Get Career Fit, 2nd Edition

Preface

My first career ambition was to be a member of Charlie’s Angels — that’s the original 1970s TV show starring Jaclyn Smith, Farrah Fawcett and Kate Jackson. As I grew up, at different times I thought I wanted to be a librarian, a teacher, a journalist or a lawyer — though I never did get a degree in education (well, not yet) or take the bar exam.

Like many of my friends, after high school I enrolled in a course at university (a Bachelor of Business Communication) because, well, back then it was what you did. You’d do a trade apprenticeship or go to university, which is still very much what happens today. I had no idea where it would take me.

It ended up being the start of a 20-year career that involved working for six different companies, moving to a different geographic zone nine times, getting promoted 10 times, working in seven different functional areas, completing three degrees and eight certifications, being a member of six professional associations, and holding three board positions and one advisory role.

Throughout this time, I took what seemed like large leaps as I moved from one discipline to another, one industry sector to another, one career field to another. I moved from politics to mining to banking, from being a company spokesperson to working on a large project, from working in corporate affairs to working for the CEO.

Often people would ask me how or why I did this. One friend once remarked, ‘Michelle, your career terrifies me.’

For some of us, these ...