What She Did Next

Hello and Happy 2025 to you! It's been a while between episodes but today we're bringing you a special conversation from our friends over at the Mumbition podcast, featuring our very own Jacqui Ooi. This episode takes you behind the scenes of our work with career-changing women, with lots of great insights and inspiration for anyone on the cusp of a new chapter. Hope you enjoy it! Welcome to the&n...

What do you do when your dream career suddenly loses its shine? Do you give it up for something new – or change the way you’re doing it?   If anyone had a dream career, it was Nina Karnikowski. As a travel writer at the Sydney Morning Herald, and later going freelance, she was off on adventurous travels a dozen times a year.   But in 2019, she went on a trip that would change her forever...

Are you at a career crossroads and thinking about ‘what’s next’ for you?   Then you’ll want to dive into this mini episode, to find out how our Career Change Kickstarter course can help you!   If you’re feeling the niggle (or roar) of needing a change, but you’re not sure what you want to do next or what steps to take, this course is for you.   Applications are now open for our Apri...

Have you always dreamed of doing something creative? But you’re not sure how to turn that into a career?   For Kris McKee, her early creative interests fell by the wayside as she pursued a more stable career in nursing.   Being a nurse opened up opportunities to travel and live in London, and over 20 years, she worked her way up in a very specialised field.   Despite her success, th...

Do you want to make a difference in the world without leaving your corporate career? Are you passionate about using your skills for good?   This has been a driver for Malini Raj throughout her working life, as she’s built a successful career in financial services.   Malini started out on a more traditional path in investment banking. But she soon discovered a passion for working with peo...

Have you been rethinking your career after becoming a mum? Do you want to explore what else could be out there for you?   For Steph Jacobs, the transition to motherhood was a real turning point in her career… and after having two sons of her own, she became fascinated by the world of early childhood.   It was a big leap from her previous career, working in HR, but the more she explored,...

Are you in a career that has an expiry date? And soon, you’ll have to figure out ‘what’s next’ for you?   This was the case for Anna-Liza Mopio-Jane, who started out as an athlete in the world of swimming, going all the way to the Beijing Olympics representing Papua New Guinea.   But after more than 12 years competing internationally, she retired from the sport in 2015… and has retrained...

Have you fallen out of love with a career that once inspired you? Do you want to feel that spark of excitement in your work life again?   This is where Melissa Di Marco found herself after 12 years in the hairdressing industry, but she didn’t know what else she could do.   Putting her CV out into the world, she hit a raft of rejections – but she did land a job in a tea shop.   Being...

Do you love the idea of packing up your life to go travelling? Just stepping off the daily treadmill and seeing where it takes you?   That’s exactly what Evie Farrell did back in 2016 and her travel buddy was her young daughter, Emmie.   As a solo mum, Evie had been struggling to balance her busy corporate career with spending enough time with Emmie and she decided an overseas adventure...

 Are you thinking about making a career change? But you’re not sure ‘what’s next’ for you?   Join host Jacqui Ooi for Season 5 of What She Did Next, as she chats with women across Australia who’ve changed up their careers in all sorts of interesting ways – to create more freedom and flexibility, explore their creative interests and do work that feels more meaningful.   Whether you want...

We’re wrapping up Season Four of What She Did Next with our always popular highlights episode.   If you’re new to the show, this is where you can get a little taster of the stories we’ve shared and if you like what you hear, you can scroll back through the feed to find the full episodes.   This season, we’ve been chatting to women who’ve made all sorts of inspiring career changes at all...

The idea of going back to study when you’re already juggling work and family might seem out of reach... maybe you’re worried that it’s too time consuming or too expensive or just not possible to fit in with your busy schedule.   But things have definitely changed on the study front, with the shift to online learning opening up a whole new world of possibilities, and the rise of short courses...

