Designing my path through higher education: Identities, transitions, and instigations

I spent the last decade or so working in the higher education sector in various capacities. It was not until February 2023 that I was lucky enough to attain the coveted tenure-track academic position. Before this role, I worked at four different Australian universities as a sessional tutor, a casual and remote research assistant, a professional staff who coordinated a fabrication laboratory, a PhD candidate, and a ‘third space professional academic’ conducting research and providing university services. While there have been many negative connotations about the casualised and contract-rolling workforce in Australian higher education, every cloud has a silver lining. Through my experience of navigating the waters of higher education, I reflect and ask myself the simple question: How has my higher education career developed, and how has my mindset evolved with it? I acknowledge that luck has played a role in getting me to where I am today. However, I also asserted agency and now share, through a self-study narrative, the adapting identities, the pivots, and the surreptitious orchestration I took to be ready to greet Lady Luck.

keywords: career construction; life transition; opportunity discovery and creation; positive wellbeing

• year: January 2023 – ongoing