Top Tips For Year 12 High School Leavers

Top Tips For Year 12 High School Leavers Transitioning To University and Work Life

Betsy Tolmer ‐ Director TRIPOD Enterprise Education
www.tripod.edu.au

Enjoy this time!
When you leave high school, it will become the first time that you are exploring new opportunities and stepping out of your comfort zone. Get involved in clubs, volunteer, meet new people, try lots of new things and really embrace new challenges and experiences.

Find mentors
Mentors play a dual role in our lives as both as a teacher and connector. Mentors can offer you great advice on your personal and professional development, and can also broaden your network by connecting you with opportunities and a greater network. We often get bogged down in thinking a mentor must have some formal arrangement and yes, in some cases this works really well, but informal mentoring can be just as beneficial. I highly recommend you 'mentor-friend' a second or third year student and learn from their experiences, perspective and connections.

Know yourself
You are the most important person in your world; we often spend a lot of time getting to know other people. For example, I bet you can easily reel off the top three things you like about your best friend, but you might find it a little harder to articulate your top skills or what you like about yourself. The most essential ingredient to success is to be able to confidently present your skills, experiences and connect them to the opportunities you want in the future.

Johanna Parker - Life, Confidence, Speaker Coach, Speaker and MC Heart Sparks
www.heartsparks.com.au

Think about the 'why'
Focus on how you want to feel and actively work to cultivate more of those feelings while also navigating new opportunities and settling into a new routine. Alongside this, think about WHY you are choosing to study the course that you are or work in the job you'll receive. Doing this supports you to choose a path that is truly meaningful for you and/or recognise when you are choosing something for the wrong reasons.

Remember that you are deciding what to do next, not what to do forever
At this point in your life you are likely making a decision not about what you are going to do with the rest of your life, but about what you are going to invest your time and energy into next. It is now incredibly common for people to change career, study or work direction several times throughout their lifetime and many of the jobs that will be around in 20 years may not even be created yet!

Be curious rather than critical
Amazing things can happen when we approach new places, people and experiences with curiosity rather than criticism. If something sparks your interest, explore that spark. If you meet someone new, get to know them. When we approach things with criticism and a closed mind we, in turn, close ourselves off to a range of potential possibilities and opportunities. With a curious mind you never know what (or who) you may discover or the passions, interests or pathways you may unearth.

For more information on Doxa and its programs, visit www.doxa.org.au.