Grad Mentor's Insights

We love this time of year but it can be overwhelming but you are almost there! We spoke to our good friend Sue Viskovic from Elixir Consulting about chilling out with a bucket of prawns over this festive season and coming in back in 2022 with a clear plan for success. Enjoy....

With the great resignation comes the other side of the coin which will be the great acquisition! Investing time in the team, building a learning culture, aligning purpose and meaning, what can you do to make sure you are on the right side of this equation, all this and more in this great chat with Clare Harding from Rainbird Group, I think you will enjoy this one....

Silly season is upon us again! Although in a different format to past years, it's still important to plan your lead up to, during and post Christmas and New Year break. I took time out of the usual conversation to join Justin Noble to speak about forming a realistic and practical roadmap to survive and thrive through the Silly Season. Let's navigate it with success this year...

Spending time with the smartest graduates before they enter the job search phase of their degree, is one of the best ways to secure the best talent in a talent-tight market. New entrants can be super productive contributors to a high-performing team so we spoke to Victoria Widjaja, current student at UNSW and our HR intern to get her side of the story. We hope you enjoy it...

We wanted to hear firsthand from an intern's experience in starting their first career job remotely, not having met their hiring manager or anyone else in the team. What the drivers are, how they stay motivated, and how through technology they contribute to a high-performing culture, Shevaun shared all that and more and is excited to go out for lunch in the city when she can but in the meantime is adding immense value....

This is our 100th episode of this podcast! With this being a significant milestone that also coincides with our recent 2nd birthday as Striver, we thought we would pick the brains of marketing guru, Rose Princi from Colonial First State. Let's explore innovative ways that you can use to celebrate these significant milestones with your community. Remember! Yesterday's the past, tomorrow's the future, but today is a gift - and that's why it's important to celebrate the present!

Making education more accessible is one of our core beliefs here at Striver. But to take a practical look at the distribution of education, the cost of it will not go down any time soon. Today we spoke with Damian Otto from Futurity Investment Group about ways to make education more accessible and less of a burden to the communities that it can benefit. While the questions about the future of education and jobs of the future can be asked into a crystal ball, let's continue the conversation practically...

Technology has evolved beyond an enabler, since we are all using it more now than ever before. But let's take a step back to understand how it can be used to design the User Experience (UX) in your practice to deliver a delightful experience. I spoke to Mark Akeroyd from MLC Advice about creating a 'Minimum Viable Audience'. How to identify the jobs that they need done and being the 'hero' in the conversation with the leverage of technology. I hope you enjoy it!

Creating your ideal role is a dream that can be hard to make a reality in a growing professional services firm. The more you grow the more you are dragged away from the things you love. I sat down with Rayna from Real Business Matters to discuss how outsourcing the General Management of a firm temporarily in a growth spurt or in long-term planned absence can plug the gap. I hope you enjoy!

It's very exciting to speak with Craig Keary, CEO of Asia/Pac for Ignition Advice, on how advice can be made more accessible to more Australians. How to measure the positive impact and identify the lead indicators of impactful advice. Plus shout-outs to great contributors to the profession and a quick look at the upcoming Tokyo 2020 Olympics. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I do!

With demand for new talent increasing and the supply decreasing, we create a perfect storm. That is what is happening across all cohorts of talent in Australia and there are several reasons why this is happening. We continue the necessary conversation of meeting future talent 'where they are' to make sure we can continue to grow the future of the profession. Let's discuss a real life example with Scott Bunny, our Partnership and Growth Lead, on how to buck this trend...

The labour market is set to get even tighter. We have seen the talent pool shrink by up to 80%. So what does that mean? And how can you buckle the trend? Flexibility is king! Those who can meet in the middle will win this talent war. I had a great chat with Whitney Wilson, Strivers Head of Recruitment to spitball some solutions that can help do just that...

The year that has been uncovered some exciting opportunities for both young professionals and professional services more broadly. Always great speaking with Angus Woods from the Adviser Ratings and in this episode we uncover the 2021 Advice Landscape Report - diving under the hood to see the data that can drive a real difference in the profession. I hope you enjoy it....

Super excited to record the first in-person podcast for some time! With our wonderful guest Vy Pham, we discuss community involvement, DE&I and some very unique communications learnings. As always - some inspiring gold nuggets of insight to take away so I hope you enjoy...

