Killer Career Hacks for Brisbane's Working Women

If you're a female, then Australia may be one of the best places on Earth to pursue your career. Sure, society still has a long way to go when it comes to equity in general, but employment conditions have been growing increasingly favourable for women who work " particularly when they have strong educational credentials. Here's how to increase your odds of finding fantastic career opportunities in Brisbane.

Understanding the Labour Market
Don't believe that women can run the working world? Just look at the numbers. Sectors like healthcare, professional services, education, retail and construction saw more positions open to women than to men in 2017, and female participation in the labour force has generally increased over the past 40 years.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. As of 2019, women constituted 37 per cent of full-time employees and 68.5 per cent of part-timers. Unfortunately, they also got paid about 4.8 per cent less in starting salaries than males did as undergraduates and 14.6 per cent less as post-grads.

Closing the Gap
What can you do to overcome the discrepancies between the wages and opportunities afforded to women and men? Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggests that getting educated may be the key. In addition to making you smarter, higher learning seems to impart career-minded attitudes that could potentially transform you into a more attractive hiring candidate.

Fortunately for those who don't want to invest in grad school only to receive less compensation than their male colleagues, there are many paths to getting smarter. Here are some career hacks for boosting your employability with technical and further education, or TAFE:

Go Into Nursing
Earning your nursing diploma lets you join a healthcare field that's almost guaranteed to keep growing. With over 50,000 jobs opening up per year, there are plenty of options for pursuing a rewarding career.

One of the cool things about nursing is that there are many different ways to be an impactful caregiver. In addition to working in Brisbane's hospitals and clinics, you can find positions in hospices or provide vital services for patients at their homes. If you're all about making a big difference in people's lives, then nursing training is a good stepping stone.

Pursue Your Artistic Passions
The myth of the permanently impoverished artist may have held sway decades ago, but nowadays, you don't have to settle for selling your plasma to afford art supplies or eat ramen for every meal. Computers have truly democratised creative production, so you can find a wide range of positions as a creative if you're willing to master the fundamentals.

Whether you're into fashion, filmmaking or graphic design, the pursuit of art-oriented TAFE classes also offers a lot of career freedom. It's the ideal choice for women who already feel passionate about their creative output and rightfully want to get paid for it.

Why not just try to hack it on your own in the art world? While you may have the raw talent, the business skills and discipline can be somewhat harder to come by. Since you're going to have to deal with a range of clients and hustle to get to the top, it pays to enrol in courses that help you build a broader knowledge foundation.

Hone Your Leadership Talents in Any Field
As a woman in a nation that still struggles to provide high-level career opportunities to female professionals, it's imperative that you capitalise on your existing job skills. Vocational programs that focus on leadership and management might just impart you with the momentum to refine your talents and land positions of higher authority.

Online leadership and management courses help you learn skills like getting team members to cooperate, creating operational business plans and motivating others to stay innovative. While these classes aren't guaranteed to help you bust through the glass ceiling, they can give you something more substantial " the track record required to establish your worth and make lateral career moves, such as opening your own competing company or offering your formidable talents to a more appreciative competitor. Letting your current employer see that you're willing to take charge of your career path also gives you more leverage when it's time to negotiate pay raises.

Keeping Your Options Open
As more women find their voices as upper-level decision makers, things can only get better. The prevalence of part-time hiring may even work out well for those women who want to become apprentices or take advantage of skills shortages in Queensland and the rest of Australia. Staying current with the evolving job market is a great way to find the pay and benefits that you deserve as a skilled professional " especially when you choose your TAFE courses wisely.