Wei-Li Wong: 5 Empowering Career & Life Perspectives for New Graduates
I was recently invited to be the keynote speaker at Kaplan Business School’s student commencement ceremony.
Friends close to me know I feel very much like a student still; always listening intently at the feet of great teachers. So it was humbling; and a great honour; to be invited to share my journey and perspectives with the new graduates.
I have included parts of the speech here because these insights are timeless. These words would have helped guide the young wide eyed me more than a decade ago as I navigated the adventure that is life after uni.
May these perspectives comfort, guide and encourage you too.
Delivering a commencement speech is a great responsibility. Commencement speeches are one of the most meaningful collegiate traditions. Imagine, after all the hours you have spent in all the classes you have ever had to take… you have finally earned the right to listen to your last lesson; before embarking on the next phase of your life.
Sometimes, your commencement speaker might be comedian Jim Carrey; JK Rowling, who wrote the Harry Potter series; or American President Barrack Obama. These speakers are funny, incredibly insightful and wonderfully motivational. Unfortunately, I am here to tell you that you won’t be hearing them live today.
Instead, you get me. I, however, have something these impressive speakers don’t. I have my beautifully ordinary and relatable experience of being a former international student. I did exactly what you will soon be doing when you leave the safe halls of the Kaplan Business School. So I’m talking to you now, like a time traveller ET, with some news from the future which I trust will prepare you as you embark on your own magnificent adventure. It is my sincere hope you will listen with both an open heart and mind today.
Graduates, I know a little bit about moving across continents and trying to make it in a strange new world while attempting to find employment and life purpose.
I was born in a small town in Malaysia and I started my career in corporate communications in Kuala Lumpur. But at the first chance of a foreign career, I left home. At 25, I moved to Khartoum, Sudan for 2 ½ years; where I handled logistics and procurement for a 75 million dollar oil and gas project. When the project in Sudan ended, I had saved enough money for an Australian education. And so I packed my bags and moved again.
I have to say though, since arriving in Australia 8 years ago, I’ve never been so poor or my career taken so many ‘backward’ moves! While studying for my Masters at Swinburne, I got my first part time job through gumtree. For the princely sum of $15 an hour, I was the one man band for a small IT training company. I handled everything from complaints, book and milk purchasing, cockroach killing, to managing MYOB. I persistently hung in there and eventually, this part time job led me to a Permanent Residency and also introduced me to the education and training industry.
Along the way, I have set up and managed campuses for students like yourself; as well as supported programs that assists people with a disability to get back into employment.
Today, I am the Director of Recruitment for a training organisation called Education Institute (visit her page here) . I spend my days helping students get employment ready. To me, employment is the answer to many social challenges. Knowing the joy, sense of self worth and connection employment can bring, it is meaningful for me to get up and do what I do every day.
If you asked me when I was younger what I would be doing at 35, I’d say I would be married for sure, with a child or two and a high flying corporate career. Life has not turned out at all as I had envisioned. However, instead of my corporate career, I now have the privilege of redefining what success and happiness means to me. And going in exploration of both each and every day.
I can’t say that each of these past years have been easy. But I can say that it’s been worthwhile and I’m more proud, and certain, of who I am today than I’ve ever been. I’d love to share parts of my journey with you in the hopes that it can offer a small perspective on navigating life post uni.
My First Perspective: The Power of Persistence
I have made a solemn promise to myself to never give up believing in my dreams. This promise to myself (and to no one else) reminds me that I may not be there yet, but each day, with hard work and a deeper understanding of myself, I get closer to my goal.
My goals are varied. But they centre around my belief that we all play a part in creating the kind of world we want to live in. I will not believe I have to settle for the world CNN or News Corp tells me I live in. So if it is to be, it is up to me.
In 2 years, I have raised $11,000 to support the causes I care about; chief of which is ending world hunger through educating and changing the mindset of hungry villagers.
For some of you, your goal would be to secure employment or further your career, start up your own business, change the world… Whatever it is, you owe it to yourself to persist, to back yourself, to never give up, to always be the best you can be. And to have the integrity to see things through until the very, very end.
