What I Did / What I Do

ADRIAN BUTERA

“If I think something’s great and I believe in it, I can’t leave it. I’ve got to do it.”

I am a Real Estate agent and auctioneer. I am also the director of Compton Green Real Estate.

I went to Parade College in Bundoora, squeezed through year 11 and had no real aspirations to do year 12. I was offered a cadetship to be a Training Manager at Safeway where I had already worked before. So I decided to do that; at 18 it was a big role for me.

Even from that early age, I was driven, I wanted to be a young buck – in something, though I didn’t have a clear idea what. Funny thing is, I remember looking at some course brochures: one for a real estate course, and one for electrical and lighting design. Both appealed. But then my father offered me an opportunity to go into business with him, and I put that decision on hold for a while. Continue reading →

MEL HIATT

“I believe there’s a real synergy of your mind, your body and your spirit. When you’re working on your body, you’re training your mind and your spirit.”

I run two Step Into Life fitness franchises in Bayside.

Growing up, I moved around a lot, eventually finishing school in Victoria. Yet all through school I had a part-time job at McDonald’s – kind of ironic, with my current career in health and fitness! But it gave me good grounding and work ethic; I learned a lot about systems and processes.

After school I was offered a place at university, but it was a long way away from home and I wasn’t ready to move out. I decided not to go and continued working at McDonald’s as a manager. I was doing that for over a year.

After a while though, I didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, so when the police force were doing a recruiting drive, I thought I had nothing to lose by applying. Continue reading →

RACHEL FLETCHER

“I am big on not having regrets.”

I’m an events manager at a winery in Lancefield.

I coordinate weddings and conferences, which involves liaising with clients, discussing details, planning and overseeing their events.

I wasn’t sure what to do after school; I moved around, doing hospitality and sales jobs. After Year 11, I worked at a supermarket, but soon realized there had to be more to life. That prompted me to go back to school to do year 12, and then university.

I chose Sociology as my major, and then Asian Studies and Japanese as my minor, because of my father’s influence. I discovered after a year that I didn’t like Sociology: it was impacting how I interacted with people, making me over-analytical rather than social! I ended up making Japanese my major and dropping back to part-time study.

When I was 25, an opportunity arose to go and live in Japan. Continue reading →

LIANA CORBINO

“I feel that a house should represent the people living in it, so I try to use my expertise to create great interiors that reflect the home owners”.

I am an interior designer, and currently my role is the Assistant Design Manager at the Gallerie in Port Melbourne.

I was always into the art subjects at high school, doing art and graphic design. At first, I didn’t know where my creativity was going to take me, but in year 12 it became a bit clearer. I loved working with colours, I loved fashion and design – everything to do with houses. While my friends were buying Girlfriend and Dolly magazines and watching Beverly Hills 90210, I was buying Home and Belle, and watching Better Homes and Gardens.

So I applied for an interior design and decoration course at RMIT for a 2 year diploma. I chose it over a degree because it seemed more hands-on, not as technical. I wanted to know more about soft furnishings, colours and styling a home, rather than where to put a wall. Continue reading →

TENDAI EVANS MANGWIRO

“Going home empty-handed was not an option”

I am a chef de partie at MoVida Next Door in Melbourne.

My first passion was IT. I’ve always loved doing it, starting with high school. It was really interesting, especially in Zimbabwe where I am from, because it is a developing country and it’s a relatively new thing there.

After I finished my A-levels , I did a graduate diploma in IT at National Institute of Technology. NIT is an Indian college, but they have a subsidiary in Zimbabwe. Originally I wanted to be a systems engineer, but I ended up doing network engineering at NIT, because in order to do systems you had to have really high grades, which I lacked unfortunately! Continue reading →

JONATHAN CARTER

“I got my first death threat just after a month, and being young, it hit me hard.”

My last job was as a Senior Dispute Resolution Manager with a big insurance company.

My job was to resolve disputes with customers – mainly defending the company to the financial ombudsman.

I wasn’t particularly focused in high school, there was a lot going in my family – mom was often away, dad had depression. That made studying difficult, and I ended up with a low score that limited my choice of university courses. I chose to do a course in writing, which I actually enjoyed.

I completed the course in 4 years. We were writing short stories and movie scripts. By the end of the course, however, I realized how hard it was to have a writing career. Not many Aussie authors, especially of short stories, were or are published today. Continue reading →

ELIZABETH LISTON

“I get excited about new gadgets, about making something work in a new way. You do a little “whoo-hoo!”

I work as a contact centre specialist for a telecommunications company.

At high school, I did a business course that involved work placement for a chartered accountant, and at the end of that, they offered me a job. I finished school on Friday and started work on Monday! I was 17.

There, I got to use one of the first Wang minicomputers – not really ‘mini’ by today’s standards. This was late 70’s. I ended up being the data entry person, a new role at the time. Continue reading →

SARAH MOONEY

“I wanted to see how far I can push myself and how many boundaries I could break through.”

I’m currently living and travelling in Peru, making and selling jewellery and having amazing adventures.

I was born on a cattle farm in Shepparton. We moved to Melbourne when I was in high school, and that’s where I fell in with a rough crowd of kids. I stopped doing schoolwork, started wagging, drinking, getting into fights. I became an absolute terror, my parents and teachers couldn’t do anything with me. Continue reading →

ANDREW HARRISON

“What’s my next challenge?”

I am a photographer. I have a business called Passion8 Photography.

In the 70’s, I went to the famous experimental school, Ardoch High, in St Kilda. We called teachers by their first names and only had four core subjects, the rest were electives.

At 15, I decided I was ready to live on my own, so I got a flat and left school to do an upholstering apprenticeship. I loved making furniture from scratch, sewing, working with my hands. I learnt how to sew in high school, actually. One of the electives was Machinery, and a few of my mates and I thought, “Yeah, let’s get into machinery!” We rocked up and it was sewing machinery. Continue reading →

SUNNY GILBERT

“I went from cooking in some of the best restaurants in the world to parmigianas and fish’n chips.”

I am an Executive Chef at Austin’s in Prahran, and also a part-owner of The Window Corner Cafe in Reservoir.

I didn’t have a concrete plan to go into hospitality. After school, I got heavily involved with the marketing and promotion side of nightclubs, which wasn’t the healthiest job as you can imagine – late nights, drinking and all else that comes with it! And after a little while of that lifestyle, my mum, in her wisdom said: “Son, you better go and get a job where you can get a feed.” I was pretty skinny at the time.

So I went to my cricket club and asked if they had a kitchen hand position for me. They did and I found myself working with John Walsh, who was big news, big time in Darwin – he used to work at the Lodge for Malcolm Fraser as his personal chef. John was my introduction to a hard-working, strict kitchen environment. Continue reading →