ever sing what would you like to do when
you grow up I did when I was 17 years
old I was in a musical school and I
played the piano I sang in a choir and I
loved it and I thought this would be my
life my piano teacher gave me great joy
of understanding how to perform any
piece on the piano and he also broadened
my horizons around different areas of
Arts like architecture paintings and
sculpture with our choir we traveled to
Europe every year to different festivals
and different competitions
it was absolutely thrilling to meet
people from across different cultures
and diverse backgrounds so at 17 my mom
asked me so what would you like to do
what do you want to study in the
university it’s two years before your
graduation so if you want to change its
time now to act if you want to continue
that’s fine as well so I went back and I
reflected on my life on my strengths on
my passions and I spoke to different
teachers I spoke to my family members I
wanted to make sure that I’m making the
right decision and despite my love for
the piano and the music I decided to go
and study English language at the end of
the day it gave me an opportunity to
meet people from across different
cultures and have this diversity around
me this thrill of meeting people from
across different cultures so I passed my
entrance exams to the English department
and for the five years of my Master’s I
continued travelling I went to an
exchange program to Finland then to
France and in a process as well
I met a French guy who came to my home
University in Poland
and he changed my life forever after I
taught English as a second language in a
local school but then professional
opportunities brought us to Ireland and
there it was the second shift in my
professional career because everybody in
Ireland spoke English so my degree was
irrelevant so I found an unpaid work
internship at the recruitment agency and
I discovered that I really loved working
with people and that’s how I discovered
that I want to start learning about
human resources so that’s when my third
career started I went through different
areas of HR recruitment training talent
management all the different functions
it was really very interesting and then
another shift happened my husband was
relocated to Singapore so when we moved
in here I started working with an HR but
shortly after in one of my jobs I got a
very unique opportunity to change my job
to redesign my job from HR project
manager I could change it to a diversity
and inclusion manager for the
asia-pacific and Japan region and at
that moment I realized this is what I
was looking for all along the thrill of
meeting people from different countries
working across people from 17 different
countries within the region
understanding the difference dynamics
and nuances different biases that are
happening I felt I was home I found
something that I was really passionate
about because not only I was working
with the space of diversity but also
this job connected me to my real purpose
I wanted to make a difference in
people’s lives and I wanted to do
so it took me one master’s degree to HR
diplomas one tourism diploma one
coaching diploma five countries and one
Frenchman to change my career trajectory
not once not twice but three times and
today it’s really obvious that the
working world is very different the
times of going to work for 40 years and
living with pension after 40 years it’s
all gone today the future of work is
changing everything from the way we
designed the workplace from the work
from for the technology for how we
design our business models it’s all
different and so the approach to the
working world is different and how we
understand working skills so the average
lifespan of a job is about four years
and within that time your skills from
that job decline by half one in four
adults report that they don’t have
skills in the current job to do their
job isn’t it scary that majority of
people don’t actually think they have
the skills for the right century it’s
really tough but we have to keep
reinventing ourselves and moving on with
the movement in technology the
demographic shifts the future of work
because that’s the only way we can be
marketable so today I would like to
propose to you a methodology that you
can use in designing your own careers
and your life I wish I knew about this
one when I was seventeen years old
probably in my career trajectory would
look different but I would like to tell
you a little bit more about design
thinking this is an innovation free
that helps designer designers come up
with different products and services
test those different products and
services in various environments through
different experiments and to find the
best solution for the client for the
end-user so in the design thinking there
are three main steps that I wanted to
share with you today so the first one
explore understand yourself and
understand who you are brilliant about I
connected my passion only later in my
career to what I’m doing so think about
who you are what are your strengths what
are your beliefs and then what are your
passions what is your purpose and it’s
important to know that today because
you’re soon gonna make decisions like me
about your university degree about your
career so it’s time to start now so
think about what would you like to do
what would make you happy every day and
think big be disruptive don’t limit
yourselves with anybody elses opinions
your parents your teachers your friends
think about yourselves and think big
don’t limit yourselves with anything
what is it that you would like to do if
you had no limitations in the world and
then step back and think is it really
what I want to do is it really me so
reflect back and think if these are the
best choices for you and remember thing
big because if your dreams and goals
don’t scare you even a bit they are not
big enough the second one experiment id8
as many career solutions as possible the
more the better
in the ideation stage you have to throw
as many possibilities out there that you
can think of even the things that you
like right now maybe think
that you liked in the past anything that
is out there so think about what would
be the best for you list all your
different careers and start your career
portfolio where you can actually start
tracking all your different dreams goals
and aspirations and then start putting
them in a priority from the top being
your most favorite one and start
thinking about how do they make me feel
is it me would I’d like to do this every
day of my life or for the next few years
as we know so make sure again check in
with your motivation assess how you feel
about those jobs because again this is
your life you have only one chance at
those things the first step is execute
