Career Stories

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The podcast that shares other people's career stories, to help you with yours. Career Stories is a podcast for people who want a better working life. Hosted by Dr Luella Forbes - consultant, researcher and founder of The Career Library. Each episode features an honest conversation with a leader, entrepreneur or expert about the real story behind their career: the transitions, the setbacks, the decisions that didn't go to plan, and the lessons that shaped where they ended up. Every month, Luella is joined by Associate Professor Michelle Gander (Murdoch Business School), an experienced leader and specialist in career development and organisational careers, to unpack the themes from that month's episodes and offer practical, evidence-based advice. Whether you're navigating a career crossroads, leading through change, or simply trying to build a working life that fits — Career Stories gives you the real picture, from people who've been there. Topics include: leadership, organisational change, career development, women at work, management, workplace culture, career transitions, and what it really takes to build a meaningful career.

  1. 4h ago

    Anita Owen: Chief Delivery Officer, Putting Your Hand Up, Valuing Curiosity

    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.

    50 min

  2. May 26

    Career Advice: Identity Work, Grieving the Career You Thought You'd Have, Why Sensemaking Takes Time

    In this month's Career Advice episode, Dr Luella Forbes and Associate Professor Michelle Gander reflect on May's guest conversations with Fadzi Whande, Charity Becker and Annette Brodie, and find a common thread: each of them took a long, non-linear path to land in the work she does now. Luella also opens up about her own delayed reaction, post-doctorate and post-redundancy. The doctorate is done, the corporate job is gone, and the question of who she wants to be for the next 20 years has just walked in. In this episode: The identity work running through all three May conversations, and why every big career transition is also a psychological one. Why finding your place rarely happens in a straight line, and why people often need more than one career to find it. Self-identity versus how others see you, including what it feels like the first time someone calls you "Doctor". Grieving the version of yourself you didn't become, and why naming what's ending matters more than people realise. A working lifetime now holds four or five careers, and the rate of change is only quickening. How to do identity work practically: trusted advisors, an external coach or mentor, journalling, talking and writing your way to clarity. Why sensemaking takes time, and what change leaders get wrong when they skip the middle managers. Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence as the book recommendation of the month. "I was in mourning a bit, because I was kind of grieving the life that I thought I was going to have." — Luella Forbes Resources mentioned: Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence (25th anniversary edition) The Reconnect Project (Annette Brodie's charity, tackling Australia's digital divide) Career Stories May 2026 episodes with Fadzi Whande, Charity Becker and Annette Brodie 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'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. Read the full notes and practical guide at the-career-library.com/career-stories-episodes/career-advice-identity-work-may-2026.

    55 min

  3. May 19

    Annette Brodie: Closing the Digital Divide, Social Enterprise and Backing Yourself

    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.

    49 min

  4. May 13

    Charity Becker: Organisational Coaching, Ethics at work, Work that makes your heart sing

    This week's guest is Charity Becker, an organisational coach based in Melbourne with 20 years of experience spanning coaching, coaching supervision, and coach training. After an unconventional path through hospitality, nannying and psychotherapy, Charity was drawn into the world of coaching while managing an executive coaching panel at a major bank, fell in love with it, and has since built a portfolio career as a coach, trainer, supervisor, and faculty member with IECL. Luella and Charity met through IECL's coaching training programs. In this episode: • Charity explains the real difference between organisational coaching, mentoring and consulting, and why being given a mentor when you need a coach can be devastating for the person on the receiving end.• She describes coaching as "a flip" in who holds the expertise: the coach's role is to help people access the wisdom and capability they already have, not to share their own.• Charity talks about the coaching industry's regulation problem, why ethics matter in a field where anyone can call themselves a coach, and what it looks like to say no to clients even when it costs you work.• She and Luella discuss the bias towards extroverted behaviour in organisations, the challenges women face when asked to lead in ways that contradict what society has long told them, and the "double glazed glass ceiling" for women who are also introverts.• Charity reflects on the double-edged sword of working for yourself, including the freedom, the self-motivation challenges, and what she misses about being in a team.• She shares how a late ADHD diagnosis helped explain earlier struggles with university and formal education, and the unexpected career value of years spent in hospitality.• She and Luella discuss financial security as the foundation for ethical decision-making at work, and why asking people to challenge the status quo without that foundation is unreasonable.• Charity's best piece of career advice: do what makes your heart sing. Charity's coaching philosophy:"I help you remember that you have hard earned wisdom and ask you questions to draw that out of yourself. So it's a flip in. Who is the expert in the room?" Resources mentioned:• Megumi Miki — researcher and author on leadership and the double-glazed glass ceiling for women who are also introverts: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/double-glazed-glass-ceiling-megumi-miki• IECL (Institute of Executive Coaching and Leadership) — global coaching training organisation: iecl.com 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 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.  Use FOUNDING as a discount code before 1 July for 1/3 off. 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.

    1 hr

  5. May 5

    Fadzi Whande: Diversity and Inclusion, International Leadership, Redefining Success

    This week's guest is: Creators & Guests Dr Luella Forbes - Host More 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.

