We don’t know about you, but we have big plans for 2021. With 2020 (finally!) behind us, we have a feeling that this year is going to be our year. Thankfully, the marie claire Australia x Bumble Glass Ceiling Series provided enough inspiring, kickass advice to see us through 2021—and then some.
With Jan Fran on hosting duties, and a panel featuring Dannii Minogue, Brooke Boney and Bumble’s Lucille McCart, the virtual event explored everything from navigating work and business during a year of never-ending chaos, managing relationships in the digital era and why so many 20-somethings are embarking on serious career switch-ups.
Below, three lessons we’re taking away from the 2020 marie claire Australia x Bumble Glass Ceiling Series.
STOP DEFINING YOUR CAREER
If anyone knows the meaning of a multifaceted career, it’s Dannii Minogue.
During the live panel discussion, Minogue said that sometimes being referred to as a “slashie” or a woman who “constantly pivots,” is often tiresome, considering the reality is all paths she’s chosen to take over the years have been ones that encompass her as a “whole.”
The lesson to take away here? Gone are the days of careers being so one-dimensional and guided by a set of rules—instead, we’re allowed to mould, stretch and bend to fit the directions we want to be going in.
The only trick, as Minogue says, is learning to embrace each one as a bigger picture.
EMBRACE SAYING “YES!”
There’s no surprise that 2020 has been a major time of change for women, as marie claire Australia editor Nicky Briger said, opening the panel. A recent Are Media survey showed that of 1,000 women asked, more than 50 per cent of those aged between the ages of 25 and 35 had considered a career change.
Lucille McCart, Associate Director, APAC, PR + Comms at Bumble, spoke of her own experiences of learning to take the leap when it comes to career. Having herself been in PR for over eight years, it took recognising that the next step, while not something she was looking for or expecting, was a moment to embrace saying “yes” to a new opportunity.
“What we need to realise is that when something comes along that feels right, learn to say yes to those opportunities,” says McCart. “Be ready to say yes, even when you aren’t looking for something.”
FINDING YOUR PURPOSE
That has always been the underlying goal of any job, right? Finding purpose in everything you do—but sometimes, that reality can often be harder to find than you think.
In January 2019, Brooke Boney—a proud Gamilaroi woman—burst onto our TV screens as a news presenter on breakfast program, The Today Show, bringing attention to First Nations stories and providing an opinion that had not been so readily heard on national television.
Long before becoming a household face though, Boney was championing the rights of First Nations peoples on her Triple J gig, becoming known for using the traditional Gamilaroi greeting of “Yaama” when introducing herself.
It’s that drive and passion for inclusion and recognition that drives Boney’s career today, something she urges others look to in whatever they do.
“It makes me so happy to get up in the morning and know that there are little Aboriginal girls from Narellan or Norree or Muswellbrook watching and they get to turn on the telly and see someone who looks like them, or looks like someone they know or has the same last name as one of their cousins—that’s why you do it.”
“When you can line up the things you care about with the things that you do, I think that when it’s really purposeful,” she adds.
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