Paths Uncovered

BIOMED - BUSINESS - STARTUP ACCELERATOR - MEDTECH - SCALE UPS - AI STARTUPS Kaushalya undertook a biomed degree with the aim of transitioning into medicine but early into the degree realised that wasn't the path for her. Pivoting from that into the world of business to see what the hype was all about she found a passion in supporting businesses starting up. She worked on building an accelerator for MedTech startups bringing the best of her background into use and is now working on supporting AI startups actualising their potential. An episode diving into how the support for startups really works and tangible takeaways if you are considering going down the entrepreneurial path.

MUSICIAN - INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS AND POLICY - LINGUISTICS - RISK ADVISORY - CYBERSECURITY - STARTUP FOUNDER - AI Sam joins us today to share her journey from aspiring musician to finding her love for linguistics and transitioning into tech and founding an AI focused startup - Decoded.AI We discussed how she ended up pivoting from a promising music career, spent a year living in Spain during school and how she found herself surrounded by tech and dived in. We cover all the nuances in being a technical founder from an untraditional background and how the industry is still often heavily gatekept. Listen now to see how Sam ended up working on a solution to help enable more trust in AI systems by helping decode what is actually happening!

BURNOUT - MENTAL HEALTH - CAREER BREAKS - STARTUPS - DIVERSITY - RETENTION - REDUNDANCY - GOALS - PLANNING This episode has it all. This is a Paths Continued episode with guests Gretchen Scott and Gwenny Warnick returning for some wide ranging conversations. The podcast went on a bit of a hiatus after Season 1 as I dealt with burnout and deteriorating mental health. A year later, we are back discussing it all in this episode with a wide range of personal and career journeys over the last few years - an emotional rollercoaster of an episode!

With season 1 racking up over 5k listens, it was time to come back! We have an excellent lineup ahead for this season so tune it and listen along. Follow and subscribe on your preferred platform to be notified of all new episodes, out every fortnight!

FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT - ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING - MASTERS - SOFTWARE DEVELOPER - IMAGE RECOGNITION - SPEECH ANALYSIS - CONSULTANT - ML ENGINEER Xin is easily one of the most impressive person I know - she was very casual about her 3RD PLACE in a national Chinese maths competition! From the start Xin found herself comfortable with STEM. While she had a passion for becoming a foreign correspondent (which I am now fully contemplating as a career change for myself) she decided to pursue Electrical Engineering at university. I have always been curious about how people navigate careers after engineering especially when it's a pivot to tech. From becoming a software dev to slowly transitioning into an ML engineer it's a great journey to listen to. Xin was very open about each move and change in her career and the why behind it which is always fascinating to hear. From aligning to personal values to wanting to try something completely out of her comfort zone, this episode covers it all. We definitely realised that Xin thrives in new places and challenges as we chatted!

MEDICINE - BARTENDER - SPONSORSHIP DIRECTOR - CORPORATE BANKING - TRAVELLING - HEALTH NGO - STARTUPS - FOUNDER - COMMUNITY BUILDER - HEALTH TECH You definitely don't see a pathway like this every day - dropping out from 4th year Medicine to find a more scalable path to help people and their healthcare. This chat with Emily is a long time in the making and it couldn't have come at a better time. Her journey is inspiring (maybe I'm ready to hop on a plane to Mexico right now too?) and all the twists have built up to where she is today - the founder of What the Health. The best resource to keep up with what's happening in Health Tech! So many take aways to be had from this chat, everything you do really does add up to build a completely unique perspective and opportunity. Listen now!

RETAIL - MECHATRONICS - ROBOTICS - JAPANESE STUDIES - TUTOR - RESEARCH ENGINEER - SOFTWARE CONSULTANT - COMMUNITY NINJA - GUEST LECTURER - FREELANCER Larene has meandered her career into the perfect fit for her after trying out all sorts of avenues and seeing how they all add up. We chatted about our shared experiences with struggling in STEM at times to trying out different things to see what fits. If you have ever wondered what leads to becoming a freelancer, definitely worth a listen to this episode! Having come across her in the community I have always been impressed by Larene and always come away with something new that I've learned in our interactions. Larene is a passionate advocate for accessibility in technology and a thought leader in the space. I would highly recommend following her or even working with her if you get the opportunity!

BACKPACKING - SOUL SEARCHING - FORENSIC SCIENCE - STATISTICS - LOGISTICS - COMIC ILLUSTRATOR - DATA ANALYST - SOFTWARE ENGINEER - DESIGN Julia to me is one of those people that just seems to be able to do all the things at one time - and based on the overview above it lines up. Not wanting to commit to the “wrong” decision out of high school she went travelling. Through existential crisis and quarter life breakdowns she found herself in the right support system and ending up back in college. Julia is a perfect Paths Uncovered guest with all the pivots and turns she took from there to end up at ANZ as a technology graduate. Making a complete change by trying out all the things to find the best fit for her, listen to how Julia shaped up her career so far.

