Turning Learnings into Opportunities with Katherine Kawecki: Episode 42
Most of us are determined to pursue existing opportunities to advance our goals.
We endure our 3+ year degrees only to join the rest of the graduates desperately scrolling through Seek.com to find any job that will hire us.
We give in to the belief that if there’s no clear path to our dreams, then we can’t move forward.
So when we can’t find anything suitable, we throw up our hands and admit defeat.
But what if there was a way you could create your dream job?
Our guest on Episode 42 is renowned for transforming her Honours project into a new career.
Whilst studying at University, Katherine leveraged her skills in industrial design to produce Respia- an asthma management system that tracks respiratory health and medication use. Within a year and a half, Katherine’s design would go on to be featured in Vogue Australia and become an international award-winning product.
So how did Katherine transform her learnings into opportunities?
Stop Overthinking And Start Acting:
“It’s important to take opportunities in both hands irrelevant of whether you feel ready. At first I was thinking of things too much and never acting… but you have to give things a go.” [8:58]
Reflect On Your Learnings:
“Because things finish so fast, it can skip your mind when you think about what you’ve done. But when you take the time to reflect, you can objectively see what you’ve achieved and how much time you’ve put into things.” [13:21]
Pursue A Qualification:
“It’s important to get a qualification under your belt. You can pursue a startup while you’re a student but I don’t recommend dropping out of University. Get that skill first.” [29:04]
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To learn more about how Katherine leveraged her learnings and developed a product that became the runner-up of the international James Dyson Award, listen to the full episode here or on your favourite podcast app: https://thepeersproject.com/ep-42-katherinekawecki/