    39 min

  6. Apr 28 ·  Bonus

    Dinda Timperon: Burnout, the REST Framework and How to Recognise the Signs

    Creators & Guests Dr Luella Forbes - Host Dinda Timperon - Guest In this bonus episode of Career Stories, Dr Luella Forbes is joined by Dinda Timperon — Head of Cybersecurity Engineering at a major Australian wealth management organisation, RAAF veteran, and founder of Perth Women's Circle, a community of over 10,000 women focused on professional growth and development. Having experienced burnout herself and watched it quietly erode teams across defence and cybersecurity, Dinda developed the REST framework to help leaders recognise and prevent burnout before it reaches breaking point. In this episode: What burnout actually is — the three symptoms that must all be present: emotional exhaustion, cynicism and depersonalisation, and reduced personal efficacy.Why people doing purpose-driven work are 50% less likely to experience burnout.The "silent breach": why organisations invest in systems but overlook the people operating them.Three early warning signs to watch for in yourself and your team: cognitive drift, emotional changes, and shifts in behaviour.The REST framework — Recognise, Equip, Sustain, Thrive — as a practical tool for leaders building sustainable, high-performing teams.How to track physical, mental and social energy across the day, and use that knowledge to organise work more effectively.What to do if you think you're heading toward burnout: the question "what feels heavy right now?" and the seven types of rest.Why the promise that things will ease up after the project ends is never quite true — and what to do instead.The case for using the word "burnout" mindfully, and how to tell the difference between genuine burnout and exhaustion."organizations spend often depending on the size of the organization like millions of dollars on systems but they often forget about one aspect which is the most important aspect which is the people that have to operate the systems. I call it the silent breach." — Dinda Timperon Resources mentioned: Dinda's REST framework — discussed in the episode.Seven types of rest — Saundra Dalton-Smith: TED TalkAll opinions are the guest's own. More detailed show notes with links to information discussed by guests can be found here. Bonus episodes cover focused topics in career, leadership and management. From June 2026, they are available to Career Stories podcast members.Join at the-career-library.com/join — use the code FOUNDING before 1 July for a founding member rate, locked for life.New guest and advice episodes every Wednesday. Bonus episodes on Fridays from May 2026.We'd love to hear from you — share your thoughts or questions at stories@the-career-library.com.Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

    23 min

  7. Apr 21

    Career Advice: Growth Mindset, Learning and Finding Joy in Your Career

    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.

    50 min
  8. Dr Annelen Schär: Luxury Cars, Marketing Architecture and Choosing Positivity

    Apr 14

    Dr Annelen Schär: Luxury Cars, Marketing Architecture and Choosing Positivity

    This week's guest is Dr Annelen Schär, Head of Omnichannel Portfolio Management at Mercedes-Benz in Stuttgart — a digital leader working at the intersection of e-commerce, customer experience and business architecture in one of the world's most iconic car brands. Annelen has spent almost 15 years at Mercedes-Benz, completing a Doctorate of Business Administration along the way, all while raising two young children. She embodies resilience and a very deliberate choice to stay positive. In this episode: •       What omnichannel portfolio management actually means, and how Annelen's team connects Mercedes-Benz's digital channels, e-commerce and business architecture from customer awareness all the way through to retention. •       How a childhood cello player who wanted to be a vet ended up in the luxury automotive industry, via a multicultural degree, a year abroad in the US at 15, time in France, and a Porsche internship that sparked her love of the product. •       The moment the financial crisis derailed a signed job offer and how Annelen navigated her way back, through a smaller company, a promotion, a tyre company detour, and eventually the Mercedes-Benz trainee program. •       What Annelen loves about working for Mercedes-Benz after almost 15 years, including the brand pride, the pioneering digital agenda, and the thrill of the annual product forum where new models are unveiled under strict secrecy. •       Why Annelen completed a doctorate alongside two babies and a leadership career, what she found hardest about the process, and what it actually added to the way she thinks and works. •       How returning from parental leave to find her whole division dissolved led, unexpectedly, to the best job she has had at the company. •       The strengths Annelen credits for her success: perseverance, resilience, having a plan without being rigidly attached to it, and a deliberate choice to believe that whatever comes is the right thing. •       How Annelen manages her mental health across an intense professional life, including presence with her children, playing cello, and building a positive mindset deliberately. •       What success means to Annelen: family, team celebration, reaching a management level she is proud of, and learning to be happy where you are rather than always looking ahead.   Annelen's career philosophy: "I believe that whatever comes is the right thing. So if something doesn't work out, I'm not getting really down. I believe, okay, then it's the right thing that I didn't get, for example, this job." Resources mentioned: •       Research on positive mindset and gratitude journalling •       Thinking on the alternatives to introverts and extraverts 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.

    44 min
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About

The podcast that shares other people's career stories, to help you with yours. Career Stories is a podcast for people who want a better working life. Hosted by Dr Luella Forbes - consultant, researcher and founder of The Career Library. Each episode features an honest conversation with a leader, entrepreneur or expert about the real story behind their career: the transitions, the setbacks, the decisions that didn't go to plan, and the lessons that shaped where they ended up. Every month, Luella is joined by Associate Professor Michelle Gander (Murdoch Business School), an experienced leader and specialist in career development and organisational careers, to unpack the themes from that month's episodes and offer practical, evidence-based advice. Whether you're navigating a career crossroads, leading through change, or simply trying to build a working life that fits — Career Stories gives you the real picture, from people who've been there. Topics include: leadership, organisational change, career development, women at work, management, workplace culture, career transitions, and what it really takes to build a meaningful career.

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  • Creator
    The Career Library
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    19
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©The Career Library, 2026
  • Show Website
    Career Stories

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