When I first walked into the newsroom of the Kyabram Free Press as a 15-year-old work experience student my sights were set firmly on becoming the next Scotty Palmer or Mike Sheahan.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
After all, I’d had a few bylines in the Free Press and Riv Herald, providing a blow-by-blow explanation of Des Campbell’s magnificent Tongala Blues of the same era.
I was quickly reminded that big goals were not quite enough to fill the shoes of two legendary sporting journalists and I may need to improve my English skills prior to suggesting the Herald Sun scribes start cleaning out their desks.
Fortunately, for me at least, experience overcame education and my early connection to the McPherson family owned mastheads eventually won me a cadetship at Seymour.
It was certainly a case of who you know, not what you know.
My reason for sharing the story will be revealed in more detail later in this column, needless to say I quickly learned that I needed a carrot to get the donkey moving.
The carrot came in the form of first identifying a direction for my future, then having a taste of that and building a network of contacts — not that I knew that was what I was doing — before setting a plan in place to improve my skillset.
Another inspiration was in the form of a slightly older, although he still says he looks much younger, contact who had made his way along the same path and into the industry.
I am speaking of Matt McMaster-Smith, the sneaky little Kyabram Blue goalsneak who joined the journalistic fraternity only months before I arrived in its ranks.
Finding inspiration from a range of sources, both inside and outside of your immediate reach, was something that — on reflection — I found helpful in my endeavours to plot a way forward.
Needless to say, almost 40 years after that week-long stay alongside Ian Purdey, Gus Underwood and Jo Lyon (Breen), both parties have mutually benefitted by how things turned out.
Fast-forward two years, to 1987, when I lobbed on the doorstep of the Seymour Telegraph and the world has come full circle with my return to the Kyabram Free Press.
That short trip along memory lane brings me to the point of the anecdote and the nature of what now confronts the teenagers of today who follow a significantly different path into their careers.
Today’s Careers, Education, Employment and Training feature provides an insight into what is now available to those who have a specific career in mind for their ensuing years.
Back to the ’80s for a second or two — after all it was a pretty cool era — when I remember (not realising it) some decisions that super-charged my progression in my industry of choice.
School was not my thing, apart from the sessions I spent with Mr (Keith) Hindson, Mr (John) Elliott and the rest of their Physical Educaiton (PE) team.
It would be fair to say they were my only AA returns when students were marked on their academic performance in a subject and their attitude to that subject.
I do remember the response of my parents when Mrs Eagles, our drama teacher of the day, pencilled in EE for that particular subject.
I digress, my point is after the work experience advice from the Ky Free Press team I had a re-think and attempted to use my education to develop the skill sets I wanted to use later in life.
Maths was not my thing, just ask Mr (Wayne) Leppard, Mr Slimmons often questioned my dedication to my education as our year co-ordinator, my English teacher probably needs to look twice at the bylines on the Free Press to check that it is me and Mr Downs would be astonished to hear that I now have a pretty solid understanding of geography.
Because I had made a very early decision on the direction I wanted my working life to take, as a 16-year-old I decided to take typing as a class — the only boy.
I remember the snickering, although if I recall it was Janelle Fitzgerald that providing a bit of support in the female-dominated environment, but ended up with some pretty handy typing skills, which still allow me to not look down and use all 10 fingers at a good rate of knots.
That same year I organised work experience with Melbourne-based media giant Channel 7, who had the football at the time.
And while that didn’t have me jostling with Peter Landy for screen time it opened my eyes further to the opportunities available in the industry.
That was midway through the 1980s when it was still cool to wear pastel-coloured clothing to blue light discos and The Winners was still the best way to watch the footy replay.
My point, however, stands and — to my thinking — is more important than ever: students being able to gain experience in their chosen field will, in turn, enhance the appeal of education.
The past couple of years have given the work experience program, which I believe is still a part of the secondary school curriculum, a real “kick in the guts’’.
My recommendation for those of you with a goal is to get that all-important taste of what it is that gets you excited in regard to a future career option.
Then act on that ambition, make contact — that is much easier than it used to be — and offer your time and effort in whatever capacity it will be accepted.
Then, once you have an understanding of what it is you need to have in order to progress in this field, adapt your learning to suit those needs.
Chicken before egg, or egg before the chicken, type of stuff I know — and maybe even a bit of a “Boomerish’’ outlook, but I am the one with the typewriter in front of me.
So, if it’s advice you want on a career direction and what education and training is required, then this is it.
One thing is for certain teachers, career advisers and the professionals that work in this space are as passionate as ever about seeing people enjoy, thrive and benefit — both emotionally and financially — from their working lives.
In fact, the 2022 version of what is available to your average 15-year-old who has a career goal and wants to act on it is probably well ahead of where it was in the 1980s.
And so it should be. Good luck job hunters.
Kyabram Free Press and Campaspe Valley News editor