RMIT alumni in the business of giving career guidance

Shape your next move with the advice of three RMIT alumni who are experts at helping businesses owners and career mentoring.

Lifelong learning is a passion many RMIT alumni share. After graduating, learning paths continue in the work force, and for many, this takes the shape of running their own business.

The learning curve for new business owners can be steep, but it doesn’t need to be lonely.

RMIT supports graduates by providing a year of career counselling with RMIT Career Connect as a part of the New Alumni Pass.

Some students are uniquely placed to provide their fellow RMIT alum with advice as career counsellors or business owners, including Laura Hughes, Max Kalis and Natasha Silveira. Here’s a bit about their career journeys and the wisdom they had to share.

Remain authentic and true to yourself

Helping others has always been the guiding light of Laura Hughes’ career. After completing RMIT’s Graduate Certificate in Careers Education and Development, she moved into career education at high schools.

Three years ago, she launched her own business, Laura Hughes Career Counselling to assist adults with career decisions.

Getting her own brand off the ground involved making some tough decisions around what her goals were. After the experience, Laura recommends staying true to your vision.

“Finding the audience was an initial challenge because at the beginning it was quite tricky to know kind of how much or little marketing to do, who to speak to and that kind of thing,” she said.

“I actually got advice early on in my business to change the branding and that it wasn't commercial enough. I sort of sat with that because it was from someone who I thought knew more than me and eventually decided not to take that advice.

“I thought, no, ‘I’m actually sticking with my own narrative and my own vibe’. I think being authentic is an incredibly valuable being as a business owner.”

Laura says her work is not only rewarding but has also led her to expand her business in new directions.

“I really love working with people on complex problems and it's very satisfying when I speak to clients and find that what we've done has been really helpful,” she said.

“I've ended up speaking on women's day panels about owning your own business and I've done a bit of community work, and I'm actually doing a workshop in the city next month.

“So there's kind of all these sideways opportunities that come out of having a small business.”

Build genuine and strong connections

She may have fallen into HR, but Natasha Silveira’s long-term goal was always to take her career into her own hands.

Natasha was working for a mining company when she decided to take the next step and sign up for RMIT’s Master of Human Resource Management.

It was during her studying that Natasha began to plan her own HR business. It wasn’t too much of a leap for her considering she had previously operated a wedding planning business as a side hustle.

Natasha is now the founder and managing director of VeiraMal Consulting. The business, which employs six others, manages HR and payroll for small to medium businesses.

Her advice to others is to have a clear vision on deliverables and foster solid relationships with customers.

“Develop clear and deep expertise in what you're going to deliver so clients value you genuinely and then build those strong relationships with the clients and the networks so you’re more like a trusted partner,” she said.

For Natasha, the greatest reward is helping small businesses with regulation compliance, while the challenges for her lie in business development.

“I've been quite hands-on from the get-go, so I'm involved in most of the projects that we get, especially around the payroll system side,” she said.

“One of the biggest challenges is having that time to, one, develop the team and two, actually have a strategy for marketing and growing.”

Embrace adaptability and stay flexible

Hailing from London and keen to get his coaching business started in his new home of Melbourne, Max Kalis looked to RMIT.

Since graduating from RMIT’s Graduate Certificate in Careers Education and Development, Max Kalis has focused on growing his career coaching and small business mentoring enterprise - Max Kalis Coaching.

As a professional career coach, Max described market research and flexibility as essential parts of career building, especially when starting a business.

“Validating there is a demand should be at the top of the list because there's a huge amount of time wasted on fantasy pet projects,” he said.

“You need to be flexible with your ideas of what good looks like because change is the only constant. Things will adapt and you need to be flexible enough to go with it as things change.”

Laura Hughes Career Counselling, VeiraMal Consulting and Max Kalis Coaching can be found in the RMIT Alumni Business Directory.

Story: Kate Jones

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