so look at your list and try to narrow
down to maybe four or five careers that
you are most excited about and try to
build a prototype of those jobs to
understand them better and visualize
them better so you can network and find
people who can help you understand those
jobs so people who are in those
positions currently they can give you
more information about those roles so
find those people ask any burning
questions that you might have because
another piece of advice is you can
actually start building your career map
so bringing all the ideas collect any
pictures that you might have of
yourselves or any other pictures you
find that inspire you and start putting
them in a project then you will start
visualizing that role in a different way
start talking about it share it with
your friends with your family members
see how it feels like talking about
those jobs see if you still like them if
it’s still you
then in the process you might actually
feel that you will narrow it down to
much less than four or five jobs if you
have two or three jobs left on your list
now find prototype experiences so things
like internships work experiences find
anything that you can you know look
around whether on a campus with your
teachers at school or maybe look around
and leverage the networks that are
around your parents any opportunity that
you get and go and practice and find out
a little bit more about those jobs you
would really like to do in the future
because this is a very unique
opportunity to test drive what you would
really like to do in the future so after
you go through that experience think
back and reflect after having all the
discussions all those different
experiences maybe internships are these
jobs still the ones I like if you take
them all out from your list that’s fine
that’s what the designers do actually
they get stuck and they go back to the
beginning of the process so don’t be
afraid of redesigning your ideas all
over again because it is a process and
it’s gonna happen in cycles few times
throughout your lives so even when you
landed that dream job you should not be
complacent think about what’s next what
do I want to learn next where do I want
to go next whether it’s in the company
Dieteman whether it’s I want to create a
different organization myself just be
vigilant and on the lookout of the
so use the design thinking to help you
think about your life think about your
career how you would like to steer your
future how you would like to adopt this
learning mindset where you learn new
skills all the time and redesign reframe
your life your career and your goals and
and it’s important because we live only
once so you know great to have this done
at the first time around sometimes you
might think but it’s a very daunting
journey we have to be on the lookout all
the time there’s so much change going on
we have to be you know learning all the
things all the time but think about it
as a journey when you go hiking when you
go rock climbing you know where your
peak is you know where is your aim but
you don’t know how long it’s gonna take
you what kind of tools you will need to
get there only when you go through the
turns you will learn what’s ahead of you
so step back enjoy the journey keep
learning and instead of asking
yourselves who do I want to be when I
grow up ask who do I want to become next
thank you [Applause]
you grow up I did when I was 17 years
old I was in a musical school and I
played the piano I sang in a choir and I
loved it and I thought this would be my
life my piano teacher gave me great joy
of understanding how to perform any
piece on the piano and he also broadened
my horizons around different areas of
Arts like architecture paintings and
sculpture with our choir we traveled to
Europe every year to different festivals
and different competitions
it was absolutely thrilling to meet
people from across different cultures
and diverse backgrounds so at 17 my mom
asked me so what would you like to do
what do you want to study in the
university it’s two years before your
graduation so if you want to change its
time now to act if you want to continue
that’s fine as well so I went back and I
reflected on my life on my strengths on
my passions and I spoke to different
teachers I spoke to my family members I
wanted to make sure that I’m making the
right decision and despite my love for
the piano and the music I decided to go
and study English language at the end of
the day it gave me an opportunity to
meet people from across different
cultures and have this diversity around
me this thrill of meeting people from
across different cultures so I passed my
entrance exams to the English department
and for the five years of my Master’s I
continued travelling I went to an
exchange program to Finland then to
France and in a process as well
I met a French guy who came to my home
University in Poland
and he changed my life forever after I
taught English as a second language in a
local school but then professional
opportunities brought us to Ireland and
there it was the second shift in my
professional career because everybody in
Ireland spoke English so my degree was
irrelevant so I found an unpaid work
internship at the recruitment agency and
I discovered that I really loved working
with people and that’s how I discovered
that I want to start learning about
human resources so that’s when my third
career started I went through different
areas of HR recruitment training talent
management all the different functions
it was really very interesting and then
another shift happened my husband was
relocated to Singapore so when we moved
in here I started working with an HR but
shortly after in one of my jobs I got a
very unique opportunity to change my job
to redesign my job from HR project
manager I could change it to a diversity
and inclusion manager for the
asia-pacific and Japan region and at
that moment I realized this is what I
was looking for all along the thrill of
meeting people from different countries
working across people from 17 different
countries within the region
understanding the difference dynamics
and nuances different biases that are
happening I felt I was home I found
something that I was really passionate
about because not only I was working
with the space of diversity but also
this job connected me to my real purpose
I wanted to make a difference in
people’s lives and I wanted to do
so it took me one master’s degree to HR
diplomas one tourism diploma one
coaching diploma five countries and one
Frenchman to change my career trajectory
not once not twice but three times and
today it’s really obvious that the
working world is very different the
times of going to work for 40 years and
living with pension after 40 years it’s
