Today, Laura Johnson is joined by Simon Bernadino, Founder of Lab17 and talent acquisition specialist. When Simon took on his first role as a retail store manager at 21, he met a colleague and friend with the right connections to help him kickstart his career. Being introduced to the GM of a media company, Simon had his first taste of the business world and confirmed his interest in sales. Following this, Simon took a six month trip to London which turned into four years and the beginning of his recruitment journey. Explaining that the same friend introduced him to a global SAP recruitment agency, Simon admits that he found his skill for talent acquisition by falling into it. With a taste for recruitment and the prerequisite of enjoying meeting new people, Simon continued on this path, exploring agency and in-house work before going on to found his own company, Lab17. Simon worked at a boutique recruitment agency before transitioning to the in-house talent acquisition team at Spotify. With a wealth of experience in different recruitment environments, Simon founded Lab17 with his childhood friend and business partner, Nick Ingall. With Lab17, Simon and Nick were able to fuse their interest in tech with their desire to shift away from the traditional recruitment model. Describing Lab17 as more of a Talent Acquisition Consultancy, Simon explains that it was founded as a lifestyle business and adapts to a new partnership model. “You have to have a genuine curiosity about tech and product development and actually attach yourself to the mission of an organization that you're actually interested in.” Simon has an authentic interest in what he does and identifies this as the key to being successful in business. In terms of the best career advice he has been given, Simon expresses a similar notion, encouraging people never to outsource motivation. “I never want to rely on pressure from peers or family or social media or just the world to motivate me to want to do something.” Simon’s experiences with mentors have been outside of business, instead drawing parallels between the lessons he has learnt through his football coaches. Expanding his mentality on and off the pitch, he explains how invaluable lessons are learnt when dedicating yourself to a passion project. “Find things that you’re passionate about and make sure you dedicate time to them.” To hear more from Simon, listen to the latest episode of Strivin and Thrivin now!

Today, Laura Johnson is joined by Hassanah Rudd, Global Head of Talent at Squiz, tech start-up. Hassanah has 25 years of experience in the recruitment industry and still loves what she does, today. Hassanah has lived in England, New Zealand and Australia, taking on a variety of roles. However, her passion for recruitment has never faltered. Attributing half of her career moves to chance and headhunting, Hassanah speaks of the different stops along her career path as a stroke of serendipity. Finding her knack for recruitment when she was working at a job centre in Oxford, Hassanah’s move to New Zealand was facilitated by her confidence in her recruitment abilities. Here, she transitioned to in-house work and eventually the tech start-up where she works today. Hassanah discusses the difference between in-house and agency recruitment, admitting that her passion lies with in-house. Although she credits agencies for teaching her a lot and allowing her to work with different industries, she explains that she enjoys being close enough to something to make a positive difference. Being headhunted for her first in-house role by a friend, Hassanah was thrown in at the deep end and never looked back. Offering advice for those making a similar move, Hassanah stresses the importance of investing in relationships. Speaking candidly about the necessity of a strong network, Hassanah explains that in this space, building up trust is critical. Not only in terms of your peer group, but also key stakeholders. “If you can develop really strong relationships, you can affect change. You can nudge the thinking.” After these roles, Hassanah progressed into leadership positions and discovered she had to get comfortable being uncomfortable. At first suffering from imposter syndrome, she questioned her ability to lead leaders. However, championing mutual respect, Hassanah left a positive legacy at these companies and discovered that vulnerability and self-confidence were her greatest assets. “You're never going to get it right all the time. So you also have to create a space where it's okay to fail.” Hassanah acknowledges the value of mentors in her career, reflecting on one who gave her some advice that she still lives with and works on today. For this reason, she encourages finding a mentor that will sometimes challenge you. To hear more from Hassanah, including why she never switches off, listen to the latest episode of Strivin and Thrivin now!

Today, Laura Johnson is joined by Anthony Enright, Head of People (ANZ) at Klarna. Anthony kick-started his career in recruitment straight out of University, where he studied HR and Marketing. Since then, he has used his resilience, logic and genuine interest in people to navigate his way through the business world. Describing the peaks and troughs he has endured in his career so far, Anthony is open about his journey to discovering where he excels most within the HR space. Anthony’s first job was a six month gig at a boutique recruitment agency which he candidly admits was not a role that played to his strengths. Acknowledging that sales was not the direction he saw himself going in, he transitioned into what he called a “half HR role”. In this role he was primarily responsible for administrative tasks from payroll to negotiating with contractors. This led him onto his first full HR role where he stayed for three years before moving onto Ansarada. “And that's where I would say my career started to go a little bit more rapidly scaling in that context.” Working for Ansarada for six years, Anthony credits this period for teaching him a lot, allowing him to figure himself out and critique himself. When asked for his greatest career advice, he reflects on the leadership programme at Ansarada, highlighting the importance of “touching someone’s heart before asking for a hand”. This human aspect runs as a motif throughout the conversation, epitomised by the fact that Anthony did a psychology degree. Essentially, he explains that he loves to get the best out of people. “The more value you can produce for other people, the more valuable that you've become in general.” When discussing the value of mentorships, Anthony explains that helping people early and often is one of the best things you can do. As a coach at the Startmate Fellowship programme, Anthony is well-versed in mentoring and helping people along their journey of career development. His advice is to accept that a cookie-cutter approach won’t always work. “Everybody's going to have things that make them tick, and things that are going to go against their personal values, and being very clear or being able to articulate them is going to be helpful.” To hear more from Anthony, including the lessons he has learnt through trial and error, listen to the latest episode of Strivin and Thrivin now!

