Well, the time has come. I have been asked to join the Teach for Australia (TFA) team as an Admissions & Placement Officer. This means that I will be assessing potential candidates for the TFA program and assisting their journey through resolving educational inequity. Since it is the start of a new year (2024) and the start of a new job, I thought this would be a good opportunity to think about and write down some goals that I have set for myself over the first year – I’ve attempted to structure in a loose SMART outline, but there’s obviously leniency for this given I will still be navigating my necessary tasks:

• Continue to be a Generalist,

Improve my (seemingly) life-long aspirations to be a generalist. As I have understood for many years now that I am a natural problem-solver (especially in a collaborative brainstorming way), it seems that this is concurrent with me being a generalist. I didn’t actually see how these two were connected until recently, but it really does make sense. If I’m keen to understand an issue and are driven to solve it, then put me into any context and let me loose with questions. It seems that I have that ability to place a template over situations, then fashion it into the mould that suits it.

Given this new role that I have accepted seems to be a newly created concatenation of various previous part-time and casual roles, it will most probably cover numerous arms within the Assessment and Selection areas of Candidates to the Teach for Australia program. One of my favourite things to do in a new (work) environment is to spend the time figuring out how each department (and people within it) function. I enjoy that discovery phase of entering into a new job so that I can best understand how to navigate through and function within it.

Specifically: learn various arms of the organisation and actively & appropriately contribute, where necessary.

• Introduce data processes into the job,

If you haven’t picked it up by now, I love data. I love how you can have a seemingly random mess of information, but you can begin to make sense of it by just asking questions; where is this from, what does the data look like it’s representing, what seems important in here, how can we compare the numbers, etc. I am seeking to introduce my inquisitive nature into this role, but also integrate my own (university-learned) practices through my own crafted creative lens.

Specifically: can I introduce some six-sigma/lean methodology into aspects of the role, i.e., analysing Candidate university transcripts.

• Integrating more SQL, Python, and Excel (potentially worksheets that others can use)

As I would like to introduce data processes into the job, I would like to see how I can utilise some software that I already use, i.e. SQL and Python. As I am still taking the journey through my data analyst track, I am interested to see how I can integrate different elements of the profession into this new job that I have accepted.

Specifically: create my own reports and analysis using processes and methods I already use throughout my data analyst journey.

• Attending to reconciliation, and

For the past 3 years, I have been actively attending to the journey of reconciliation. Since I have seen what that can look like “in the classroom”, I am interested to see how it looks in a professional workplace setting (not that a school isn’t a professional workplace).

Specifically: see what reconciliation looks like in a professional setting, and bring my own unique understanding (based on my living history) of reconciliation into the workplace.

• Continuing my quest for educational inequity (in any form that I can).

For the past 2 years, I was a teacher in a small Tasmanian school. I taught both primary and secondary classes. After resigning from that role halfway through 2023, I was still guided by the role of a mentor/role model for young people in my community. So, I took on the role as a Youth Engagement Officer (alongside some, 4 specific on-the-ground co-workers, pretty fantastic people) as a means to continue my quest for educational inequity. My role in this new job is asking me to pick some of the best people who have applied to also take on this responsibility for being great leaders for young people all around Australia. It is through them that I aim to continue this quest.

Specifically: all of my assessment and selection decisions are guided by the aim of targeting educational inequity around Australia.

As a final note, there most probably will be a drop off in blog posts due to this new work role that I have accepted. This blog was a way for me to maintain a professional contact with the world and be an outlet for any projects that I was working on during my job seeking time.

Do you have any goals that you are keen on sharing and wanting to track? Let me know below; I would love to hear all about it!