all gone today the future of work is
changing everything from the way we
designed the workplace from the work
from for the technology for how we
design our business models it’s all
different and so the approach to the
working world is different and how we
understand working skills so the average
lifespan of a job is about four years
and within that time your skills from
that job decline by half one in four
adults report that they don’t have
skills in the current job to do their
job isn’t it scary that majority of
people don’t actually think they have
the skills for the right century it’s
really tough but we have to keep
reinventing ourselves and moving on with
the movement in technology the
demographic shifts the future of work
because that’s the only way we can be
marketable so today I would like to
propose to you a methodology that you
can use in designing your own careers
and your life I wish I knew about this
one when I was seventeen years old
probably in my career trajectory would
look different but I would like to tell
you a little bit more about design
thinking this is an innovation free
that helps designer designers come up
with different products and services
test those different products and
services in various environments through
different experiments and to find the
best solution for the client for the
end-user so in the design thinking there
are three main steps that I wanted to
share with you today so the first one
explore understand yourself and
understand who you are brilliant about I
connected my passion only later in my
career to what I’m doing so think about
who you are what are your strengths what
are your beliefs and then what are your
passions what is your purpose and it’s
important to know that today because
you’re soon gonna make decisions like me
about your university degree about your
career so it’s time to start now so
think about what would you like to do
what would make you happy every day and
think big be disruptive don’t limit
yourselves with anybody elses opinions
your parents your teachers your friends
think about yourselves and think big
don’t limit yourselves with anything
what is it that you would like to do if
you had no limitations in the world and
then step back and think is it really
what I want to do is it really me so
reflect back and think if these are the
best choices for you and remember thing
big because if your dreams and goals
don’t scare you even a bit they are not
big enough the second one experiment id8
as many career solutions as possible the
more the better
in the ideation stage you have to throw
as many possibilities out there that you
can think of even the things that you
like right now maybe think
that you liked in the past anything that
is out there so think about what would
be the best for you list all your
different careers and start your career
portfolio where you can actually start
tracking all your different dreams goals
and aspirations and then start putting
them in a priority from the top being
your most favorite one and start
thinking about how do they make me feel
is it me would I’d like to do this every
day of my life or for the next few years
as we know so make sure again check in
with your motivation assess how you feel
about those jobs because again this is
your life you have only one chance at
those things the first step is execute
so look at your list and try to narrow
down to maybe four or five careers that
you are most excited about and try to
build a prototype of those jobs to
understand them better and visualize
them better so you can network and find
people who can help you understand those
jobs so people who are in those
positions currently they can give you
more information about those roles so
find those people ask any burning
questions that you might have because
another piece of advice is you can
actually start building your career map
so bringing all the ideas collect any
pictures that you might have of
yourselves or any other pictures you
find that inspire you and start putting
them in a project then you will start
visualizing that role in a different way
start talking about it share it with
your friends with your family members
see how it feels like talking about
those jobs see if you still like them if
it’s still you
then in the process you might actually
feel that you will narrow it down to
much less than four or five jobs if you
have two or three jobs left on your list
now find prototype experiences so things
like internships work experiences find
anything that you can you know look
around whether on a campus with your
teachers at school or maybe look around
and leverage the networks that are
around your parents any opportunity that
you get and go and practice and find out
a little bit more about those jobs you
would really like to do in the future
because this is a very unique
opportunity to test drive what you would
really like to do in the future so after
you go through that experience think
back and reflect after having all the
discussions all those different
experiences maybe internships are these
jobs still the ones I like if you take
them all out from your list that’s fine
that’s what the designers do actually
they get stuck and they go back to the
beginning of the process so don’t be
afraid of redesigning your ideas all
over again because it is a process and
it’s gonna happen in cycles few times
throughout your lives so even when you
landed that dream job you should not be
complacent think about what’s next what
do I want to learn next where do I want
to go next whether it’s in the company
Dieteman whether it’s I want to create a
different organization myself just be
vigilant and on the lookout of the
so use the design thinking to help you
think about your life think about your
career how you would like to steer your
future how you would like to adopt this
learning mindset where you learn new
skills all the time and redesign reframe
your life your career and your goals and
and it’s important because we live only
once so you know great to have this done
at the first time around sometimes you
might think but it’s a very daunting
journey we have to be on the lookout all
the time there’s so much change going on
we have to be you know learning all the
things all the time but think about it
as a journey when you go hiking when you
go rock climbing you know where your
peak is you know where is your aim but
you don’t know how long it’s gonna take
you what kind of tools you will need to
get there only when you go through the
turns you will learn what’s ahead of you
so step back enjoy the journey keep
learning and instead of asking
yourselves who do I want to be when I
grow up ask who do I want to become next
thank you [Applause]
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