Jen Webster worked in the IT industry for 30 years, spruiking software for some big tech firms until her first child started school.   Needing more flexibility in her work, Jen shifted to a part-time role running her organisation’s corporate social responsibility program… which opened her up to the world of charities.   It was a role she loved for many years until suddenly she was faced...

Melissa Chan has been a career changer throughout her working life, driven by a desire to learn and embrace new experiences.   During her 15-year career, she’s done everything from teaching yoga to advising a Prime Minister… and she’s also spent time in both the corporate and creative fields as a management consultant, writer and documentary maker.   Melissa is what you might call the ul...

Dervilla McGowan had always loved science, ever since she was a kid. She went on to study microbiology at uni and even completed a PhD.   But at the end of her studies, she realised a career in academia wasn’t for her… and instead she wanted to use her scientific skills to make craft gin!   Derv and her hubby launched Anther in 2016, an award-winning gin brand that celebrates Australian...

Jane Hutcheon was a familiar face on our TV screens for 25 years. During her stellar career at the ABC, she was a foreign correspondent, a news presenter and the host of popular interview show One Plus One.   But in 2019, Jane announced her decision to leave the national broadcaster… driven by a sense that life was getting short and there was more she wanted to do.   Jane had been doing...

Tamara Pitelen had worked in the media industry for 25 years in jobs that took her all over the world, before her growing concern about the climate crisis led to a major career change.   The thought had been brewing for a few years as she started to tire of endless magazine deadlines. And looking back, she says, it was also around the time menopause was kicking in – a big transition time for...

Chamani Weerasekera always wanted to help people, so choosing a career as a pharmacist working in hospitals made a lot of sense.   But a few years into her career, she realised she wanted something more… and in true ‘Eat, Pray, Love’ style, she headed overseas to see what else was out there for her.   For the next three years Chamani worked as a tour guide in Southeast Asia, loving the t...

Emma McMillan loved many things about her job as a high school teacher but 12 years into her career, she was burnt out. As head of the drama and dance department, the additional night-time and weekend rehearsals on top of a heavy day-to-day workload had simply become unmanageable.   When she fell pregnant with her son, a year of mat leave was the perfect opportunity to explore what else might...

Are you at a career crossroads and thinking about what’s next for you?   Join host Jacqui Ooi for Season 4 of What She Did Next, as she chats with women across Australia who’ve successfully made career changes 10, 20, even 30 years into their careers.   We’ll find out why they did it, how they did it and their best tips to help other women.   Whether you’re looking to make a total c...

Highlights from our third season of conversations with some truly inspiring women.   This episode will get you across the kind of stories we share... and if you like what you hear, you can scroll back through the feed to find the full episodes.   As regular listeners will know, the conversations we feature are with women from a whole range of backgrounds who have navigated some pretty bi...

Becoming a first-time mum should be a joyful celebration but what if everyone around you was saying ‘sorry’ instead of ‘congratulations’…   Our guest today is Ingerlise Svaleng and she’s the founder of 21 Gifts – an initiative she started with her husband after their first daughter, Maia, was born with Down syndrome.   Maia’s ‘welcome to the world’ was not as IngerLise wanted, not becaus...

Our guest today is Kylie Flament and she’s the General Manager of Green Connect, an award-winning social enterprise that does incredible work helping young people and former refugees into employment, while leading the way in growing fair food and diverting waste from landfill.   These days Kylie loves nothing more than spending time at the Green Connect farm on the outskirts of Wollongong in...

Our guest today is Solai Valliappan and she’s an investor in the tech space, with a keen focus on start-ups that are bringing about positive change.   She’s also a champion of female founders and hopes to inspire more women to start their own companies and get the backing they need to bring their big ideas to the world.   Solai decided to become an investor after observing the lack of wo...

Our guest today is Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe and she’s a passionate advocate for human rights, social justice and the environment.   She’s also a proud Gunnai Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung woman, who takes inspiration from a long line of strong matriarchs in her family.   In 2017, Lidia made history by becoming the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to the Victorian Parliament. And in...