As such, she’s got some excellent advice for how women can make all the different pieces fit and pursue new career and life goals. Especially through online education, which she manages through forward planning and discipline. Thompson is one of more than 14,000 women studying anywhere and anytime online at Charles Sturt University.
Thompson’s been working in business management for the last fifteen years, having originally completed a Bachelor of Business Administration straight after high school. When she got pregnant with her first child, she decided to take a shot at a completely new career in criminal work by returning to university.
Four children later (aged between 11 and 18 months), she’s completed a Bachelor of Forensic Science and is now pursuing a Master of Investigations online at CSU.
Meanwhile, she’s also working with the university as a manager in the Faculty of Science.
Thompson makes it work by studying online from her hometown of Beechworth, Victoria, and taking advantage of the flexibility on offer at CSU, one of the country’s most established providers of online education. CSU has specifically sought to address some of the challenges it believes holds busy people back from making a career change – particularly by offering leading institutional support to better aid online education success.
While Thompson makes the most of this support, she also maintains solid routines for managing her different priorities. She uses all breaks from work and kids productively, and actively blocks out time in the diary to enter “study mode”. She plans her study for the evening over her lunch break, before settling back in for an afternoon of work and later switching back to ‘mum mode’ for dinner, baths, books and playtime. Once the kids are in bed, she gets stuck into studying.
“Planning my study at lunchtime helps because I know what I have to achieve each night, which makes it easier to get started, especially when I’m always in bed by midnight. Routine is key to success.”
Studying online means she can ensure her kids are always the number one priority, and get stuck into the course work when she has the hours available. She’s adamant that women should get their priorities straight from the outset when it comes to taking on a major new project. For her, that’s kids, followed by work and finally study.
And when your time and day’s segmented into three different modes — mum, work and study — Thompson says you absolutely need to be as present as you can in each.
“Give all your attention to the moment,” she says. “If it’s kid time, it’s kid time. If it’s study time, it’s study time. Trying to study with kids running around will end in disaster every time.”
That also means you need to be flexible. Things can change, kids get sick, major work projects come up. Exhaustion can kick in. “Sometimes you have to take on a reduced study load and accept that it might take you longer to complete the degree, that’s ok,” says Thompson.
“Ask for help when you need it – sometimes you need an extension on an assessment because the kids were sick or you had to travel for work, that’s ok too.”
Although Thompson’s studying for a career change, she says that study ultimately aids the success of her current work. It’s increased the currency of her knowledge, offered more promotion opportunities, enhanced her professional network and given her a transferable skills set. “I have greater confidence in my own ability, demonstrated resilience and commitment, and earned professional respect and acknowledgement for my continued efforts,” she says.
There have been challenges. Thompson concedes she has had to overcome fatigue at times, and has had to rethink how she’s balancing different priorities. “Set yourself small milestones and reward yourself when you make them,” she says on overcoming such challenges. “It’s easy to invest too much time or thought on one area of your life at the expense of another. It takes self-discipline and practice. You do get better at being a student.”
As for the career change, Thompson’s well on her way to making it a reality. She’s currently progressing through a competitive recruitment process with one of Australia’s leading law enforcement agencies.
And she’s prepared to do more study, particularly postgraduate research, alongside gaining operational experience in public investigation. She’s got a long-term vision to eventually transition into research and academia at the end of her career.
Think you’ve got too much on to make a big career change? Think again by exploring more than 300 courses offered online at CSU.