COMP SCI - PhD - LECTURER - CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT - HEAD OF LEARNING DIGITAL - CHARITY FOUNDER ADSEI Having completed a PhD in computer science, Linda might not seem to have had as untraditional a path as past guests BUT what she's using it for is definitely untraditional. Dr Linda McIver is easily one of the most inspirational people I have met in the industry. She's dedicated her time to ensuring each child is introduced to and given the chance to learn about STEM skills - skills that have become a necessity in the data driven world we now live in. Having been a teacher and seeing the direct impact she was having on children she set about scaling that out to all across Australia and I'm sure globally in no time at all. The Australian Data Science Education Institute (ASDEI) is a charity that Linda created to see the vision out and has recently just released her book - Raising Heretics - explaining how to raise children in today data driven world. Links to her work and book can be found on the website.

WRITER - FLUTE TEACHER - TUTOR - EDITOR - DEVELOPER - WEB DEV - FRONT END ENGINEER - UX LEAD - TECH INSTRUCTOR - DIRECTOR OF PRODUCT & DESIGN We're back and kickstarting 2022 with Milly Schmidt and her fabulous path into tech. She's had an amazing journey of knocking on all different possibilities on her way to try and figure out what role fit her best. From beginning as a writer and content creator to marrying that up with the software skills she developed, she's found a home in UX where she get's to use all the skills she's picked up over the years. Listen now to her path, lessons learnt and all the life that happened along the way.

MEDICINE - MATHS - ACTUARIAL SCIENCE - INVESTMENT BANKING - CONSULTING - DATA SCIENCE 2021 has been a wild year. It's also been the year this podcast finally started up and I'm amazed by the response its gotten. It was time to wrap it up for this year and share my own pathway. Having gotten to hear from so many amazing people this year, it'll be hard to live up to them but this has been my journey so far - from Grey's Anatomy based medicine aspirations to maths to annoying people in shopping centres to data consultant. My sister was kind enough play host and add in her version of my path too. Hope you enjoy it and we'll see you again in 2022!

MATHS - ACTUARIAL SCIENCE - AIRPORT SECURITY - DATA CONSULTANT - LEAD DATA ANALYST This episode was a lovely trip down memory lane as I chatted to Sláine, who I met in college where we both did (suffered?) an undergrad in Financial Maths and Actuarial Science. Sláine was very honest and open in her experience and struggles with parts of the degree and questioning her decisions over the time. From making quick 17 yr old life decisions to straying from the traditional paths, she happily shares it all! I was especially excited about this episode as we have both lead fairly similar careers (maths, actuaries, data consulting) but interested to see how our experiences diverged. While a lot of our feelings and memories were similar, it is amazing to see the vast difference even in such similar high level paths!

DENTAL NURSE - DENTIST - PRACTICE OWNER - BUSINESS BUILDING - ENTREPRENEUR - STARTUP - DENTAL AI FOUNDER How does a dentist find themselves as an AI startup founder you ask? Look no further! Dr. Padma has had such a fascinating journey that when I first came across her on LinkedIn, I knew I had to get her onto the podcast! From being one of the few women from her town to go to college to taking the daunting step to emigrate to Australia. She built her dental career up and became not only a practice owner but manages multiple practices! From her experience running business and seeing the trends in the dentistry industry, she found a niche gap in terms of the outreach and making dentistry more accessible. She created Smilo.ai to help bridge that gap. --- Find out more about The Human Collective over at https://www.thehumancollective.com.au/.

ARCHITECTURE - BUSINESS & ACCOUNTING - BAR MANAGER - OPERATIONS - SOFTWARE DEVELOPER - PROFESSIONAL KICKBOXER - HEAD OF DELIVERY Selena has seen her fair share up of ups and downs - picking herself up again and again to continue on and thrive. She's been able to tell when something isn't right for her and pivoted her career to where she wanted to be. From managing bars and restaurants to not only becoming a software developer but also a professional kickboxer!

FASHION DESIGN - FASHION LINE - MANUFACTURING - STUDENT SERVICES - BURNOUT - BOOTCAMP - SOFTWARE ENGINEERING Tess has lead a life with many different paths - from fashion designer of her own clothing line to a musician to pivoting into tech as a software engineer. The conversation had everything from what it takes to have your own fashion line (!), escaping perfectionism, understanding your mental health, setting appropriate expectations and knowing when to quit.

Nikki graduated with a degree straight into the Global Financial Crisis and like everyone struggling to get a job - went back to college! With Urban Planning under the belt she was working in architecture but found they weren't as open to her new ideas and entrepreneurial side. She went on to become a startup consultant, helping launch startups and eventually saw the gap in technical understanding within investors. Acknowledging the gap, she got herself involved in a tech bootcamp and ended up falling in love with software development.

FILM & THEATRE - WEBSITE DEV - BURNOUT - CRAFT STORE RETAIL - BA - PEOPLE LEADER - TECH LEADER - DEV EVANGELIST - AWS Kris has led an illustrious career from building websites - including the McDonalds UK homepage! - diving into the development world and leading it. She shared her experiences and lessons learnt not just from the technical parts of jobs but overall in her career. From life decisions of relocations and even leaving tech due to burnout she openly shared the decisions that has lead to such an amazing and fulfilling career.

