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. 2d ago

    Leading AI at One of Australia's Biggest Super Funds - Mythili Baker

    "Ultimately, humans are always going to be accountable - you can't put that on AI." - Mythili Baker Every few weeks, the AI conversation resets again - a new model, a new headline, a new reason to wonder whether the skills you've built still count. For people working inside large, regulated organisations, the question isn't abstract: it's showing up in budgets, headcount, and what "good work" even looks like now. Mythili Baker has spent the last year answering that question for real. As Head of Data & AI at Aware Super - Australia's third-largest super fund - she's responsible for how one of the country's biggest pools of retirement savings uses AI safely, while leading the human side of that change. Before this, she spent 18 years at data and AI consultancy Altus, helping it grow from 17 people to 150. In this episode, Luella and Mythili talk through what AI might change at work (and what it doesn't), the skill that matters more than ever right now, and the career instinct - saying yes, even when it's uncomfortable - that took her from a default degree choice to leading AI strategy for millions of members' retirement savings. Timestamps 00:07:38 - AI Won't Fix Bad Judgement: The biggest AI challenge isn't the tool - it's adoption, change, and learning to sense-check what it gives you. 00:09:31 - When AI Gets It Wrong (Confidently): Why AI can be confidently incorrect, and what it takes to catch it - including knowing when your own expertise should override it. 00:14:01 - Building a Team for an AI World: What Mythili looks for in her team now, and why curiosity and attitude matter more than technical skill alone. 00:15:23 - From wanting to travel the world as a kid to a "default" commerce degree that solved the problem.  00:19:35 - 18 Years at One Company: Growing alongside data and AI consultancy Altus from 17 people to 150, and the real opportunities that came with staying. 00:20:53 - Saying Yes to the Uncomfortable Move: Why comfort became the warning sign, and what finally pushed her into her current role at Aware Super. Resources mentioned: Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg: https://www.penguin.com.au/books/lean-in-9780753541647 New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion episode at the end of the month. We would 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. Join here Connect & Subscribe Subscibe to Career Stories wherever you get your podcasts.  Follow Career Stories on Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Career Stories is brought to you by The Career Library.

    28 min

  2. Jun 23

    Career Advice: Career Types, Portfolio Careers, and What Keeps People Engaged at Work

    What does the FIFA World Cup tell us about leadership communication? And what kind of career do you actually have? In this June advice episode, Dr Luella Forbes and Associate Professor Michelle Gander explore how organisations communicate difficult news, how careers have changed, and why real employee engagement is much rarer than most organisations realise. In this episode: What two different World Cup squad announcement approaches reveal about leadership values and communicationWhy the sequence of delivering difficult news matters as much as the message itselfThe traditional career is not dead — what the research on university students actually showsPortfolio, contemporary and hybrid careers: the differences, the trade-offs, and the financial realitiesGallup's 2026 finding: only 1 in 5 employees globally are genuinely engaged at workWhat the best leaders do differently — without being prompted by systems or processesBook recommendation: Hidden Potential by Adam GrantPreview of July's AI-themed guest episodesResources mentioned: Gallup State of the Global Workplace 2026: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/349484/state-of-the-global-workplace.aspxHidden Potential by Adam Grant: https://adamgrant.net/book/hidden-potential/Read the full blog post and show notes: www.the-career-library.com/career-stories-episodes/june-advice-2026 New episodes on a Wednesday, with interviews with leaders or experts every week and a monthly discussion episode at the end of the month.We would 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.

    55 min

  3. Jun 16

    Simon Johnson: Customer Success, Leading Global Teams, Falling Into Tech

    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.

    49 min

  4. Jun 9

    Claudine Besserer: Global Brand Leadership, Creating Your Own Path, Encouraging Challenge

    This week's guest is Claudine Besserer, a global brand strategy leader who spent 32 years at Mars. She rose from a 21-year-old sensory analysis technician, training factory workers to taste-test chocolate and ice cream, to leading global brand strategy for Royal Canin, a brand she helped grow to 6.5 billion euros. Claudine built her career by repeatedly creating roles that did not exist and moving into fields where, by her own account, she was nowhere. She now consults on brand and long-term value creation and lectures at French business schools. In this episode: Why a brand has to start from the real DNA and values of a company, or it becomes what Claudine calls blah blah marketing that consumers can feel is not true.How she built three different careers inside one company, moving from biology and research and development to market research to strategic marketing, each role created from nothing.What fourteen years in research and development taught her about failure, and why carrying the learning from each failed project into the next is what eventually succeeds.Why moving between disciplines gives you different cards to play, and how that helps you challenge silos and see the bottlenecks other people miss.Why leaders who cannot take being challenged will struggle in a volatile world, and how the need to be loved and right becomes the biggest threat to a business.How she rebuilt a marketing culture across 8,000 people at Royal Canin by proving the gap between internal and external brand perception with evidence, not stories.Why she believes you should be loyal to one person on earth, which is yourself, and what it means to define success as having fun rather than chasing ambition.How a working-class childhood as a miner's daughter shaped her resilience and her belief that everything is possible if you are honest about what you want.Claudine's advice on building a career on your own terms: "You have to be loyal to one person on earth, which is you." Resources mentioned: Lumina (personality and team profiling tool referenced as part of Mars's leadership development) - link TBC, to be added before publishingInfluencing Without Authority (leadership development approach referenced from Mars) - link TBC, to be added before publishingRead the full episode notes at www.the-career-library.com/career-stories-episodes/claudine-besserer 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.

    1h 2m

  5. Jun 2

    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

  6. 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

  7. 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

  8. 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.

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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
    23
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    ©The Career Library, 2026
  • Show Website
    Career Stories

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