Work-life balance key to success in mining careers

WAMC Young Professionals held its Q1 networking event, “Young Families Maintaining Mining Careers – The Real Golden Years”, on Thursday, 4 April 2019 at the Westin Hotel.

The sold-out event featured inspirational and educational speeches from Sharon Warburton (FMG), Amy Brodie-Hall (Rio Tinto), Brendon Brodie-Hall (Rio Tinto), Ben Levett (I&E Systems) and Jane Levett (Gold Road Resources).  All speakers discussed their own experiences raising families while pursuing their respective careers in mining.

There were a number of recurring themes across the speakers including:

1. Acknowledging that we work in an incredible industry that continues to become increasingly open-minded on facilitating healthy work-life balance for families.
2. Open communication – with your workplace, colleagues and partner
3. Managing expectations – not expecting yourself to be able to achieve everything and anything.  Some speakers stressed that we should be kind and fair to ourselves if plans do fall over.
4. Finding time for yourself – stressed by all speakers was the importance of looking after yourself first and foremost, and that everything else will fall into play from there.
5. Having the confidence to say no – recognising that we may have the capability, but not always the capacity to do everything and being confident to say no.  Speakers discussed that the mining industry has become better at adapting to resourcing requirements that suit family members rather than a one-size fits all approach.

WA Mining Club President, Kirsty Danby, praised the speakers for their openness but reserved the biggest accolades for the WA Mining Club Young Professionals.

“The Young Professionals continue to demonstrate bold leadership and willingness to tackle challenging issues that are relevant to them.  This is the first time I have witnessed such an open public discussion in the industry, and it was so worthwhile,” she said.

WAMC Young Professionals chair Sam Ware shared the sentiment expressing her gratitude for the reception and support towards WAMC’s Young Professionals initiatives so far:

“We appreciate the continued support the WA resource sector has displayed since our launch in November 2018,” she said.

“We know that we are pushing the boundaries, and we are grateful for the support across all demographics of the mining industry.  Not only are we engaging graduates and new the industry’s rising stars, but we are also getting support from CEOs and industry leaders.

“And we look forward to establishing opportunities to network and increase the diversity of thought through our events and initiatives this year,” she stated.

The Young Professionals committee, which recently recruited Vincent Lang, Josh Snow, Sean Taggart and Callum Twigger, is back to work preparing for the Q2 panel event on 6 June 2019 and the Design a Donga industry project.

The committee warmly welcomes young professionals involved or interested in the WA resources sector.

More information on membership and the Young Professionals’ goals for 2019 can be found at: https://waminingclub.asn.au/membership/young-professionals-membership/