WomenEd Thailand Career Clinic

by  Jacqui Brelsford @BrcounsellorJ

On Saturday 23rd October, WomenEd Thailand hosted its first ever international career clinic! Women from around the world shared their expertise, advice, cheerleading, and general awesomeness with aspiring leaders in education. As one of the WomenEd Thailand Network Leaders, it was my responsibility to live-tweet the event and my fingers could not keep up with all the brilliant things being said. Here are my top takeaways in short bitesize tweets:

Write. Katie Tomlinson, WomenEd Malaysia Network Leader, had lots of great advice in her keynote speech. She encouraged us to write, even if we feel that we have nothing to write about. Hence my inspiration for sharing this blog post with you today! For me as someone who would not think of myself as a writer, this one seemed strange to me… but as Katie said, writing is a great way to get our names out there! Writing can lead to presenting at workshops, speaking at conferences, and collaboration with others. You never quite know where your words will take you!

If I don’t do it, then who will. Dr. Helen Wright said this a few times throughout the afternoon and it’s a little scary to feel this pressure, as many of us as women are already fighting for positive change in our own contexts... But as Helen said, things won’t change if you wait for someone else to do it. You have to be the change you want to see!

I deserve to be in every space that I am in - and more. Natasha Hilton, Strategic Lead for WomenEd, had so many good pieces of advice in the various sessions that I saw her speaking in. Her enthusiasm is infectious. The advice about deserving to be in the space that we are in really resonated with me because all too often as women, we can be made to feel that we should be grateful for what we have. However, we have worked tirelessly to get to where we are, and we shouldn’t have to feel grateful for being in a role that we deserve. Sure, we should say thanks to those who helped us along the way (things are always a group effort), but I’m here and I have every right to be here and in leadership, and so do you!

We don’t need to look up to find a role model, we just need to look around. With so few women in higher leadership positions, it can be difficult to find someone in close proximity that you can look up to. But there are many people around us doing great things every day. Women supporting women is one of my biggest beliefs. There is plenty of inspiration, opportunity, and success to go around, and that’s why WomenEd is such a great community to be a part of!

It has been a few weeks since this event, but I am still riding the positive wave generated by these inspiring women.

If you’d like to listen to or watch the sessions from the day please click here.

We are @WomenEdTH on Twitter.