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When Renata Ryan overheard her six-year-old daughter tell a playmate, “My mum is lucky, she’s divorced but she has always worked,” she felt a surge of pride.
Despite raising her children alone, holding down a full-time job and returning to study to advance her career, the single mum-of-two felt proud that her young daughter saw her as “lucky”.
“I’ll always remember that,“ she said. “I found it interesting because in her mind her mum was financially stable.”
Moments like this spurred Renata to push forward in her career and return to university to do a Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution with Charles Sturt University (CSU).
Despite returning to Australia from Japan in 2006 with a resume sprinkled with big name law firms such as Allen and Overy, Clifford Chance and investment firm Fidelity, Renata felt she was starting her career from scratch.
“I realised that my friends had progressed in their careers a lot more than I had,” she said. “I was Head of Corporate Services at Fidelity in Japan and the equivalent role here was Office Manager. Even though Office Manager is a big role, I was much more senior in Tokyo. So I wasn’t sure where I fit in here. It was tough.”
Currently the Head of Operations at AMP Financial Planners Association (ampfpa), part of Renata’s role now is to help advisers resolve issues and disputes.
It was through this mediation role that Renata soon realised she needed to up-skill in order to perform her job well.
After researching various courses and costs, she chose an online Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution at CSU, which she found reasonably priced.
“I needed the skill, it helped me at work and it’s helped me in everyday life,” she said. “It also helped me a lot with the whole negotiation process.”
Juggling a full-time job and two children, it was the online delivery and regular webinars that drew Renata to the course.
“The main advantage for me in studying online was that I didn’t have to take a lot of time out of work,” she said. “I fitted study into my life by coming into work early and studying in the evenings.”
“I loved the fact that the lecturer set tasks. On a Monday or a Tuesday night you would log on, a lecturer might post a question and everybody would have to comment and you would get graded on how interactive you were,” she said.
That rigor and discipline of the course allowed Renata to plan all her study time for weekdays and still keep her weekends free.
During the course she attended one residential school in Wagga Wagga, which she found was well organised.
“It gave me the opportunity to meet with lecturers and students face-to-face. The role plays we did during our residential school also helped me practice a lot of what I had been learning, which has helped me when I mediate at work.”
Planning, discipline and gathering a support network were three factors that helped Renata complete the Graduate Certificate.
“Firstly, it’s important to check in with everyone who is around you who you think can support you in advance,” she said. “I had the support of my family and friends and I still do. Having a supportive boss was also a huge help, because knowing that my boss was aware that I’m studying and happy to let me use work equipment to log in and join some webinars was great.”
She believes that through planning, discipline and choosing the right course for you — even the most time-poor people can find the time for further study.
“You have the time – it’s just about structuring it properly,” she said. “Yes, you’re tired and you come home and you’ve got kids to do homework with, uniforms and lunches to sort out. All of a sudden it’s 10 o’clock at night but when you know that someone is waiting for you online, you make time.”
“The best thing about this course is that they make you disciplined,” she said. “And for someone who isn’t, you very quickly learn to be because you have to log on, you have to read, you have to know what’s going on. It makes you make the time.”
The benefits Renata reaped from the two-year Graduate Certificate in Dispute Resolution were a huge help for her role at ampfpa.
“The way I expressed myself changed dramatically. It takes one word to change the whole mediation process,” she said. “It’s funny, you think you’re using the correct vocabulary but if you’re in a situation where people are arguing, there’s a fine line. If you use one wrong word or a word to suggest to one party that you’re on the other person’s side you are in big trouble. The course teaches you not to do that.”
The added bonus of being a role model for her children made going back to university all the more worthwhile and has driven Renata to consider further study.
“My kids are proud that I went back to study. They’re proud and intrigued,” she said. “I’m waiting for my son to complete his HSC so I can do the Masters as he is going to need a lot of support.”
Further study has also opened doors for Renata, giving her the freedom and option to change her career at some point in the future.
“I love my job, I have a great team and a great boss,” she said. “But through further study, I love the fact that if there ever came a time that I wanted a change in my career I could become an accredited mediator. I think it’s brilliant.”
Thinking about studying but wondering where you’ll find the time? Check out CSU’s list of online courses that could help transform your career.