This week on Strivin & Thrivin, we speak with Anita Thomson, Head Of Marketing & Communications at LOD, an alternative legal service provider. A career spanning a number of different roles has brought Anita Thomson to where she is today. She has been leading the marketing and communications for LOD since 2016 but has a wealth of stories to share from her career journey to date. “Seize any opportunity so that you can make an informed decision.” Anita got her foot in the door while still at university, with an eight-week indigenous cadetship at Deloitte. This solidified her interest in the human side of business and led her to take on the first HR graduate position in Deloitte in Australia. Starting internally, she later moved onto graduate recruitment. This was a great opportunity involving big budgets and the opportunity to work closely with partners, and it set her up with the skills she would need for managing client expectations later in her career. Anita then moved into an HR role. She made a smooth transition from being a consultant to a manager, and established herself within the generalist HR field.. She attributes her success to date, to the people she has met and worked with along the way, seeing many of them as “champions” rather than “mentors”: “It's more about having champions as opposed to mentors...It's about surrounding yourself with people and having those people who have got your back and who are active supporters of you.” After having her son, Anita moved to London and took on the role of Senior HR Manager at Ashurst, which offered the opportunity to put her HR skills into practise at scale. She describes many of her professional experiences as ‘fun’ and is a strong advocate for the advice that you must,  “Listen to your gut”. Following this mindset, she found herself at a start-up legal services company, and she hasn’t looked back. At LOD, Anita decided to take the leap from HR to Marketing after seeing synergies between the two, from the communications side of things, to selling the employer brand and being challenged with the perception of being an internal support function. While she’s incredibly proud of her career story, Anita stresses the importance of stepping up and acknowledging that you deserve a position at the table and admits that she should have asked more questions during her early career. To hear more from Anita, including her views on the similarities between HR and marketing and how she made her career transitions so smooth, listen to the latest episode of Strivin and Thrivin now!

“The best advice that I’ve received over a period of time is to be authentic. It’s way easier to be yourself than to try to be someone else.” This week on Strivin & Thrivin we chat to Lucy Briggs, Senior HR Business Partner at Mindbody, a SaaS company providing industry-leading fitness and wellness software. Lucy lives and breathes all things HR and wellness. After discovering a genuine interest in the human psyche, Lucy changed university degree from Psychology to Human Resource Management and has never looked back. In this space, Lucy realised her obsession with driving success in businesses through people. While her career path hasn’t been linear, it has taught her to take every opportunity and be open to change. Finding a position in a great company right out of university, Lucy was able to gain early exposure to executive level colleagues through her HR role, validating that she was in the right industry. Lucy describes her transition into a not-for-profit as a personal decision that sparked her curiosity. Seeing people work beyond their salaries, with limited tech, inspired and taught her the importance of prioritising purpose as a professional driving force. “They were working for a cause, they could see the purpose in what they did, and that was the driver over salary” Next, Lucy took on an HR Advisor role at software testing company, Planet, entering into the tech world, which really excited her. Acknowledging the lack of people studying technology, Lucy believes it’s important to take opportunities to change the status quo and take on opportunities in the technology space when they come your way. Today, Lucy works at Mindbody and truly champions the core values, with a professional and personal passion for wellness. Her top pieces of career advice today?  Be your authentic self and reject the notion that you should always stay late in the office. “It feels like the perfect combination of who I am and what I do. I am a Senior HR Business Partner at Mindbody, but I am so driven by wellness.” To hear more from Lucy, including her best career advice, her experience with mentorships and the way she stays goal-orientated, listen to the latest episode of Strivin and Thrivin now!

