnant with my daughter and I realised I had to do something
Continue reading...I am pretty active on Twitter. I follow lots of educators (because I am one, among other things), and without fail, I see all sorts of links to blogs and articles and YouTube videos about how to be a better teacher. I have never seen one that tells students how to be, well, better students. So to address this significant gap in the market, I thought I would put this little Rule Book together. It’s a little bit of a tongue in cheek rant, but anyone in education should recognise certain student traits! Rule #1 Just because you pay for
Continue reading...I have worked in and out of education for the last 15 years. My first foray was in my early thirties, when, upon discovering I was going to be a single parent, I thought I’d better do something “practical” with my Arts degree (apart from serving fries with that!). I’d always enjoyed school, and was good at it, and what with the school holidays and civilised hours, teaching seemed like a natural fit for a soon-to-be single parent. So I signed up and completed my Graduate Diploma in Education, teaching English and Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). In my
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