Rachael has lived many different lives clearly. From working on yacht with Russell Crowe to startups lowering food waste in hospitals to testing out how Covid tests react to American lollies. She's tried and tested different paths to find her right fit - from various degrees to SheCodes coding bootcamp to currently a Consultant at KPMG!

ENGLISH LITERATURE - QA - UX DESIGN - STARTUPS - ETHICAL AI FOUNDER Having graduated from Cornell with a degree in Literature, Laura found herself in the middle of a recession. Gap year travels lead her to Australia for a few weeks and is still here! Her career led from one opportunity to another - from quality assurance testing to UX designing (before it was even termed that!) to diving into the start up world. From amazing colleagues to toxic workplaces and startup challenges - Laura has seen it all and has kindly shared it all with us today. Check out her work at her startup: https://debias.ai/

NEUROSCIENCE - PhD RESEARCHER - NEUROIMAGING - DATA SCIENCE Sally Grace had always loved Biology from high school and had a successful career in the neuroscience world. She was involved with different studies and even explained some - like how to help alleviate social anxiety! When lockdown hit in 2020, the opportunity presented for her to activate her "Academic Escape Plan" to foray into the world of data science. She shares exactly how made the switch and even handy tips if you are looking to make a similar switch! We covered everything from psychology to how data science teams work - worth a listen to see how brains and data work!

HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUT - MCDONALDS UNI - OPTIMISATIONS - CONSULTING - MASTERS - MOTHERHOOD - WEB DEV - BUSINESS DEV - TECH STARTUP The list is quite literally never ending when it comes to Gretch and the fascinating turns her career has taken. She's always been one to walk through an open door (even if she had to shove her way through!) Such a great chat going through the rollercoaster of life, from dropping out of high school, to determinedly finishing her undergrad with a newborn and chicken pox. Gretch is one of those people who just attracts all the best people to her - and has the stories of meeting someone at the beach who offered her a job! An open and honest chat about everything it takes to persevere not just in tech but life in general.

DOUBLE BASS - ENGLISH TEACHER - CURRICULUM CREATER - MARKETING - CLOUD ENGINEER Gwenny openly and honestly shares her career path to becoming a Cloud Engineer at Mantel Group. Its filled with up and downs from teaching english in Prague to running university learning centres to then joining a tech bootcamp and leaving a successful career to start again!

PHARMACIST TO SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Having grown up in a family involved in healthcare, Susan followed into the path of pharmacy but realised that it wasn't her passion. She decided to dive into a bootcamp for software development at Le Wagon having tried out the free Harvard courses. She fell hard for programming and is now working as a software developer for Octopus Deploy! Listen to her experience of switching careers through a bootcamp and realising pharmacy wasn't it for her.

Theatre Arts - Environment Canvassing - Tech Training - Program Manager! Cathy Moya is well known in the tech community for her contributions and her personality - which I found out stems quite a lot from her acting days and being able to present to crowds! Her curiosity to try things out has lead to an aspiring career working on such a wide range of projects - including things like the slip of info you throw out when you open a Microsoft Surface mouse (her words, not mine!)

JUILLIARD TRAINED BALLET DANCER TO AI Victoria is exactly why I started this podcast - a classically trained ballet dancer at Juilliard School (!!!) she decided to change careers into the world of ethical AI during the 2020 pandemic. She is now thriving at Sama and has become a great member of the tech community. Hear about how she lived the life of a dance movie and then worked at getting into the AI world.

Painter - Musician - Sound Engineer - Graphic Designer - Software Developer Bill has had a wide and varied career with many lessons learnt throughout. He was kind enough to share some of those with us along with his fascinating career.

Maths - Finance - Biology - PhD! Jill began her journey in the same place as myself - a degree in Mathematical Sciences. However, along the way she found herself making decisions different from everyone around her and ending up on a path to a PhD! She's now using her maths and machine learning skills to help classify microbiomes to help identify diseases and treatments! A completely different field with unique specialisation - our paths started the same, diverged quite widely but have remained parallel at the same time as we use the same technology everyday.

Wealth Management - Sailing Club - Twitter - Start Up! The list goes on with the different paths Kim's career has taken. Kim is currently a Technical Program Manager at Telstra Purple while also running her startup Buddee Fitness! She's even written a children's book! The surprises don't end and Kim's “just go do it” attitude is inspiring to hear!

Musician to Data Scientist - with a few more pivots along the way. Join in to hear Jason's career path as he went from musician to the world of research, the beginnings of search analytics, working at EA with FIFA and all the way out to actually going back to school to go and become a data scientist.

Investment banking to Mixed Reality? Join in to hear from the absolutely amazing Shona Bang who is a Product Marketing Manager in the mixed reality team at Microsoft. Shona also created from scratch the community of Humans of IT and has done a tremendous amount of work in the tech for good space. I got to chat to her about how she actually started into a career in tech and the influences, support and sponsorship of people that have led to such a successful career.

Paths Uncovered - Intro And Trailer by Akanksha Malik