This is my favourite podcast to date… I sat down with Cris Parker, Head of the Ethics Alliance and Director of the Banking and Finance Oath, to explore the practical application of Ethics and Trust. Plus the interrelated relationship between the notions from within an organisation - believe me it can be done!

Content marketing can be overwhelming but it can be made simple and I was keen to chat with Campbell Phillips from MYOB about some ways to make sure you can get your value and tone of voice out to the people who you want to speak too, this was a fun chat....

I really enjoyed catching up with Racheal Ooi to discuss successfully growing award winning staff and how to use technology with a tireless focus on making your client feel important and delivering supreme customer service is a recipe for success, this was a great chat....

Hiring university grads - be it Millennials or Gen Z - normally comes with a standard flurry of questions. 'How patient are they?' 'How long will they stay?' 'Will they be loyal?' We took it upon ourselves to ask the hard questions and address the 'Elephant in the Room' with our very own rockstar Community Manager, Melanie to tell us how they really think...

Attracting, Engaging and Retaining great talent into forward thinking firms has been Striver's mantra since we started 8 years ago so when we find great tools to help firms really support their team to be the best they can and deliver high quality results we love to chat about it. This chat with Adam Hurwood from Altitude Advisers and Balanced Scoreboard is no exception, I hope you enjoy...

Speaking with Scott Bunny, head of partnership and growth at Striver, our clients have taught us many great lessons and of which, there have been plenty over the last 6 months. But now, we have a few of our own that we HAVE to share - plus things have been made a bit easier, check it out...

Our professional lives are exciting and there is a lot to learn, sometimes it is best to learn them our selves and sometimes others can help us avoid some pitfalls. Working through some of this with Scott Charlton and his book 'Your Professional Headspace' is valuable to peeople at allstages of their professional life.....

This week we chat to Heather Porter about some of the trends she is seeing in how people are consuming and ultimately engaging with content. We are all doing things a little differently these days so staying ahead of the curve and building awareness is still key, check out some simple ways to add value through education and video...

With all the movement and changes in Financial Planning, it was great to get a chance to dig a little under the numbers with Angus Woods from Adviser Ratings, we also got a chance to talk about smelling the roses.....

Helping make meaningful differences is the core of professional services; and the world we have found ourselves in, has highlighted the need for this more than ever. I had the chance to catch up with Annick Donat to discuss resilience, decision making and creating a sustainable profession, this was a great chat...for now and into the future.

In this podcast, I spoke to David Reed, from The Retirement Advice Centre. While discussing the journey of finding resilience, we discuss the ability to ask 'Why?' as one of the key things to look for when making great hiring decisions, especially with Millenials. (Oh) Plus great storytelling...I hope you enjoy it.

It's always a joy speaking with Cris Parker on all things Ethics related! We covered the topics of 'Zoom Gloom'; redesigning purpose; innovation through lockdown; moral fatigue; and - if you wait till the end - Rio Tinto and the unintended consequences. I hope you enjoy!

The Professional Year - clients love it, productivity increases and mentoring can be rewarding. When it comes to the professional advisers in your firm, the 'Grow Your Own' strategy can ensure the sustainability of (not only) your own firm, but the profession as a whole. We speak to Greg Cook, CEO of Eureka Whittaker Macnaught, and their Associate Adviser, Tim Manwaring.

Catching up with Brad Fox is always energetic and this time we covered off walking Kokoda with www.adventureexcellence.com, adult learning cycles, the psychology of change and the future of the advice profession. Time flys when you are having fun I hope you enjoy....

I had a great chat with Jonathan Hoyle from Stanford Brown about how they grow their own talent and on their philosophy on communication skills and the benefit of 'Tough Love' feedback. I hope you enjoy

We had a great opportunity to speak to Jonathan Elliot from Collins SBA who have won awards for the innovative work environment and a focus on understanding the human. There was also a focus on the holistic wealth management firm of the future, I hope you enjoy....

We have all been forced to change the way we do things temporarily but it would be madness to not combine our old good habits with our new good habits to create better good habits moving forward. In this podcast, I had a chat with Matthew Fenning from Advise Wise to find out what they are doing better...

In the short time we have all been isolated we have unlearnt some bad habits and learnt some new ones, but which ones will we keep when we go back to the new world (the old one has gone!). This was a great opportunity to explore Gerhard Diedericks recent article about the Entrepreneur's Economy https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/entrepreneurs-economy-coming-gerhard-diedericks

This week, we speak with Anna about how Universities have been delivering content and lectures digitally for longer than the recent pandemic. The best students think it is a better way to learn, so what could this mean for your business?

