Nyree Hatzimihail

When I was in Year 10 at boarding school, I described my exact job I have now to my friends. I remember it so vividly. I would be working at a school but not teaching, I would be helping young people with advice and insights on their future options, and I would have a lot of brochures around me. My job was to make this happen.

Firstly, I needed an education degree to give me the accreditation I needed to be in a school, then I needed to build on this to be a qualified Career Counsellor (which did not exist when I was in year 10) so I went about doing this whilst gaining a lot of industry experience working in a wide variety of places. I worked as a Physical Education Teacher, Consultant for Government in Sport and Recreation, I worked within programs for disengaged young people, I travelled Indigenous Communities, worked as a Career Counsellor at a University and talked to a lot of people at parties and nights out not realising that I was building a library of knowledge on careers and jobs that would be invaluable in my current job.

It may be hard to appreciate but if you have a dream and keep re-visiting it, you can make it happen. I have the job I imagined as a 15-year-old – I almost created it for myself! I love people and knowing why they think and feel what they do and my employment over the years has allowed me to do just this!

Nyree's role is responsible for providing career counselling to individual students, guidance on career pathways and options, vocational programs and university admissions. She provides career counselling across the school focusing mainly on the Seniors years to empower the young women at her school to make sound decisions on their future endeavours. It is important in this role for Nyree to liaise and build relationships with key stakeholders at all levels to ensure her students are connected with industry and have up to date knowledge on future possibilities. It is also key to students' success that Nyree fosters relationships within the school community to build capacity for future successful outcomes. This involves networking past students with current students, running industry evenings and information sessions. Event planning and project managing are important in this role and Nyree enjoys the diversity and time pressure nature of the role.