The five questions to help you decide what to do after year 12

Feel like your entire future rides on your university preferences? Don’t stress, surprising silver linings can appear when you least expect.

Here’s how five Australians finally found career clarity.

The great escape

In Year 12, I should have asked myself: “Are you doing what you want to do or are you doing what others expect you to do?”

Lucas Barrett has launched a mortgage broking business with his brother.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

When a series of concussions stifled his AFL dreams, Lucas Barrett figured a business degree would set him up for a job with one of the big four consulting firms.

“While studying, I got a job with an office furniture fit-out company that gave me the chance to see inside a lot of different businesses,” the 24-year-old says.

“But instead of getting inspired to work for a big company, I started to think I’d like to run my own business. Then COVID happened and I thought, ‘there’s got to be more to life than this’.”

After graduating in 2022, Barrett felt more confused than ever. He quit his job and moved to Burleigh Heads and later Banff, Canada, to do some soul-searching.

“I was exhausted. I’d studied so hard at school and university, and worked a lot,” he says. “I’d given myself no time to be able to gravitate towards something or research what might be a good career for me.”

The six-month sabbatical helped resolve his career crisis. Together with younger brother Elijah, 21, Barrett has launched a mortgage broking business.

“I love that it’s flexible, that there’s unlimited potential and I love numbers. We get to be involved in helping people make the biggest financial decision of their life. That provides a lot of satisfaction,” he says.

“All I thought I wanted was a name tag with [one of the] big four on it. If you’d told me four years later that I’d be crunching people’s figures on a laptop overlooking the beach, I’d never have believed you.”

Second time lucky

In Year 12, I should have asked myself: “What will the job be at the end of this degree?”

Sean Douglas says there was “a lot of indecision and anxiety” about returning to university.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

Marine science seemed like a no-brainer for Sean Douglas, thanks to a childhood spent snorkelling on the NSW South Coast.

Straight after high school, he moved to Sydney to sample city life and gave little thought to the reality of his chosen career.

“I was just like, ‘oh, there will be a job at the end of it’. I didn’t really go in on the front foot, looking at aspects of the job that would be appealing to me,” Douglas, now 26, says.

“For instance, you need a PhD to be competitive, and you often need to be in cities where there’s funding for work and job security. [I realised] it’s not all coral reefs and dolphins and whales, like I’d thought it would be.”

When he sought treatment for a running injury sustained during COVID lockdown, Douglas found his true calling in an unlikely place.

“I started seeing this really amazing physio who saw that I was interested in how she was treating me, and she said ‘have you ever considered doing physio?’” he says. “It’s a job that you can do in private practice or in a hospital setting or sports club, and you can do it regionally or in different cities.”

He eventually returned to the University of Sydney to study a bachelor of applied science (physiotherapy), deciding it was worth the extra HECS debt for career satisfaction.

“There was a lot of indecision and anxiety about returning to study, thinking it’s been a waste of time if I don’t make something of these four years I spent studying [marine science],” Douglas recalls.

“But the more I thought about it, I realised that I got so much out of my first degree. I met lifelong friends and I learnt how to research, which has stood me in really good stead.”

First instincts

In Year 12, I should have asked myself: “Have you truly explored all of the career options available to you?”

Raluca Ghebosu is determined to find a cure for triple-negative breast cancer.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

For as long as she can remember, Raluca Ghebosu has been passionate about science. But, as a natural people person, the idea of countless hours spent in an isolating laboratory was cause for concern.

“I thought that doing research and being a scientist would just involve sitting at a bench, looking at cells by yourself all day,” Ghebosu, 23, says.

“I’m a very outgoing person and I love interacting with people and thought, ‘I don’t know if I can do something like that’.”

Despite top marks in STEM subjects, she enrolled in a bachelor of international studies degree at the University of Queensland in 2017. Broadening her study to an arts-science degree eventually allowed Ghebosu to study languages and some science, with the rough plan of pursuing a career in diplomacy or with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

“In my final year, two of my science lecturers reached out to me and said, ‘you’re really curious and enthusiastic, you should consider research’,” she recalls. “I thought that if two people are trying to tell me this, then maybe I should give it a go.”

Ghebosu eventually found career clarity while undertaking her honours in biomedicine. She has since commenced her PhD at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, researching cancer therapies with a specific focus on finding a cure for triple-negative breast cancer.

“Everyone knows someone who has struggled with cancer, and unfortunately we’re just not quite at a point where treatment is very good. Chemotherapy is not pleasant. The cancer might be gone, but it takes a such a toll on patients,” she says.

Ghebosu now regularly talks to students about the many opportunities that a STEM career affords.

“Science is not just about research, you also have to write about and share your research with the broader community,” she says. “In the lab, there are always people around for a chat, and it’s very rare that you will be alone.”

Training for success

In Year 12, I should have asked myself: “Are you following your gut?”

“If you don’t know what to do, take the time off to figure it out,” says Talia O’Brien.Credit: Aresna Villanueva

With a vague idea of pursuing acting after finishing year 12, Talia O’Brien figured she’d take a year off to attend auditions, travel and gather her thoughts. Not everyone was on board.

“A lot of people told me not to take a gap year because I’d never go back to study, but sometimes you need to stick with your gut,” the 21-year-old says.

But when COVID restrictions put her European travel plans on hold, O’Brien decided to become a personal trainer while still deciding on a long-term career.

“I fell in love with the job because you can help people in so many ways,” she says.

“I became really interested in the relationship between psychology and health. You can give someone the perfect plan but if you don’t have the right strategies to help them follow it or tailor it to their lifestyle, unfortunately they’re probably not going to be very successful. It made me want to go and study more.”

The gap year set her on a path she’d never imagined. O’Brien left Perth and enrolled in a psychology and nutrition degree at the University of Sydney. She graduates this year and wants to become a holistic health expert.

“I think I’m going to do my masters of research next, but I’m going to take six months off first,” O’Brien says. “I’ve learnt through this whole process that if you don’t know what to do, take the time off to figure it out.”

Risking it all

In Year 12, I should have asked myself: “If I could focus on doing what makes me happy, what would that be?”

Maxwell Nee tried various degrees before deciding on a career in investment banking.Credit: Delmore Photography, Aresna Villanueva

After six years at the Queensland University of Technology and three degrees, Maxwell Nee admits he was still unsure of his true calling.

“I was sampling because I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” the 30-year-old says.

“After graduating, I realised that I’d been too comfortable in Brisbane. I was in a bubble. So I picked somewhere with a different climate where I had no friends, no place to stay and no job. I was willing to be in a situation where I didn’t have the answer, but say ‘let me find it’.”

After arriving in Toronto, Canada, with town planning, business and finance qualifications under his belt, Nee built a multi-million dollar corporate coaching business and has since moved into investment banking.

“I was so poor, eating mince beef and bread and tomato sauce for eight months, but I realised, ‘I’m so happy because I chose this’,” he says.

In hindsight, he believes a gap year would have helped him find clarity sooner.

“We basically go through 12 years of schooling with people drilling into us, ‘you have to do this subject so you can get into this [degree]’. It’s a lot of pressure and you end up feeling that you’re this far in, you can’t go back. Everyone else will be ahead of you,” Nee says.

“What’s the harm in taking time to calibrate the compass so that you land somewhere that’s fulfilling and enjoyable? You have to slow down [in order] to speed up.”

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