My Second Perspective: The Importance of Awareness and Being True to Yourself
I don’t feel like the same person I was in my 20s. Partly, it’s gaining wisdom after hitting against the same wall again and again. But mainly, I am who I am today because I have invested time in getting to know myself better. I have also begun the process of removing the masks I present to the world in my quest to fit in. William Shakespearre says, ‘This above all, to thine own self be true’
I spend inordinate amounts of time alone; walking, meditating, reflecting, writing. These solitary pursuits have sharpened my clarity, insight and inner peace like no other activities have.
Through the years, I have also become more aware of how I spend my time. The friends I hang out with shape my thoughts and actions so I choose supportive, intelligent and kind friends. The books I read shape my understanding of the world so I choose information that uplifts and enlightens. The words of Jim Collins, author of From Good to Great accompanies me from time to time. To find career success, Jim says, ‘Do what you are passionate about, what you can be best in the world at, and what people will pay you for’
How comforting to know wisdom and knowledge is so readily available. Plus it helps balance some of the other stuff I subject my brain to like MKR which I’ll certainly be watching on Monday.
My Third Perspective: The Beauty of Acceptance
Psychotherapist and self esteem guru Nathaniel Brendan says, ‘The first step toward change is awareness. The second step is acceptance.’
My career hasn’t always been smooth sailing. In fact, I spent many months feeling stuck.
But my career shifted the moment I accepted that this was a new country with a different way of doing things. Michael J Fox says it best. “Acceptance doesn’t mean resignation; it means understanding that something is what it is and that there’s got to be a way through it.”
I accept I will face unique challenges as I establish my career in a foreign country or even within a new industry. If it means I will have to work harder and be more creative, I will, to legitimately earn a seat for myself at the table.
So I researched how people found jobs in Australia and changed my approach. I found a career coach and signed up for networking classes. I refined (and re-refined) my CV and had uncountable coffees (I now don’t quite like lattes anymore) with different people to find out who knew whom and what opportunities were out there. All this didn’t come naturally, but with practice, I got better at it.
For instance, just like I wouldn’t go to Italy expecting everyone to speak in English, I now don’t expect for everything to be as familiar as it used to be ‘back home’ or ‘back in the day’. In that same vein, I could spend years bemoaning the fact that no one spoke English in Italy. One day, I woke up and chose to learn Italian instead.
My Fourth Perspective: The Ups and Downs of the Game of Life
In my 15 years of work, I have been nearly fired once and my role made redundant twice. I hope career detours never happen to you but chances are, it will.
Every generation has it’s challenges… This is ours. We no longer need to throw stones into windows to fight for womens’ rights or have career choices that are limited to butcher, farmer or priest. Instead, by tapping into the global economy, we are subject to swift change which is imminent and part and parcel of the new landscape.
This leads to career and employment opportunities which evolve at a rapid pace. From the drop in oil prices, to the arrival of a new leadership team or even the gentle beat of a butterflies’ wings on the other side of the world … factors tangible and intangible continue impacting us.
Graduates, what does it mean for us? It means we choose to acknowledge the realities of being in the work force today. When you’re on your way up, savour each moment and celebrate. And when it comes time to slide down as it invariably will, attempt to do so with a modicum of grace. When we take away judgement of what is good and bad or right and wrong, all that is left is a rich experience that adds to our depth.
My Fifth and Final Perspective: Choose Love
There are so many things I want to tell you still. Like… Be humble and kind. Help the next one in line. Dissolve the ego. Practise compassion. Honour your word. Or leaders eat last. But especially, I want to tell you to choose love, not fear.
I want to tell you every single thing you might need on your journey. But even if I could, I wouldn’t. Because there is great joy in learning and discovering them for yourself.
In crafting this speech, I listened to many incredible commencement speeches. I was wracked with self doubt on the best ways to present a message that would be inspiring, illuminating, profound.
But these speakers are not me. And I am not them. All I can offer you is my sincerest wish, with every fibre of my being, that you experience all the wonders that life offers. That you will stay honourable and strong and always remain true to yourself.
Congratulations, graduating class of 2016.
I’d now like to conclude with a line from Mary Oliver’s beautiful poem, The Summer Day.
Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Thank you.
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