As businesses all scramble to work through the flexible and virtual, work setup is the current focus for business continuity. Then as we get used to the new normal, the tried and tested method of team building and collaboration will be put to the test. Virtual Team building will be a thing and I really enjoyed my chat with Luke Cook the founder of FUNLOCKA and how they are thinking about work place happiness moving forward. We hope you enjoy this podcast.

Back to school with the FASEA exam can be nerve racking, so we chat to Nancy Mikhail from Tafe NSW to uncover some great ideas to reduce the nerves and pass with flying colours….

The Professional Year Register hasn’t been swamped so where are all the new entrants to the profession? We have been placing many of them in great firms but if not the Professional Year then where .....

Times are changing and there isn’t an industry in the world that isn’t experiencing margin squeeze. We catch up with Sue Viskovic from Elixir Consulting to discuss how to approach the price increase conversation with clients. Check it out! Visit Striver.Careers

2020 has already started with a different level of activity than the last 6 years we have been running the business with a lot of our clients jumping into February ready to execute their business plans for 2020. This doesn't always work with university graduates who were looking for jobs in December and January, so how can you beat the stampede?

The way we want our clients to engage with us is not always the quickest and most on ours journey for our clients, what if we let our clients engage with us a different way? This week we explore this with Jonathan Shaw the CEO MoneySoft to find out how this could work

If your plan is to grow talent to be client facing in your business then growing talent into these roles can be far simpler and valuable to the over all business outcomes than you think, check out how.......

Growing your own talent into future super stars can be very rewarding but it does take time and developing people into super valuable contributors to your team can start right away in a variety of ways, check out some ideas.... Happy holidays!

This time of the year often ends up in burn out with clients wanting things done urgently, Christmas parties, kids school events and then of course business as usual. In this podcast I speak with Andrew George from Elixr Consulting to help discuss some tactics to stay sane this Silly season, enjoy..

Sometimes our resourcing decisions come with urgency due to unforeseen event, however poor people decisions can have a major impact on your firm to there are a couple of things that may quickly improve your decision making or avoid a bad outcome… Visit striver.careers

When you get that excellent client service experience personally does it make you reflect on your clients experience with you ? In this podcast I speak to Brad Dawson from Dawson Insurance and unpack a great experience I had recently and even cover the World Rally Championship Check out Brad’s podcast here https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxGnu_5kPdGDVz-jmvcbA8Q

What do the Banking and Finance Oath and Master Chef have in common? We love chatting with Cris Parker from the Banking and Finance Oath at the Ethics Centre and discussing some other industry examples of where an Oath can have effect…

While the cost of living in Australia is amongst the highest in the world the salary expectations of university graduates is not the number one consideration when they are looking to start their career, in fact our research shows it is not even in the top 5, so what drives the career decisions or choices of our next generation….

Silly season is just around the corner and for many it can mean a heavy work load with a loaded social calendar. In the past it has been a period of ‘overwhelm’ for me. Keeping the core the Silly Season. Over the last 14 weeks we have been developing www.striver.careers and I have been as busy as ever, there were a few things I did to maintain the focus and energy......

Education standards and the Professional Year are front and centre of the conversation at the moment when talking about bringing new people into the profession, however there is some practical flexibility in how this can be done to broaden the talent pool in which you look for great people to become the assets of your business, here I talk you through them …..

Acting on gut feel can sometimes be warned against especially in hiring talent for your business but as long as all the checks and balances have been done it is the one thing that will determine the right fit. But when looking to hire a grad with no ‘relevant or related’ experience demonstration and examples of work ethic and exceptional customer service is what you should be looking for as lead indicators of great fit in your business.

Being flexible is one of the competitive advantages a small to medium professional firm has over the large corporate employers in the ability to attract, engage and retain great talent. In the lead up to university graduation season at the end of the calendar year what we don’t find is a bunch of the best talent completing their degrees and then looking for full time work. The best businesses and graduates have secured their future career relationships earlier, here’s how you can be part of the action…

We are seeing hot demand with graduate talent with Marketing and IT majors in financial services firms which is great. We believe this is where some of the jobs of the future lie, however, from a firm’s perspective is this the specialty of your firm? Or should you be looking closer at the problem you are trying to solve, here is what we mean …..