Today Laura Johnson and co-host, Tim Griffiths, are joined by Quila, Employer Branding Leader at RMIT University. Quila is passionate about her career and loves to tell the story of her journey to date. In her own words, that journey  can be summarised by three core principles, asking questions, taking opportunities and saying yes. That, and a true understanding of people. “I'm really grateful that I said yes to every opportunity that I've been tapped on the shoulder for.” Quila stepped out of University, straight into a full-time sales job at Xerox. Describing the environment as a “cutthroat boys’ club”, she says she loved it and hesitated to move on from a company influenced by family tradition. However, deciding to take life by the horns, Quila transitioned into a sales job at a tech company and, after spotting a blue-haired, converse-wearing guy on her first interview, her idea of the working world was flipped on its head. She realised,  "Oh my God, people can be themselves at work?” Here, she threw herself into different opportunities, discovering a knack for digital marketing and community management. Quila’s next step was moving to Australia with her husband and she admits the struggle of the job hunt in a new place wasn’t easy. However, after 26 applications she bagged a job at the Australian Post which proved to be one of her greatest adventures yet. Learning on the job, she started out in social media and then transitioned into the group that pulled together the Employee Value Proposition (EVP). This was the start of her journey in Employer Branding. Fast forward to today and she has now been with RMIT for two years where she is Employer Branding Leader. When asked about her key learnings, Quila says you cannot underestimate the importance of treating each person differently and asking the right questions. “You end up attracting people for the right reasons instead of it just being for a position description, or key selection criteria.” And she’s passionate about the importance of authenticity in the way a brand presents itself to candidates online, calling out the “yucky” side of career sites that just include a rainbow of human beings in their header image to show they’re ticking boxes. To hear more from Quila, including her admiration for Strivin’ podcast guest, Andrea Kirkby, her mentorships and her past misconception of HR, listen to the latest episode of Strivin and Thrivin now!

“Right now there's not a lot of ad response. Somebody is tapping people on the shoulder through LinkedIn and a lot of them take a week to respond sometimes.” Unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past year, you know that tech recruiting in Australia is becoming more and more of a struggle. In this episode of Strivin & Thrivin, we talk to Nicolle Hann-Dunbavin, who has over 20 years of experience in tech recruitment in Australia. She discusses how recruitment has changed over the years and the current challenges being faced by recruiters in the tech world. Talent acquisition is not only struggling with fewer candidates, but many employers are asking for too much. “They have a very, very long list of technical experience that they want these candidates to have. We'll go through several rounds of candidates before they realize we can't find someone with all of this experience.” Nicolle explains how her role has evolved with technology. How turn around times have come down, but the role still centres around communication even if it has changed from phone calls to emails. Even after 20 years, she still has a smile on her face as she talks about the kick she gets out of finding someone their dream role. Tune into this episode to hear more of Nicolle’s insights.

“Often there is that perception that you're making the transition to an internal role because you're not a great biller” When Samantha Barnett made the transition from agency to in-house recruitment it was less common than it is today. However, even with the rise in recruiters switching roles, there is still the stigma that you are doing it because you are not a great biller. In this episode of Strivin & Thrivin, Samantha shares her story of transitioning careers. She explains how she overcame the obstacles and doubts in her mind and came to the clear decision that internal recruitment was the right path for her. Not only did she transition to internal recruiting, but with her success at her new company MYOB, she was asked to manage the recruitment team for the company. This meant expanding beyond her specialty of tech recruitment and moving from peer to manager. “I had great relationships with people on the team, but it was awkward. There's no lying or trying to cover that. There were people in the team that I had been peers with for a couple of years and all of a sudden was sitting down with them, setting their goals with them, and they had to be more open with me.” Tune in to this episode to learn how Samantha navigated the transitions. She shares stories about internal and external mentorship, her favourite podcasts, and finding inspiration in strange places

Trent’s career story is fascinating: In the space of a decade, he has been through more changes than most people experience in their whole career. Trent is currently the HR manager at MICROMINE. He joined the company several years ago just before mining in Australia took a huge downturn. He was part of a HR team that was reduced from three to one and was the one that was asked to stick around. He then saw the company switch to a software company and helped take the family-owned business through selling. And Trent has been there for it all. Trent shares his experience and talks about the mindset that has allowed him to successfully adapt and grow with the company. “I always say yes. So I just go ahead and if someone says, "Okay, can you do this?," or, "Can we do this?" I always start with, "Yeah, I think we can," and then work out the details along the way.” He also shares his struggles. From experiencing imposter syndrome, to working with two very different leaders. “They were two very different leaders. Both like to inspire and motivate in their own way.” Tune in to this episode to learn from Trent.

“Only asking your placement for feedback is like asking your husband or wife on your wedding night, whether they love you or not.” From being chased down the street by a kid with a machete while doing door-to-door sales to the CEO and founder of Recruiter Insider. Tune into this episode of Strivin & Thrivin to hear from Justin Hiller about his career journey and what led him to build a business around reviewing recruitment agencies. Justin Hiller found a gap in the market. He saw that the way recruitment agencies were reviewing themselves was far off the mark. You could have one happy placement but fifteen other unhappy candidates that were having a bad experience. If you were only asking the happy placement for their feedback, you’d be patting yourself on the back every time. Justin noticed this and that's how Recruiter Insider was born. But the journey here wasn't easy or by any means conventional. From flipping burgers at Maccas, to finding investors in his passengers during his days as an Uber driver, to meeting members of his advisory board while competing on a reality TV show in the UK. This has not been a normal journey to success. Tune in to this episode of Strivin & Thrivin to hear all the hilarious details. He also shares top bits of wisdom he has learnt along the way such as experience working at companies that showed him exactly what not to do – like the mismanagement of resources and having three people doing the same role where you only need one and then one person doing a different role, where you needed three.