09 Dec How to Use Your Holiday Break to Contemplate Your Health and Safety Career

The Summer break is a valuable chance to step back from the day-to-day pressures of health and safety work (board reports, incident investigations, rising premiums) and take a moment to reflect on your career.

We often meet health and safety professionals who leave roles they genuinely enjoyed, only to discover their new position isn’t what they hoped for. That’s why this quieter period is an ideal time to consider where you are now and where you want to go next.

Whether you’re an HSW manager with aspirations for a general manager role, a WHS executive in transition, an HSE specialist looking to broaden your skill set, or simply preparing for your next performance review, thoughtful reflection can help you make your next step a confident one.

Practical Career Reflection

You don’t need to open your laptop or create elaborate spreadsheets. Record voice memos on your phone whilst walking, sitting by the pool, or enjoying your morning coffee.

Done properly, you’ll start the new year with clarity, renewed purpose, and actionable career goals tailored to the current WHS employment market.

Five Essential Strategies for Career Planning

1. Identify What Truly Motivates You as a HSE Professional

Your job should align with your life, and both evolve over time. What defined career success for you five years ago may not reflect your current priorities.

Key questions to ask yourself:

• Do you thrive in high-risk blue-collar work environments or prefer more corporate, white-collar health and safety roles?
• Has your interest shifted from preventing physical injuries to addressing mental health and well-being?
• Are you drawn to incorporating risk management, emergency management, or sustainability into your role?
• Is your energy the highest when you are leading at the front, or do you enjoy being behind the scenes and focusing on HSE systems and policy development?

Tip: Understanding your current motivations helps you identify roles that will genuinely satisfy you, rather than waiting for a promotion or ticking a box on your career progression chart.

2. Challenge Your Career Assumptions

The Australian health and safety landscape has evolved over the years, and it’s worth questioning whether your initial career assumptions still hold true.

Critical questions to consider:

• Are you still pursuing the traditional HSE career ladder, or are you interested in launching into alternative paths – e.g. risk management, emergency management, people and culture, business management?
• Is work-life balance and meaningful impact more important than the previous?
• Does working for a large corporation now matter less than working for an organisation whose values align with yours?
• Is it time to transition from consulting to an in-house role (or vice versa)? Each offers distinct advantages in terms of variety, stability, and influence.
• Is there the ability to flex on remuneration?
• Does the company’s size matter less than whether you genuinely believe in its mission?
• Do you love leading teams and mentoring, or does it distract you from the technical work you’re awesome at?

Tip: If you are considering changing roles, health and safety recruiters like us will love knowing that you have thought through your career

3. Analyse Your Recent Work Using the E.N.D. Framework

This practical exercise reveals patterns about what energises or drains you as a safety professional.

Step 1: List your major activities

Document all significant projects and responsibilities that you have been tasked with over the past 12 months.

Step 2: Sort into three categories

• Energising: Tasks where you were in flow, felt effective, and saw genuine impact
• Neutral: Necessary work that neither excited nor depleted you
• Draining: Activities that felt frustrating, tedious, or misaligned with your strengths

Step 3: Identify patterns

Examine your ‘Draining’ category closely. Common patterns for WHS professionals include:

• Poor safety culture requiring constant firefighting rather than strategic improvement
• Lack of leadership support – and budget
• Misalignment between your technical expertise and role requirements
• Isolation (being the only technician with no peer support)
• Resistance from operational teams who view safety as an impediment

Now focus on your ‘Energising’ category.

• When did you feel most effective?
• Which projects demonstrated clear safety improvements?
• Which stakeholders valued your contribution?

This clarity guides your next career move.

Tip: energising can also be identified as happy! I.e., when were you the happiest, and why?

4. Define Your Non-Negotiables for Your Next WHS Role

Based on your reflection, establish clear criteria for your next position (whether that’s a new job or reshaping your current role).

Create two lists:

Personal and Lifestyle Requirements (5-10 items):

• Work arrangement preferences (hybrid, flexible work hours)
• Salary expectations and benefits (bonus, buy-back leave options, car parking, vehicle)
• Location (close to home, multi-sites)
• Travel (frequent or infrequent)
• Industry preference (avoid or pursue specific sectors)

Professional and Career Requirements (5-10 items):

• Scope of responsibility (single site, multi-site, national, international)
• Level of seniority and autonomy (what you’re ready for / what you want to step back to)
• Team size and structure (peers, direct reports, reporting line)
• Focus areas (culture transformation, wellbeing, psychological safety, systems)
• Growth opportunities (exposure to new industries, reporting to an executive, presenting to the Board, sitting on the executive team, leading a team, more focus on psychosocial safety)

These lists become your compass when evaluating opportunities. Even if a role appears impressive on paper, it’s not the right career step if it conflicts with 50% of your non-negotiables.

Tip: Too often, we see people attracted to positions that elevate their job title and remuneration, only to find that the position did not fulfill their motivators.

5. Before You Return to the Grind

Don’t wait until you’re back in reactive work mode. Use the quieter period to start work on your professional branding – even if you aren’t actively job seeking.

Update your professional profiles

• Refresh your CV with recent achievements, emphasising quantifiable improvements (cost savings, incident decreases, culture metrics)
• Use a modern template (see our link at the end of this document)
• Optimise your LinkedIn profile (if your title internally is ‘Tribe Leader’, change it on LinkedIn to the title that best reflects your role in the general WHS market)

Tip: Recruiters – agencies and internal use LinkedIn to run searches – usually they’ll search by job title and qualifications. And, it’s well known that your CV and cover letter need to include ‘key words’ from the job advert or position description, as chances are you are being shortlisted by ‘bots’.

Strengthen your network:

• Commit to attending events, industry conferences, or local WHS networking groups
• Reach out to connections you’ve neglected, like former colleagues, industry contacts, and health and safety recruitment specialists
• Join online WHS communities and contribute to discussions

Tip: In many cases, new jobs will come from the connections you make – whether that is now or several years down the track.

Invest in your development:

• Identify skills gaps that limit your career options (i.e. people management, auditing, wellbeing, workers’ compensation)
• Research certifications that enhance your value proposition (ICAM, mental health first aid, return to work, ergonomics, project management, change management)
• Consider whether further formal education (Graduate Certificate in WHS, Master’s in WHS or an MBA) aligns with your goals

Tip: Hiring managers love to hear how you have invested in your development.

Seek guidance:

• Find a mentor within your organisation or through professional networks who can provide perspective on your career decisions
• Speak with specialised WHS recruiters (like us!) who understand market trends and can offer insights into current demand and salary benchmarks
• Connect with other professionals who’ve made career transitions you’re considering

Tip: Remember that a mentor doesn’t have to be a fellow safety professional – someone outside of the health and safety industry could offer a broader perspective and wider network.

Making Your Career Reflection Count

Using your holiday break for structured career reflection means you’ll start the new year not just rested, but strategically positioned, whether you’re pursuing a new role, negotiating a promotion, or having meaningful conversations during your performance review.

Take the time now to reflect honestly, plan strategically, and position yourself for the career you actually want, not just the next logical step.

We have some amazing blogs on our website which you might want to read:

• How to be a standout HSE Job Candidate
• How to rebound from redundancy
• And, we recommend Seek for CV Templates

Need our guidance on your WHS career path or want insights into current market conditions? As one of Australia’s most trusted specialist health and safety recruiters, we’re here to help.